DISC Unconference: Join Us!
São Paulo, Brazil, and online
March 14 (Friday) — 16 (Sunday), 2025
Application Deadline: Oct. 31, 2024 (Sunday) 11:59 pm anywhere on earth (EoD AoE)
DISC Unconference 2025: https://numfocus.org/DISC-Unconference-2025/
Registration link: https://numfocus.typeform.com/to/l7xN6svq
We are thrilled to announce that the NumFOCUS DISC Committee is organizing the third edition of the beloved and unique DISC Unconference! The event will occur March 14 (Friday) — 16 (Sunday), 2025, in São Paulo, Brazil, and online. We aim to bring together 35 DEI leaders in São Paulo and about 30 DEI leaders and contributors online to create state-of-the-art materials on diversity, equity, and inclusion in open-source.
The two-and-a-half days of interactive collaboration and creation of DEI educational resources will culminate with presentations from the materials created during the event. After the event, all developed projects will be publicly accessible under an open-source license, and NumFOCUS will offer post-event support.
You are invited to apply to participate in the NumFOCUS DISC Unconference 2025 by filling out the application form!
Are you curious about the previous editions and the event results? Please check our blog post.
What will we achieve together?
In the upcoming event, we will specifically emphasize the needs of the Global South open-source community. In particular, we are aiming to:
- Create open-source DEI educational materials, emphasizing the activation of more contributions from the Global South.
- Increase understanding of challenges and opportunities for potential contributors from the Global South to join the NumFOCUS and weather open-source and scientific community.
- Open a dialog and build paths to ongoing and future collaboration between global open-source DEI leaders of underrepresented groups.
Participants Selection
We are looking for participants who want to be change-makers, whether or not they self-identify as part of an underrepresented group.
Due to the limitations of an unconference-style format and our venue space, we will select 35 participants for the third DISC Unconference. We are also planning to secure about 30 spots for online participants. Potential attendees submit a short application outlining their interests and motivation for participating.
There is no registration fee for selected participants.
If you participate in person, NumFOCUS and your employer are not covering the costs; NumFOCUS will cover your travel and accommodation costs from the budget fundraised for this project. The list of the funders is below. The list is growing and will be updated on our Unconference website.
Participant Responsibilities:
We ask the selected participants to confirm their willingness to attend the event no later than Nov. 10, 2024 (Sunday) EoD, AoE.
The 65 selected participants will co-create the agenda for the Unconference in advance, generating potential topics and sessions in conversation with their fellow Unconference attendees in the 4–5 weeks leading up to the event.
The Unconference organizers will facilitate the process of crafting the event agenda by helping to identify themes and sort through participant-generated ideas. The agenda will consist of large and/or small-group discussions, working sessions, and potentially invited talks. Other possible session formats include lightning talks, sprints, and tutorials.
Participants will assume collective ownership over the final format and agenda of the conference. Participants expect one another to arrive at the event well-informed and prepared to contribute.
Organizers
The NumFOCUS DISC Unconference 2025 is organized by the current DISC Committee and NumFOCUS.
DISC Committee Members, term of 2024–2026:
- Anita Ihuman
- Emma Saroyan
- Eloisa Elias Tran
- Kweyakie Afi Blebo
- Melissa Mendonça
- Kamila Stepniowska (non voting member, NumFOCUS Staff)
Previous editions
Learn more about our previous events:
DISC Unconference 2023
- Outcomes
- NumFOCUS Blog Post
- Omotola Eunice OMOTAYO about her experience as a participants
- Cheuk Ting Ho about her experience as a participant
DISC Unconference 2017
- DISCOVER Cookbook — a resource for organizers of conferences and events to support and encourage diversity and inclusion at those events.
You are invited to apply to participate in the DISC Unconference 2025, by filling out the application form!
The DISC Unconference 2025 would not be possible without grants from:
