July 1st, 2021
It is with a heavy heart to announce we will skip the annual Blender gathering in Amsterdam again, which was tentatively scheduled for the end of October.
At this moment the situation is still too uncertain to justify commitments with venues, speakers or visitors. Even though small groups can carefully come back together now, I haven’t seen many people longing to participate in a massive event yet. It is too early.
For me it’s also not an option to simply replace the conference with a virtual event. That would not even remotely compensate for the joyful excitement of real-life conferences. Blender is an online project by nature, we don’t need a pandemic to present our work online.
However, we will do something special to bring everyone together virtually - which will be themed around preparing a fantastic Blender 3.0 launch! Details on this will be shared in the coming weeks.
I also want everyone to know that organizing smaller events such as premieres, or a Blender 3.0 party, is something we can decide ad-hoc just weeks before. We will do it as soon as the situation permits.
I wish everyone a healthy and safe summer.
Ton Roosendaal
Chairman Blender Foundation