After gathering feedback from delegates at last year’s conference and speaking with openEHR affiliates around the world, Amsterdam quickly emerged as the strongest option for EHRCON26. Not only is it a bustling international destination with excellent transport links and more than a nod towards sustainable living, it also boasts a thriving health tech community, making it the perfect backdrop for conversations that extend beyond the conference sessions.
Fortunately, our Dutch affiliate and local contacts have been actively involved in the conference planning process: offering local knowledge, practical support, and connecting us with our educational partner for the event, Hanze University of Applied Sciences.
It’s a good example of what makes the openEHR community so effective; everyone working together to grow the community and help create the connections that make events like EHRCON possible.
It’s been rewarding to watch EHRCON grow. Back in 2024, the UK conference set the tone by demonstrating the value of bringing the openEHR community together in person. In 2025, Barcelona built on that momentum, attracting an even bigger audience as interest in openEHR continued to expand. Now, as we prepare for Amsterdam, we’re hoping to build on the successes of previous years and cement our place as one of the go-to European conferences in the health data space.
Conference programmes always reflect what’s happening in the wider ecosystem, and EHRCON is no exception. This year’s agenda, unsurprisingly, includes conversations around AI, but there’s also a significant focus on EHDS, as the European Health Data Space moves from concept towards implementation. Increasingly, organisations are focussed on the practical considerations around data quality, interoperability, and data sovereignty, and that focus is very much reflected in the conference programme. At the same time, we’re seeing closer collaboration between standards bodies than ever before; the crucial shift towards standards working together, rather than competing against one another.
There are still several months of planning ahead, merch bags to stuff, keynotes to finalise, roller banners to order, menus to select and, inevitably, one or two unexpected obstacles to overcome. But I’m looking forward to welcoming familiar faces and greeting some new ones in Amsterdam this September. Watching conversations begin over coffee and continue long into the evening is a good reminder that conferences aren’t just about venues or schedules; first and foremost, they’re about bringing people together and creating a sense of community. Which is something that openEHR does pretty well.
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