State of the Map 2026: Call for Venue is now OPEN - General talk - OpenStreetMap Community Forum
State of the Map 2026: Call for Venue is now OPEN
General talk
sotm
state-of-the-map
Brazil_Singh
(Brazil Singh)
June 18, 2025, 11:38am
Dear all,
The SotM Working Group is happy to announce that the
Call for Venue for State of the Map 2026 is now officially OPEN!
State of the Map 2026: Call for Venue is now OPEN
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Build a team, shape your idea, and submit your proposal to host SotM 2026!
Everyone is welcome to submit their bids for next year’s conference. We highly encourage community proposals from regions where the global SotM has not yet been held.
Read the guidelines and selection criteria on the OSM Wiki page to start planning your application for the 2026 conference venue.
This early call gives you the greatest flexibility in choosing dates for 2026. Please take note of other OpenStreetMap-related events (such as FOSS4G and local SotMs) to avoid scheduling conflicts with key community conferences.
You can start your bid by visiting :
State of the Map 2026/Call for venues - OpenStreetMap Wiki
Deadline of bids:
31st August 2025
We can’t wait to collaborate with you in organizing the next global OSM community celebration, State of the Map 2026!
Brazil Singh
On behalf of the SOTM 2025 Organizing Committee and Communication Working Group
3 Likes
Mateusz_Konieczny
(Mateusz Konieczny)
June 18, 2025, 9:08pm
Brazil_Singh:
where the global SotM has not yet been held
how it is interpreted? For example, would that mean that country where global SOTM has not taken place will be preferred?
Or that anything outside Europe will be preferred?
Something else?
Brazil_Singh
(Brazil Singh)
June 18, 2025, 10:08pm
When we say “regions where the global SotM has not yet been held,” the intent is to encourage geographic diversity in hosting locations.
This doesn’t mean that only countries or regions that have never hosted before will be considered.
All proposals are welcome, and the final decision is based on many factors: community engagement, accessibility, infrastructure, cost, safety, and more.
it’s an encouragement toward inclusiveness and expanding our global footprint…
dieterdreist
(Martin Koppenhöfer)
June 19, 2025, 7:48am
When we say “regions where the global SotM has not yet been held,” the intent is to encourage geographic diversity in hosting locations.
This doesn’t mean that only countries or regions that have never hosted before will be considered.
While I agree that geographic diversity for hosting locations is desirable, it is important how these regions are defined, and IMHO the focus should be on cultural diversity rather than physical proximity. To give an example from our past, in 2023 there were three bids, France, Kosovo and Cameroon, France withdrew the bid while Kosovo, despite their proposal was described as a “strong bid”, was dismissed based on the sole fact that it is located in Europe (the continent). But if we defined regions culturally, economically or politically, Kosovo could have been seen as a quite different “region” compared to the UK, France or Italy, as it is not in the EU, is not part of the Schengen agreement, has not a christian tradition, etc.
(Cameroon was then dismissed due to security and safety concerns, in particular for diverse people, so we ended up with no SotM at all in 2023).
3 Likes
Mateusz_Konieczny
(Mateusz Konieczny)
June 19, 2025, 10:28am
dieterdreist:
while Kosovo, despite their proposal was described as a “strong bid”, was dismissed based on the sole fact that it is located in Europe (the continent)
yes, I was thinking about exactly this
So either there were further reasons that were not mentioned (and “strong bid” was misleading/white lie/PR speak). Or anyone proposing location in Europe just wasted all their effort, as no SOTM was preferred to it taking place in Europe.
So the question is whether it makes sense to spend time on making bid if proposed location is in Europe.
2 Likes
woodpeck
(Frederik Ramm)
June 19, 2025, 1:43pm
I think we have meanwhile covered all continents except Antarctica and Australia/Oceania so it is unlikely that a bid would be rejected based on what continent it is in.
As for the more specific question of Europe - as far as I know the OSMF doesn’t have limitless financial means and
used
to depend partly on some revenue generated by SotM, revenue that
used
to be somewhat proportional to how wealthy the host country/region were. (I don’t know if this has changed.)
The OSMF has already lost the lucrative US market - nobody will want to ruin OSM-US’s finances by running a SotM there and dropping SotM-US in that year - and unless it at least sporadically hosts an international conference in Europe, there’s a danger of that ship sailing away too with SotM-EU becoming a permanent fixture just like SotM-US is, and OSMF left to organise conferences in regions where it costs money, rather than brings in some revenue to cross-fund other things (like staff, servers, microgrants - or conference location diversity in another year).
These might be things to consider when choosing a venue.
(Edit: Sorry everyone in Australia/Oceania. My initial post said we had covered all contients except Antartica which obviously is untrue.)
4 Likes
ImreSamu
(ImreSamu)
November 15, 2025, 9:57am
“State Of The Map 2026 is set to take place in
Paris, France. It will be held on August 28 to 30, 2026
.” (
State of the Map 2026 - OpenStreetMap Wiki
3 Likes