A Strong Start to the Year
The Simpl Annual Community Event 2026 started the new year with a full programme and a full house. Across the day, 450 people took part, with 234 in the room and 216 online. Twelve sessions ranged from deep technical work to strategic debate. Forty-nine speakers shared insights, answered questions and kept the engagement levels high.
The Simpl Annual Community Event was opened by Thibaut Kleiner, Director for Future Networks in DG Connect at the European Commission, who stated:
“Simpl is the bedrock of future innovation. It proves we have a vision for decentralised data spaces and can deliver the quality needed to make Europe an AI continent.”
Highlights from the Programme
The agenda programme that followed showed the breadth of Simpl in action. Engineers worked hands‑on in a Guided Code Exploration of Simpl-Open, tracing patterns in repositories and answering practical questions. A panel on Scaling Data Spaces with Simpl-Live unpacked real deployment challenges, performance considerations and the governance that keeps complex systems usable at scale.
The Marketplace turned theory into working demos. Teams walked through problem statements and gathered useful feedback from the attendees. You could see how Simpl-Open foundations, Simpl-Live services and Simpl-Labs innovation fit together.
Engagement Onsite and Online
Participation was strong across all channels. The event’s interactive format allowed for a continuous flow of questions and ideas that will directly shape our future communications and technical sessions.
On LinkedIn, the conversation gained significant momentum through #SimplAnnualEvent and #EC_Simpl. Attendees and speakers shared their key takeaways, helping our new community space grow from 0 to 280 members in only a few days.
In the venue, the breakout area worked as an informal workspace where new connections formed, approaches were sketched out, challenges discussed and pilots planned.
Reflections from the Programme
To quote Manuel Mateo Goyet, Acting Head of Unit for Cloud and Software at the European Commission/ Simpl’s Programme Owner, noted:
“This event is important as it allows the community to come together and catch up on the developments across Simpl, and it is also useful for the programme to listen to their needs… Simpl is not just alive and kicking, but it’s growing and maturing well!”
What to expect next
Recordings and materials are in preparation and will be published in the next week. Session videos and slide decks will be published on the website shortly so you can catch up, share with colleagues and revisit the content.
Community discussions continue in the new LinkedIn group. It is the place to compare notes, share deployment tips and explore data spaces with peers across the ecosystem. Join the conversation here. 
Looking ahead to 2026, we will confirm dates for the next get together, along with additional community calls, workshops and Marketplace demo opportunities. If there is a theme or topic you would like the community to explore, now is the time to pitch it.
Thank you to everyone who spoke, asked questions, demoed, volunteered and took part in person and online. It was a strong start to the year. Let’s keep the momentum going.
Stay involved
Join the LinkedIn group
Follow our social channels for more updates
Share your highlights and tag us so we can amplify them #EC_Simpl and #SimplAnnualEvent
Please log in or sign up to comment.