Following a successful return to the annual UK FOSS4G event in 2025, FOSS4G:UK decided to return to Leeds for the 2026 conference. As double-Bronze sponsors of the conference for Lutra and Mergin Maps, Ryan and Peter were in attendance to meet up with our UK customers and speak at the event.
Three of the four keynote talks focused on the role of AI in GIS and open-source software, so the conference was set to generate plenty of debate and lively discussion about key issues and developments facing the industry.
All of our events were scheduled for the second day, so Ryan and Peter were free to attend talks and catch up with fellow users and make new connections on Monday. Our new “Otterly obsessed with spatial data” shirts were a big hit, we got loads of compliments from other attendees, and there were a few suggestions that we could start a lucrative side-hustle selling our merch.
Once we were well caffeinated, we set off to listen to Dr John Stevenson from British Geological Survey talk about CRAG, which they developed to generate pre-configured geological survey projects in QGIS. The plugin also includes improved UI to help surveyors use QGIS on a tablet for data entry in the field. John’s presentation also featured how they worked with us to get Mergin Maps to work with CRAG so their geologists can also collect data with their mobile devices with seamless integration to their platform. You can read more about our collaboration with John and BGS on our Mergin Maps site.
Other sessions that stood out for us were updates on the latest from Geoserver 3, OpenStreetMap and a final keynote for the first day from Fakhar Khalid of Sensat about the need for open source datasets to provide a sense of place for AI models that rely on spatial data.
On Tuesday, we fuelled up with a traditional Full English breakfast (including black tea with milk) before attending the first keynote from Ana Basiri about what it means to be “open-source” in the age of AI. Ana challenged the audience to consider the promises and pitfalls of using machine-generated code to develop open source software.
After the opening session, Peter and Ryan split off to their concurrent sessions. Peter led a topical discussion about the lessons we can take from the rise of chess engines when thinking about the impacts of AI on GIS. Meanwhile, Ryan presented the results of the 2025 crowdfunding campaign by Lutra and North Road to improve 3D and Digital Twin support in QGIS.
In the afternoon, we led a workshop on using Mergin Maps to take your field data to the web with our recent improvements to the webmap and map sharing features in the Mergin Maps Dashboard.
FOSS4G:UK was a great opportunity to catch up with some of our UK partners and customers, and plenty of motivated open-source GIS users. We found the talks to be engaging and appreciated the atmosphere of the event that encouraged lively discussions about key developments and issues facing the GIS industry in the UK and around the world. The organisers did an excellent job of running the event and we are excited to see everyone next year when the FOSS4G global conference will be hosted in Bristol.
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