We are proud to announce the 24nd Annual Southern California Linux Expo – SCaLE 24X – to be held April 1-4, 2027 at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, California, near Los Angeles.

We invite you to share your work on FOSS programs and open hardware projects with the rest of the community, as well as exchange ideas with some leading experts in these fields. Details about previous presentations and activities at SCaLE can be found at https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/23x

Quick Links

 

Important Dates

  • 1 Aug, 2026: CFP Opens
  • 1 Nov, 2026: Submission deadline
  • 1 Dec, 2026: Acceptance notifications begin
  • 1 Apr, 2027: Conference starts

SCaLE Tracks

Applied Science

Open source is powering practical advances across science, engineering, and intelligent systems. This topic explores how open software, hardware, and data are being used to solve real-world problems through applied AI, data science, robotics, research, simulation, and large-scale analysis. Presentations should focus on working systems, successful deployments, novel tools, reproducible methods, and lessons learned from turning scientific or technical ideas into measurable results.

Developers, Platform Engineering & DevEx

The knowledge, tools and practices required for modern development are changing rapidly. We're seeking a broad range of topics related to development of and with open-source applications, tools and components from the lowest levels of languages and language internals to development platforms and beyond. Anything focused on the real world experience of developers and development in open source today is fair game. This topic also covers how development platforms are built and how developers experience them day to day: golden paths, self-service infrastructure, developer portals, CLIs, build systems, local dev environments, and the metrics that separate real productivity gains from noise. What does it take to build something developers actually choose to use? What is needed next?

FOSS@Home

How do you use free and open source technologies at home? Whether you are a hobbyist, educator or technology professional, we’d like to learn about any personal project that involves open source hardware or software. Examples of things we are interested in include home automation, home labs, education, radio controlled vehicles or drones, 3D printers, and whatever else sets your nerdy heart aglow.

General

A wide range of topics related to Free/Open Source Software (FOSS), open hardware and the people in these communities that don’t fit into other categories.

Kernel & Low Level Systems

Developments in the Linux kernel and related areas. Talks should cover kernel space, systemd, or similar systems in some way and can include, but are not limited to: developer experience, new features, improvements, building blocks for userspace, etc.

Libre Graphics Day

Libre Graphics Day is focused on showcasing the power and versatility of free and open-source creative tools. This track features talks and hands-on workshops focused on open source creative software for digital art, photography, graphic design, animation, game making and more. Whether you are a professional designer or a hobbyist, Libre Graphics Day is sure to provide some new tricks and knowledge for you to use in your creative work.

Linux Gaming

New for 2027! Gaming on Linux has crossed the line from "possible" to "preferred." Improvements to compatibility layers and a new generation of gaming handhelds have helped turn it into a first-class platform. Even game developers are building on Linux, not just supporting it. The work behind this shift is almost entirely open source and powered by the community.

Talks can cover any part of playing and shipping games on Linux, including: Wine and Proton, Vulkan and Mesa, Wayland compositing for games, kernel drivers for controllers and other gaming hardware, performance tuning, and packaging.

Open Government

In an era of increasing demand for transparency and efficiency in public administration, open-source technologies are playing a crucial role in transforming government operations and civic engagement. This topic will explore the intersection of open-source projects, government functions, and civic problem-solving. Talks in this topic can be presented by government employees, civic tech enthusiasts, data scientists, or private citizens who have leveraged publicly available datasets for impactful analyses or applications.

Open Source AI

Open-weight models now rival the closed frontier. The ecosystem and tooling around these models is built in the open, from inference engines and fine-tuning recipes to agent frameworks and protocols like MCP. We’re seeking submissions across the spectrum of experiences in AI as an open source practitioner, whether you're running models on your own hardware, adapting open models to your needs, building agents that use tools and act on your behalf, or refining the practices that make AI-assisted work actually productive. We welcome deployments, war stories, novel tools, evaluation techniques, and lessons learned at every level. If you build AI in the open, run it yourself, or use it to do better work, we want to hear from you.

