Hi everyone,
I was talking with @sacha.hodencq @Pimprenelle @Stephanie_Crevon this week and we all wondered where and when the next OpenMod workshop would be taking place.
Unfortunately we could not make it to the KTH workshop (a bit too far away), but some of us would be delighted to join in Spring 2026.
I quickly checked the forum and could not see any hint so far.
Any feedback ?
Some of the people at Technische Universität Berlin were recently asking the same question.
We hope to co-organise an openmod at OET in Cape Town, South Africa, next to IEW. Let’s see if the local partners are playing along. FYI: “The 44th edition of the International Energy Workshop (IEW) will be hosted by the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa, on 22-24 June, 2026.” - https://www.internationalenergyworkshop.org/
Further, there are plans to host one openmod-workshop in Canada. OET+EMH are trying to work this out.
Would be great if someone can organise an openmod workshop in EU. As ex co-organiser of Topics tagged san-francisco-workshop-2023, it is not too difficult & a lot of fun!
UPDATE: Canada (here) & South Africa (here) openmod workshops are now open for registration 
Thanks for the feedback. If nothing is planned for EU in 2026, would it be an option to approach the organizers of the workshop on Open Source Modeling and Simulation of Energy Systems at KIT https://www.osmses2026.kit.edu/ and see if there could be some openmod related event there ?
Although this is not exactly the same community, it is related to “Open Source” and “Modeling of Energy Systems” so there could be some topics to share.
At least there is a call for tutorial, some of them could stem from the openmod community maybe ?
What do you think ?
Hello, just wanted to check if there’s any update on this.
Happy new year to all, btw!
I guess the silence means: Anyone who feels like organizing an openmod workshop at their own university is very welcome to do so and announce it here. It would be very appreciated by the community!
Following up on the discussion, our team (INATECH - University of Freiburg) would be very happy to host the next openmod workshop in late September 2026 if that works out for the community.
For that we would like to propose the following time:
Option A: Monday–Tuesday, Sept 21–22, 2026
Option B: Monday–Tuesday, Sept 28–29, 2026
But before we start planning and selecting a specific date, we would wait two more weeks to allow for comments or other potential hosts to go forward and suggest an alternative.
Greetings from University of Freiburg, Germany
Mirko and Ramiz
Hello Mirko and Ramiz,
Looks like a good idea!
Both options are good for us I guess, maybe more towards Option B given the Smart Energy Systems conference in Aalborg on Sept 21-24 https://smartenergysystems.eu/
Greetings from the French Alps!
Mathieu
Since no alternative suggestions were made, we are happy to announce that the next (European) openmod workshop will take place at Freiburg University, Faculty of Engineering (Germany) in September 2026. Mathieu pointed out the Smart Energy Systems conference in Aalborg; we were also made aware of the DACH+ Energy Informatics Conference 21-23 Sept. We thus decided to fix the date as Monday - Tuesday, Sept 28-29, 2026. We will now start planning and get back to you as soon as possible with further details!
Greetings from Freiburg,
Mirko and Ramiz
Hi everyone 
some updates on Next openmod workshop 2026 - #3 by MaxParzen. Things are proceeding well, and we are organising two openmod workshops with partners this year.
Great to see that the EU will also have one event @mirko.schaefer
That’s great @MaxParzen!
On a matter of process, the openmod community still needs to confirm the workshops in Canada and South Africa. It is important that this community is given the opportunity to comment on such events and ultimately has the right to reject them. Conversely, having clear community support provides a useful legitimacy. With consensus being determined by the absence of any individual objections following a suitable period for consultation (two weeks at minimum).
I cannot imagine any show‑stopping issues with regard to your two proposals, but seeking community buy‑in is a necessary loop and provides additional safeguards too. In the past, the community has also voted on overlapping events (via a forum poll) to determine which one should proceed. Good luck with these important and excellent proposals in any case! R
Is there an openmod-workshop organisation guideline? This would help a lot. For example, the 2-week consultation time is new to me. Happy to develop such a guideline if needed.
