January 28 & 29, 2026 | ATLANTIC Hotel Galopprennbahn Bremen
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The Biggest Open Source Event of the Year

The Univention Summit 2026

At the Univention Summit 2026, IT service providers, software vendors, and users from all over Germany and Europe will once again come together to discuss trends, challenges, and smart solutions around digital sovereignty in government, education, and business.

The event will be more open and interactive than ever: Keynotes by internationally renowned speakers, panel discussions, user presentations, and workshops will provide exciting insights and impulses into the open-source world. In the exhibition, around 30 IT partners will present their solutions and service offerings for sovereign IT and invite participants to engage in exchange.

The 2026 program will also be complemented by a variety of interactive formats such as theme cafés, discussion rounds, open stages, and a diverse supporting program – offering plenty of opportunities for discussions, networking, and new collaborations.

Let’s connect!

Summit in numbers

  • 700

    Attendees
    onsite & online

  • 40

    Exhibitors &
    partners

  • 30

    Curated
    speakers

That was the Summit 2025

Impressions

The topics 2026

At the Univention Summit 2026, a varied program of presentations awaits you on four stages over two days.

On the main stage, internationally renowned speakers from politics, education, business, and the IT industry will talk about the challenges and opportunities for economical and sovereign digitalization.
On our three thematic stages, the focus is on practical implementation, with concrete insights and solutions from public administration, education, and technology.

Location

ATLANTIC Hotel
Galopprennbahn Bremen

The ATLANTIC Hotel Galopprennbahn is located in the heart of Bremen, yet surrounded by greenery, set against the backdrop of the former Bremen racecourse. Thanks to its connection to public transport and its proximity to the A1 and A27 motorway (each only 2 km away), the venue is easily accessible. To make your journey even more convenient, we will be offering a bus shuttle service from Bremen Central Station to the eventlocation on January 28.

In addition, around 200 free parking spaces are available in the hotel’s parking area.

Address: Ludwig-Roselius-Allee 2, 28329 Bremen
https://www.atlantic-hotels.de/en/hotel-galopprennbahn/

ATLANTIC Hotel Galopprennbahn

Evening Program

From 7:00 pm onwards, we invite you to a shared dinner with live music. It’s a relaxed opportunity to wind down after the first day of the Summit and connect with others.

Musically, we’ll be accompanied by the band Aron L Flow, performing songs about politics and gardening, lucid dreams, love, and longing. Mich Jacksons Drums and Erik Remmes Bass lay down the groove, while Aron gently works the strings. Guitar picking, rock – sometimes hard, sometimes soft – and melodic pop rooted in the blues. Diverse in both themes and sound.

These are the Speakers 2026

Peter Ganten

CEO Univention
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Ann Cathrin Riedel

Host & Managing Director of NExT e.V.
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Milen Starke

CIO Thuringia
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Mario Schmid

Government School Director, Baden-Württemberg
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Jutta Horstmann

Co-CEO of the Heinlein Gruppe
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Frank Karlitschek

Founder and Managing Director Nextcloud
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Zehra Öztürk

Acting Head of Division
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Dr. Dirk Gernhardt

Open Source Officer for the City of Munich
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Emma Ghariani

Director of the Open Source and Digital Commons Unit, Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM)
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Inga Zeisberg

Head of the Digital Education Unit at the Office for Schools and Continuing Education of the City of Münster
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Ernst Mayer

Coordinator, InnoLab im Zweckverband Kommunales Rechenzentrum Niederrhein (KRZN)
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Dr. Martin Hagen

State Councillor - Senator for Finance of Bremen
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Bärbel Boy

Managing Director, boy | Strategie + Kommunikation GmbH
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Mark Rackles

State Councilor, Senator for Children and Education, Bremen

Monika Hochmuth-Álvarez

Managing Director, ESDi GmbH / Board Member, ESDiG eG
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Prof. Dr. Matthias Stürmer

Head of the Institute for Public Sector Transformation at Bern University of Applied Sciences
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Alexander Rosenthal

Head of DigitalHub.SH
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René Müller

Apple Education Business Manager, CANCOM
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Timo König

Solution Lead Sovereign Workplace, Bechtle
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Dr. Jörn Dreyer

Principal Architect, OpenCloud
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Frank Hoberg

Chief Sales Office and Co-Founder Open-Xchange
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Christian Ulmitz

Programm Manager, Open-Xchange

Daniel Zielke

Director of Strategic Partnerships, OpenTalk
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Philipp Schied

Managing Director Medienkompetenzlehrer MKL GmbH
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Jonas Kolbenschlag

Managing Director Medienkompetenzlehrer MKL GmbH
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Martin Jacobs

Head of IT Support for Schools, KRZN
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Peter Rost

Director Business Development, secunet Security Networks AG
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Lea Telle

