QGIS User Conference and Contributor Meeting 2026 in Laax

Last week the international QGIS community gathered in Laax, in the Swiss canton of Graubünden: the QGIS User Conference on 5 and 6 October, followed by the 29th QGIS Contributor Meeting from 7 to 9 October.

From Saxon Switzerland to Switzerland

For me, the trip started well before that, about 600 kilometres to the north. I spent the week before the conference at TU Dresden, teaching QGIS for Hydrological Applications for the students of the Erasmus Mundus Flood Risk Management programme at the nice campus in Tharandt. Before the classes there was time for a beautiful hike in Saxon Switzerland, with its sandstone towers above the Elbe valley. A good warm-up for what was coming.

From Dresden I took the train south to Bregenz, on the shore of Lake Constance. There I was picked up by car by my fellow board members of the Dutch QGIS User Group, Raymond Nijssen and Jeroen Hovens. Together we drove the last stretch through the Rhine valley up to Laax.

Sunday: the UNESCO Hike

On Sunday 4 October, the day before the conference, I joined the long version of the pre-conference UNESCO Hike. And what a day it was. A bus took us up to Berghaus Nagens at 2,100 metres. From there we walked across the Segnesboden, a wide karst plateau, and stopped for lunch near the Segneshütte.

The area is famous for the Glarus Thrust, the reason it is listed as the UNESCO World Heritage site Tectonic Arena Sardona. During the formation of the Alps, a slab of much older rock was pushed on top of far younger layers. Normally the oldest rocks are at the bottom; here it is the other way around, and you can see the thrust line running through the mountains as a sharp line in the rock. Our certified GeoGuide Sardona explained the geology along the way. For a group of people who spend their days with layers, it was a fitting start of the week.

After lunch we followed the Trutg dil Flem, Romansh for "riverside trail", along the Flem river all the way down to Flims. The trail passes gorges, waterfalls and a series of striking bridges by engineer Jürg Conzett, cutting through the debris of the huge prehistoric Flims landslide. In total about 14 kilometres and well over 1,100 metres of descent. Long, but every step was worth it.

It was also very nice to catch up with colleagues from the Provincie Zuid-Holland along the way. The province is one of the sponsors of the conference, and it was good to see a Dutch government organisation so visibly involved in the QGIS community.

The map below, created with Mergin Maps, shows the area, routes and programme of the conference.

Back in Laax, I went to the registration desk and collected the amazing name tag.

Monday 5 October: the first conference day

I took the early gondola up to the LAAX Galaaxy at Crap Sogn Gion (2,222 m), where the conference took place. Some people started the day with yoga; I explored the area and enjoyed the views.

Marco Bernasocchi opened the conference, followed by two interesting keynotes: Gerhard Andrey on Switzerland's turn to open source as government policy, and Lorenz Hurni on maps as instruments of power. Then I went to Kurt Menke's QGIS Feature Frenzy, a fast tour of many amazing new features in QGIS 4.

After lunch I attended "Scaling the QGIS Brazil Community: From Software Localization to the 4.2 LTR Belém do Pará Milestone" by Narcélio de Sá. I learned a lot about the history of the Brazilian QGIS User Group, and it was nice to meet Narcélio.

The QGIS Trainer Network

Then it was my turn to present the Building the QGIS Trainer Network, on behalf of the network and with help from Kurt Menke. The initiative was started by John Bryant at FOSS4G Europe 2025 in Mostar and grew into a Telegram group with trainers working well beyond QGIS. I presented the results of a questionnaire that gave insight into the training needs of the public sector.

I concluded with the decision on how the initiative continues:

• QGIS Certified Trainer Network: focused on QGIS, with its own Signal group, open to trainers from certified organisations.
• OSGeo Trainer Network: the existing Telegram group continues under this name, for exchange beyond QGIS.

The session ended with "Inside QGIS: Documentation, Community, and the Work In Between" by Selma Vidimlic Husic, Hefni Azzahra and Marco Serusi: the QGIS documentation writers and the project's administrative assistant. It was great to see the people behind this work, which is so useful for the whole community.

3D, games and point clouds

After the coffee break I stayed for three talks:

• "From GIS to GCS: Using QGIS as a 3D Video Game Level Designer" by Valentin Cotta, a really unexpected use of QGIS!
• "QGIS 3D and Digital Twins" by Martin Dobias.
• "Point cloud improvements in QGIS 4" by Stefanos Natsis.

During the break we were treated to a performance on alphorns. The closing keynote of the day, "One million reasons to maintain the QGIS Infrastructure", gave a nice look behind the scenes, told by Lova Andriarimalala, Tim Sutton and Ivan Minčík, who keep that infrastructure running.

The day ended with the social event at the venue: food, drinks and a funny pub quiz by Raymond Nijssen. Afterwards we took the gondola down and went back to our apartment.

Tuesday 6 October: the second conference day

On the second day I took the early gondola again. The weather was even better than the day before, so the views were even more spectacular.

The day kicked off with Anita Graser's keynote "AI in the QGIS Ecosystem", about the good, the bad and the ugly sides of AI. It was nice to see her refer to my videos on the topic.

Next I went to "Introducing QGIS effectively with learner-generated data: A workflow based on educational research for teaching QGIS to initially reluctant beginners" by Julian Kilker, Yvonne Houy and Aiken Kilker. It linked nicely to my own presentation that followed, "Why Your QGIS Training Works (or Doesn't): A Practical Guide for Trainers". In my talk I discussed several teaching modalities, from self-paced and blended learning to in-person and live online courses, and which ones work for which target groups. I really enjoyed the questions afterwards.

After the coffee break I stayed in the cartography track for two talks. In "Efficient Labeling in QGIS: Practical techniques for better maps", Mie Winstrup shared practical tips for configuring label placement and avoiding messy, overlapping labels. Then Andreas Neumann showed his experiments in "Styling a Swiss topographic map" with the Swiss Map Vector 25 dataset: multi-layer road symbols, selective masking of labels and terrain representation with hillshading, rock drawing and contour lines.

Later, Tim Sutton helped me with some questions about my Framework 13 Pro laptop running gisnix. Gisnix is a reproducible NixOS-based Linux distribution for GIS workstations, developed by Kartoza, that comes with QGIS and many other open source GIS tools ready to use. I will soon publish a video about installing gisnix on the Framework 13 Pro.

The day ended with Johannes Kanonier's keynote "V 1.8 to 4.2 – Our 15-year journey with QGIS at the State of Vorarlberg/Austria", followed by the closing session. Statistics of the conference were presented, and the organisers and volunteers were thanked for their amazing work, especially Marco Bernasocchi, who worked very hard to make this event such a success.

The numbers are impressive. Over 420 people from more than 30 countries, spread over five continents, came to Laax, making it the largest event ever held on Crap Sogn Gion. The two conference days offered about 90 talks, six keynotes and twelve short hands-on workshops. On the Wednesday, 120 participants join the ten full-day workshops in the valley, and another 71 went out mapping around Laax at the QField Day.

Then Giovanni Manghi announced the country of the next QGIS User Conference: Portugal! He is still looking for a nice venue and admitted that Laax has set the bar high. After the gondola ride down, we ended the day with dinner.

Wednesday 7 October: workshop day

On the workshop day I gave an afternoon workshop on Hydrological Analysis in QGIS. I was very happy to present the new native hydrology tools that will be available in QGIS 4.4, thanks to the recent crowdfunding campaign.

After my introduction and some theory, the participants worked through the exercises. The course materials remain freely available on GIS OpenCourseWare, so you can still follow them yourself.

Thursday and Friday: the Contributor Meeting

On 8 and 9 October it was time for the Contributor Meeting. I mostly worked on the documentation of the new native hydrology tools. Together with Kurt Menke I also worked on the QGIS Certification Programme: with some technical improvements and a clearer text on the website, the procedure should soon become smoother.

Heading home

On Saturday 10 October, after watching the cow beauty contest in Laax, we started the drive home, spread over two days. Thanks to the organisers, volunteers and sponsors for a wonderful week in the mountains. See you in Portugal!