I am this weekend at DevConf.cz and I met here several friends who do not work in Red Hat. They are able to speak about some interesting technical topics, but are afraid to give their speech here, because "This is something else then Red Hat is doing.". This is false assumption. We are interested in all open source projects. No matter if Red Hat is using it or not. Let me tell you brief history of DevConf.cz and you will understand better.
Long time ago, Red Hat Czech was just 60 people. And few hundreds Red Hat world-wide. We knew each other personally. But as we grow every year we are way over Dunbar number. So we had an idea that during our team-building activity we present something interested to each other. Usually something we work on and what can be interested for others. So the first event happen at hotel loungue.
Next year we decided to invite our US colleagues and we moved to University (much better then hotel lounge). And since there is nothing secret we decided to open it to students and anybody interested in. Because sharing is better. First year (2009) only few of them came and most of attendees were from Red Hat and conference was mostly in Czech language. And then the conference grew and grew. Most of the topic were in English. And now all session are in English. Every year there was lots of interesting topics. And this year is huge! With lots of people outside of Red Hat. Which is great!
Red Hat still organize this event, because we will do something like this anyway. And the in the term of cost, it really does not matter too much if you have 500 attendees or 1200 attendees.
So for historical reasons most of the talks are from Red Hat employees. But this is open conference. And we will love to hear what new open source technology you develop or use in your company. So during October there should be call for papers for DevConf.cz 2017 and you should not hesitate to submit your topic. Even if you are not from Red Hat or it is about technology not used by Red Hat. We would really love to attend your presentation too.