Senior Consultant, ifib
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Lena Wollenberg

Research Assistant, ifib
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Mark Neufurth

Enterprise Strategist Public Sector, IONOS SE
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David Brunner

IT System Architect, ITIS AG

Dipl.-Ing. Jörg Lorenz

CEO, ITIS AG
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Christopher Lorenz

CTO, ITIS AG
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Emanuel Holzmann

Managing Director, H2 invent GmbH
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Felix Kronlage-Dammers

Head of Sovereign Cloud Stack Standards Forum
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Leonhard Kugler

Head of Platform & Development, ZenDiS
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Andre Gülzow

Subject Specialist for School IT in Wolfsburg
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Robin Pfaff

Deputy Head of Division for the State of Schleswig-Holstein
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Volker Everts

Information Technology Consultant, Dataport
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Isabell Pietta

Consultant Digital Transformation, Dataport
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Thorsten Behrens

Managing Director, Collabora Productivity Germany
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Michael Astenwald

Head of IT Department / pro mente tirol
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Jochen Ortling

Head of School-Specific Applications, City of Cologne
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Werner Fischer

Board of Directors @ LPI / Knowledge Transfer @ Thomas-Krenn.AG
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Johannes Albani

LMZ Baden-Württemberg
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Ulrich Hollritt

LMZ Baden-Württemberg
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Anna Mohn

Head of Marketing, OpenProject
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Christian Herzog

Managing Director, EXTRA Computer GmbH; First Chairperson, ITE e. V.
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Jonas Sterr

Senior Solution Engineer Proxmox & Ceph
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Bernd Lehmann

City of Siegburg, CDO/Head of Department
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Sebastian Klost

Head of the Chemnitz School Computing Center
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Fabian Kalweit

Software Developer & IT Consultant, uib GmbH
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Eric Fischer

Technical Project Manager Nextcloud
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Dennis Kalbhen

Director of Technical Services, OpenTalk
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Stefan Bogner

Linux Consultant & Trainer, B1 Systems
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Jens Lehle

Sales Manager, Relution
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Stefan Jauker

CTO and Managing Director, Relution
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Clément Aubin

Head of Sales and Professional Services at XWiki SAS
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Jochen Stöckmann

Digitalization Team, Caritas in the North
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Karam Kharrat Helou

IT Infrastructure Project Manager, Bergwerk IT
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Robert Siedl

CEO, Siedl Networks GmbH
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Sebastian Gille

Infrastructure Administrator, Media Center Jena
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Peter Jerie

Head of the Media Center Jena
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Daniela Grebe

Teamlead Product Management Univention
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Ingo Steuwer

VP Platform & Technology Univention
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Cord Martens

Director Business Development, Univention
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Stefanie Schneider

Head of Professional Services, Univention
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Michael Repke

Product Manager Education Strategy, Univention
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Daniel Tröder

Software Architect Univention
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Felix Botner

Open Source Software Engineer, Univention
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Silke Meyer

IT-Consultant, Univention
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Dirk Wiesenthal

Open Source Software Engineer, Univention
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Johannes Lohmer

Open Source Software Engineer, Univention
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What the summit participants say
  • „Digital sovereignty requires open, transparent, and unbiased exchange in order to sustainably strengthen the technological independence of Germany and Europe. The Univention Summit is exactly the place where this kind of exchange is actively fostered with all relevant stakeholders.”
  • „Networking with other school authorities and school IT managers is one of the greatest added values of the Univention Summit for me. I particularly appreciate the insights into current UCS developments as well as the practical case studies from other municipalities on UCS and open solutions. This pool of ideas is extremely helpful in driving the digitalization of our schools forward in a focused and effective way.”
  • „A valuable and important conference for the ” Who is Who” of the Open Source Community. A real MUST for all champions of digital sovereignty in the public sector.”
  • „Open exchange, relaxed atmosphere, a lot of expertise and enthusiasm around Open Source – that’s what makes the Univention Summit special for us and why it’s the right stage for our video conferencing solution OpenTalk.”
  • „The network I build at the Univention Summit is (almost) as important as the infrastructure network I maintain for the schools in the district. That’s why I’m always happy to travel to Bremen.”
  • „The use of digital offerings in schools becomes increasingly important for us as a provider of educational media. Teachers and students should be able to use them without hurdles and barriers and in infrastructures that are as open as possible. A prerequisite for this is good interaction between all school IT offerings. The Univention Summit is an excellent place for inspiration and exchange on this topic.”
  • „A characteristic feature of the Univention Summit is the open exchange at a high professional level from different perspectives. In a pleasant atmosphere, participants exchange information about very practical or technical, but also planning topics such as media development planning, IT support structures, requirements specification and evaluation. This is how digital transformation can succeed in the educational sector.”