@kaveinthran @NVAccess @andrewleland I think we need a special #NVDACon to celebrate this milestone. I hesitate to even suggest this because I know that it's easy to toss an idea to people and much harder to help make it happen. Right now, I'm at a point in my life where I don't have the bandwidth to assist with this and so I hate even suggesting it ... but there you are.

@DavidGoldfield @kaveinthran @NVAccess @andrewleland Ideally, it would have been held in April 2026 to coincide with the actual anniversary date. If people start planning now, it might be possible to do one in December.

@DavidGoldfield @kaveinthran @NVAccess @andrewleland I say aim for December because you need a committee and time to organize this. Advice: work backwards through the timeline, then plan things accordingly (a well organized conference/convention gathering takes at least a year to organize). 1/

@DavidGoldfield @kaveinthran @NVAccess @andrewleland Ideal timeline:
* March 2026: form a committee, including leadership. The first meting should be devoted to defining what NVDACon 2026 would be like and the overall responsibiilty of the committee.
* April 2026: seek support from relevant stakeholders, including NV Access and key members of the NVDA community.
* May 2026: look for event venues.
* June 2026: choose a theme and a rough event date range. 2/

@DavidGoldfield @kaveinthran @NVAccess @andrewleland Ideal timeline cont:
* July 2026: test the venue and finalize the event dates.
* August 2026: post calls for presenters/topic proposals. This is when the overall event format, including how many session you are looking to host, session format, and assign topic experts within the committee.
* September 2026: call for presentations/topics closes. Start reviewing submissions and ask authors clarifying questions. 3/

@DavidGoldfield @kaveinthran @NVAccess @andrewleland Ideal timeline (cont):
* October 2026: do a test/mock conference event to test the venue. Send acceptance/rejection letters.
* November 2026: start promoting the conference. While the dates and venue are set, detailed scedule should wait until late November in case presenters say they cnanot attend it. This is also when you should ask NV Access about keynote content (be sure to reserve a spot for it). 4/

@DavidGoldfield @kaveinthran @NVAccess @andrewleland Ideal time line (cont):
* Four weeks before the conference: publish the final event schedule (somewhere)
* Three weeks before the event: do another mock conference event to test the venue and conference schedule.
* Two weeks before the event: invite presenters to the committee meeting to discuss logistics and let them test their setup. The conference should be good to go - beyond this point, there is no going back. 5/

@joslee @DavidGoldfield @NVAccess @andrewleland Thank you so much for this broad planning. I guess it'd be better to have this global conference virtually so that everyone can participate and the logistics would be easier to produce recordings for those who could not attend it, particularly people that are from different time zones. Also, we can afford to run this earlier or multiple conferences, such as for users, developers, or with different regional themes. It'll allow for better participation and high-quality material rather than investing time and effort for a physical venue conference. Do you think?

@kaveinthran @DavidGoldfield @NVAccess @andrewleland One last reason against organizing multiple conferences: the organizing comittee, especially the committee chair(s), must endure queries from arond the world about various aspects of the event; doing so for one conference is hard (trust me, I was bedridden in the middle of organizing NVDACon 2016 partly due to me chairing that conference and some extra work I did then).

@joslee @DavidGoldfield @NVAccess @andrewleland thank you so much for all this valuable input. I should look at archives of past nvdaCcons to understand how things happens in the past and yeah you're right only one conference is enough