Furthermore, we flagged that we plan to organise those two events in Nov 2025: Next openmod workshop 2026 - #3 by MaxParzen, and it seems that nobody is organising anything for Africa or North America. Is this not already sufficient? Both the South Africa and Canada events are supported by local groups & communities. The last America event was organised by me & Africa was never touched. IMO, we are safe to proceed & grow communities there. Waiting two weeks would mean missing (surprisingly) some window of opportunity, so I am kindly asking here that we can proceed with a shortened consultation time by Sunday at the latest.
Please raise your hand if you support or object any of those two events:
I understand the frustration surrounding the absence of a documented process. On the other hand, all prior workshops have undergone community buy-in before being finalized. These discussions first took place on the mailing list and later on the forum. And there will be numerous examples of these conversations in the archives.
People might be interested in this table of prior openmod workshops , maintained on Wikipedia EN.
I have just spoken to @MaxParzen and I will draft some guidelines on organizing openmod events, and later put them up on the forum for comment. The Open Energy Transition has offered to contribute.
One issue with both the Canadian and South African events is that of co-hosting. If just a single institution offers to run a workshop, most decisions and timeframes remain within their domain. Co‑hosted events are more complicated. One party is probably sophisticated and well‑resourced, while the openmod community is the diametric opposite. Such asymmetric circumstances will therefore need to be addressed in the draft guidelines. I suspect that one recommendation will be to include the openmod community as early as possible in the planning of such events.
It is worth noting that a functioning event endorsement process also protects against the inappropriate use of our community, identity, and goodwill.
@MaxParzen suggested above that people share their views on the two proposed workshops on this thread. If people wish to comment on the Canadian event, better they do so on this dedicated topic. The South African event does not currently have a topic (but probably will so soon).
Everybody, your views and comments are very welcome, please contribute. Best, R
Update: the South African event now has a dedicated tag.
Hi everyone,
Following up on this topic, I can only mention that on my side I personally had no problem regarding the OET proposal to organize meetings in South Africa and Canada back when @MaxParzen posted this in November.
However I did not realize that co-hosting might be an issue, as raised by @robbie.morrison
Although there was no formal confirmation by the OpenMod community, there was also no strong reaction against it (either in November or now). For me, even if the question was not formally asked on the forum, it was clear that the community could have discussed it if there were any concerns.
This was only my personal feedback, and some guidelines on the organization process would be good for sure 
Regards from the French Alps
Mathieu
To summarize:
there are three upcoming OpenMOD workshops without objections, with a dedicated forum-topic:
Canada, Montréal, 14-15 May 2026: Openmod workshop Canada 2026
South Africa, Cape Town, 26 June 2026: Openmod Workshop South Africa 2026
Germany, Freiburg, 28–29 September 2026: Openmod workshop Freiburg, Germany 2026
Additionally, we, as a community, plan to create Guidelines for workshops at this place: About the Workshop category
With the most basic guidelines being:
Should we discuss the finalization of workshop guidelines here or in a separate thread? @robbie.morrison
I will attend the Workshop in Freiburg and am really looking forward to it!
@fmaurer Many thanks! My responses:
I think a new thread (officially a “topic”) would be better
we need to talk about the scope of that discussion — because the original suggestion was to provide guidance on how the community can decide which workshops are on the table and then how to select and endorse specific proposals
that discussion could be broadened to include guidelines on the design and conduct of workshops in general — although that was not part of the original pitch
For example, one issue that has been raised with me is the idea of a soft limit on how often one organization can organize such events. I don’t want to preempt that discussion here, rather to give an idea of what might be covered.
The founding ethos of the openmod — not set in stone, mind you — was that once an event was endorsed by the community, the organizers had free rein.
Also to note that over time, workshop organizers have increasingly needed to restrict both attendance and contributions — both of which necessitate some kind of screening policies by organizers. Such questions could perhaps also be codified in openmod guidelines?
In response to a couple of other points raised:
upcoming-openmod-workshopsAnd also:
There has already been some discussion about forming a non‑profit, perhaps under German law, to assist and to provide some level of legal protection for the wider enterprise. Equally, there is no clear or urgent need for this. My reading is that there is limited interest in going down this road.
Finally, I plan to attend the Freiburg workshop too.
Please note this new tag to label any discussions concerning the development of workshop guidelines: openmod-workshop-guidelines