It is likely that AI submissions will be divided into appropriate subtopics e.g. LLM Internals, Agentics, AI Productivity, Physical/Embedded AI, etc. Talks for any of these areas can be submitted under this topic.

Security

Open source sits at the heart of modern systems—and of both the challenges and the solutions in cybersecurity. We invite talks from practitioners and researchers working to make software and infrastructure safer. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) supply-chain security, vulnerability discovery and responsible disclosure, incident response, threat detection, secrets management, identity and access, innovative designs, practical tools, cost-effective solutions, and hands-on “how-to” guidance.

This year we are especially interested in deception techniques and the defensive use of artificial intelligence. Submissions outside these focus areas that advance open-source security are still welcome and will be evaluated with the track’s cross-disciplinary character in mind.

Systems & Infrastructure

Systems & Infrastructure focuses on management, configuration and observability techniques for individual servers and large scale fleets. If you are pushing boundaries and eliminating bottlenecks using traditional systems engineering techniques we want to hear what you've learned, tools you used, and techniques you pioneered. The ever changing workload requirements always have new challenges we all can learn from each other.

Workshops

We expect to host several hands-on sessions that provide attendees with practical experience implementing and using open technologies. These could be 2-4 hour morning or afternoon sessions or all day if the topic warrants it. If you have an idea for a workshop you’d like to host, submit it as a proposal in this or the most relevant topic and clearly mark it as a workshop in your description and prefix the title with Workshop: . Be sure to include the length of the session and information about prerequisites attendees should complete to be prepared for your session.

Co-Located Events

SCaLE24x will also include several Co-Located Events for which you can submit proposals.

Cloud Native Days

Cloud Native Days includes workshops, sessions, and deep dives around Cloud Native technologies – anything and everything related to Kubernetes and containers. Whether you are an app developer, DevOps practitioner, container hacker, or infrastructure owner, this track is for you! Topic ideas include: container technology, Kubernetes, CNCF projects, platform engineering, cloud observability, service mesh, cloud security, CI/CD, atomic OSes, cloud administration, and deploying AI on top of Kubernetes.  We will have cloud native talks all four days of the conference, including workshops on SCaLE Thursday. Part of the global Cloud Native Days collection of regional events. For more information see the Cloud Native Days Event Page.

DevOpsDay LA

DevOpsDay LA is Southern California's only annual conference focused on the practice of DevOps - a proven, joint approach that emphasizes the need for collaboration between the Software Development (Dev) and Operations/IT Infrastructure (Ops) teams within an organization to continually deliver high-quality solutions. DevOpsDay LA offers opportunities to learn and share experiences about how the human factor enables, enhances, and optimizes automation, testing, security, platform engineering, reliability, organizational culture, CI/CD, DevOps practices, and career development. It is a part of the worldwide series of DevOpsDays events held annually, sanctioned, and supported by the DevOpsDays global core team. For more information see the DevOpsDay LA Event Page.

MySQL & Friends: Distributed Databases@SCaLE

This year, the traditional MySQL track is expanding to include kindred datastores that include data stored across multiple nodes. You are invited to share your knowledge and discoveries with participants of all levels.

Open Source Career Day

Open Source Career Day returns for its sixth year at SCaLE 24x, building on our proven track record of delivering practical career development for the open source community. We're seeking presentation and workshop proposals from industry leaders, seasoned engineers, and career development professionals. Our goal is to empower individuals at every stage of their career journey with actionable advice, real-world examples, and engaging content that you can use Monday morning. We especially welcome new speakers, under-represented voices, and fresh perspectives from across the open source community.

Open Source in Higher Education

Higher education has always been a catalyst for open source innovation. Whether you're a student building your first project, a faculty member advancing open research, or a campus professional deploying open technologies, your work has a story to tell. Join the Open Source in Higher Education co-location event, presented in partnership with the Apereo Foundation, to share your project, inspire collaboration, and connect with a peer community shaping the future of academic and research computing through openness. If you're building, contributing, or leading with open source, we encourage you to submit a session.

PostgreSQL@SCaLE

PostgreSQL@SCaLE is a two-day event on April 1-2, 2026, co-located with SCaLE24x. This event will include talks by and for DBAs, sysadmins, web developers, and end users of all levels of experience and skillsets. If you're using PostgreSQL, we invite you to share your experiences! We're interested in anything from a basic how-to, a story about that time you had to correct a sequence overflow on the fly, to discussing Postgres internals. We welcome talks from new users' perspectives as well as seasoned experts. For more information see the PostgreSQL@SCaLE Event Page.

The Next Generation (TNG)

The Next Generation (TNG) is SCaLE’s youth track. TNG empowers K–12 students to explore, create, and lead within the free and open source community. Through student-led talks, hands-on activities, and opportunities to connect with peers and industry professionals, TNG offers something for every young attendee! From curious beginners to experienced creators.

Are you a K–12 student with an idea, project, or experience in the STEM field? Share your work with the SCALE community. Presenting at TNG is an opportunity to build confidence, develop leadership skills, meet other students, and connect with technology professionals.

Submit a proposal and help inspire the next generation of open source!

How to Submit a Proposal

You need an account for the SCaLE CFP tool to submit a proposal.

  • Visit https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/user/ to log in or create an account if necessary. Note: Your CFP account is no longer the same as your speaker profile. You can add speaker profiles for people other than yourself.
  • Once you are logged in, https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/user/ should redirect you to your Profile page which includes My Sessions and My Speakers. Click Propose a Session to start a new proposal.
  • Enter the title for the talk.
  • Create the Short Abstract and Long Abstract which are descriptions of the main points to be presented. The short abstract will be used in print where there is limited space. The long abstract can include additional information which will appear online.
  • Click Manage Speakers to add the speaker(s) for the talk. You can select an existing speaker in the system or add a new speaker. We recommend no more than 2 speakers for a talk. For workshops we recommend at least 2 speakers (1 main speaker and 1-2 helpers).
  • If you add a new speaker you will need to provide their name, email address, photo, biography and other information. Please ensure that the personal biography is not more than 1000 characters; focus on relevant experience to your proposal topic and write from the third-person perspective.
  • After selecting speakers you can select the Track and Level for the talk and save your submission. It will now appear under My Sessions on your profile. You can make further changes if needed.
  • You may submit multiple proposals using that same Propose a Session button on your profile page.
  • Please notify us in the Message to Reviewers if the presentation will require a special technical set-up. The setup provided will include:
    1. One hands-free microphone for the speaker
    2. One handheld microphone for questions
    3. A digital projector with HDMI cable

Proposal abstracts are reviewed by an expert committee and evaluated solely on merit. Given the number of high quality submissions received every year, we request that submission dates be strictly honored in order to provide the committee enough time to choose the best set of proposals. In case you run into any problems during the submission process, please email cfp@socallinuxexpo.org for help.

Notes for Speakers

  • All speakers must abide by the conditions of the Speaker Agreement and the Code of Conduct.
  • Add cfp@socallinuxexpo.org to your contacts now. We send acceptance and rejection notices from this address, and people have missed an acceptance due to the email landing in their spam folder. Corporate mail filters are the usual culprit. Everyone who submits gets an answer, but only if it reaches you.
  • Presentations will be allotted a time slot of about 45 minutes (except workshops, lightning talks, and upSCaLE talks).
  • Please ensure that presentations are done in an open, non-proprietary format.
  • All SCaLE speakers are in-person. We do not have the capability to support virtual presentations.
  • Please indicate in the “Message to the reviewers” field if you require accommodation (medical, mobility) in order to give your presentation effectively.
  • SCaLE is a totally volunteer run, sponsor supported conference. We’re unable to provide financial assistance to speakers.

No sales pitches. If you want to talk about your commercial software/services, we’d love to have you contact sponsorship@socallinuxexpo.org to arrange a Sponsored Session. Please respect the community nature of the talk tracks.