North Carolina’s All Things Open 2025 dedicates 25% of programming to AI

All Things Open returns to Raleigh next week for its 13th annual conference, expecting over 6,000 attendees and featuring more than 200 sessions across 18 tracks at the Raleigh Convention Center. The east coast’s largest open source conference is placing unprecedented emphasis on artificial intelligence, with AI-focused sessions comprising nearly 25% of all scheduled talks across three dedicated tracks.

What you should know: The conference has evolved into a comprehensive showcase of open source innovation with a heavy AI focus.

• More than 6,000 attendees are registered, representing 500 companies with 100+ exhibitors participating.
• AI will dominate programming with over 50 sessions across three dedicated tracks, making up nearly 25% of all scheduled talks.
• International attendance is down due to visa complications, though overall registrations are expected to be 15% higher than last year.

Why AI matters here: Conference organizers see open source as essential for trustworthy AI development and deployment.

• “Transparency has never been more important when it comes to what’s being developed and deployed,” said Todd Lewis, All Things Open’s creator and organizer.
• “Trust and perceived fairness in these systems could not be more important as we move forward, and open source really helps,” Lewis explained.
• Mark Hinkle, organizer of the related All Things AI conference, emphasized: “You can’t govern what you can’t inspect.”

The big picture: The AI-open source connection has grown so significant that it spawned a separate conference.

• All Things AI will host its second conference next spring at the Carolina Theater and Durham Convention Center.
• “Looking forward, open source is vital for transparency and auditability. Enterprises need visibility into how models are built and trained,” Hinkle explained.
• Government and healthcare sectors especially demand explainability and control over AI systems.

Key programming highlights: The conference offers unique technical demonstrations alongside traditional sessions.

• Two tracks are dedicated to case studies and project demos, a concept unique to All Things Open that lets attendees “pop the hood” on technologies and platforms.
• Monday evening’s Demo Night, hosted by RIoT (a North Carolina technology accelerator), will feature more than 50 companies, with about half from North Carolina.
• Other dedicated tracks cover security, web development, cloud computing, and “Big Data.”

Partner events expand the experience: Sunday kicks off with three co-located partner events at the Raleigh Convention Center.

• The Community Leadership Summit offers free unconference sessions for community leaders.
• GitHub is hosting its first Open Source Accessibility Summit aimed at improving accessibility in open source projects.
• The Connected Triangle+ Summit III on Tuesday focuses on regional collaboration for smart city projects through partnership with Raleigh’s Office of Strategy and Innovation.