ArduPilot Developer Conference 2026 in Ottawa, Canada! (October)

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We are pleased to announce that for 2026, the ArduPilot Developer Conference will be held in Ottawa, Canada! While the exact dates have not yet been established, we are planning to host the conference sometime within the early to mid October timeframe.

As has been the case for previous years, in-person attendance will be limited to the ArduPilot Developer Team and members of the ArduPilot Partners Program to keep our attendee numbers manageable. In the coming months we will share registration instructions along with the final choice of venue for in person. The event, including all talks and live demonstrations, will be live-streamed for the benefit of our global ArduPilot community members.

It is planned for the conference to be hosted as an official event by Carleton University under the NSERC CREATE UTILI program. Further, we enjoy the support of Ottawa Tourism, and the R&D complex Area X.O operated by Invest Ottawa. We expect to provide support for travel visas for attendees who may require them in order to come to Canada to attend. Of course, please ensure that you familiarize yourself with the visa application process well in advance.

We are still working to finalize our primary venue, with our final consideration among:

  1. Brookstreet Hotel https://www.brookstreethotel.com/
  2. Ottawa Conference and Event Centre https://ottawaconferenceandeventcentre.com/
  3. Carleton University https://conferenceservices.carleton.ca/conferences/

If you’d like to give a talk or demonstrate hardware at the event, please make sure to reach out to us, the sooner the better! Canada actively supports responsible UAS operations, so long as we ensure that all flights are well-planned and compliant. Please learn more at the Transport Canada Drone Safety Portal.

Please reach out if you have any questions or ideas for us. Looking forward to hosting you here!

  • Nathaniel Mailhot
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First conference in north America!

Excellent ! Thanks for managing all this .

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This is awesome!

The Aerial Evolution Association of Canada just announced it’s conference will be in Montreal, and it’s often the end of October or very early November. (just wrapped up this week in Edmonton) It would be great if you could line up the dates of the conferences so those of us traveling from the west could hit both on one budget line item. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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Great news !

Looking Forward

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I can’t wait! So much energy in the UAV space around Ottawa right now!

Also people should be aware that the ROS conference is going to be held in Toronto next fall as well.

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Update - Venue and dates locked down!

We are pleased to announce that we have locked in the venue for our conference, at the very nice Brookstreet Hotel in the west-end of Ottawa! The main three days for the 2026 ArduPilot Developers (un)Conference will be held on Friday the 23rd to Sunday 25th of October!

If you are interested in attending, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or others on the dev team! We will privately share registration details, including the important room discount code which will guarantee your spot on the attendee list and help us to offset conference expenses. There is no registration fee and food+refreshements are provided to attendees during the days, otherwise. So please, get your rooms and message me to register ASAP!

I am afraid that we must remain strict on attendance in order to keep the conference manageable. Very sorry. As is the case for previous years we will work to live stream the talks and demos, and host all videos afterwards on our ArduPilot YouTube channel.

If you happen to not be a partners program member, but would like to sponsor the event and give an invited talk, we offer sponsorship slots that will allow for this! Find out more about our partners program and ecosystem of partner organzations here ArduPilot Partners Program.

We are also happy to report that the venue has provided us with additional rented space at no charge for several preceding days to support informal meetings, hang-outs, and demo prep! Everyone is welcome to join as they wish on these days, but fair warning, there will be no structure to them, so it will be everyone for themselves! I’d invite you to join these days to check out the city, network with folks in the region, relax and most importantly have some fun!

I am looking forward to planning the conference, really. It will be a great deal of work, but I am looking forward to it. If you’d like to give a talk or demo, and want help in preparing it or any other questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Looking forward to hosting you here!

  • Nate
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