This year we will not organize a FHIR DevDays event in November. However, we will come back bigger than ever with the first edition of DevDays International, a fully hybrid event in the week of June 6, 2022, in Cleveland, US, and/or on your screens. 

DevDays started back in 2014 at the Firely office with a mission to bring together FHIR implementers from all over the world to learn FHIR and build relationships. This is what we believed the FHIR community needed to achieve global interoperability in healthcare.

What to Expect in the Future

In 2020, we were forced to go virtual. The attendance of these events has gone through the roof since then, with participants from more countries than ever before. Some say it was among the best virtual events they attended.

We don’t want to lose the (unexpected!) advantages of the virtual event: the low barrier to attendance, superior recordings, cost-efficiency, and a smaller carbon footprint. At the same time, we know that the FHIR community is fueled by personal relationships, forged during in-person meetings. Interoperability requires trust and the will to work together. We realize that the need to get people in one room to strengthen the bonds was crucial.

This makes it clear that DevDays needs to go hybrid. We will facilitate those who cannot or don’t want to travel with access to premium FHIR content. Simultaneously, we will add the in-person event to facilitate people who thrive on personal connections and appreciate one-on-one meetings. 

In comparison to virtual or in-person events, we know hybrid events will be three times the amount of work. That is why we have made a bold decision: skip DevDays November and put all our energy, time, and creativity into preparing DevDays International in the week of June 6, 2022: a FHIR Festival (not fyre…) of education, coding, and networking, covering multiple time zones, with content from all continents.

And while the content will always be fully international, the physical part of next year’s event will take place in Cleveland (USA) and in Europe the year after.

We understand that not having an Amsterdam-based DevDays in November 2021 will be disappointing to some of you. But we hope you will take that bit of extra time to block your agenda for June 2022. To convince your boss to meet the community in person if you can. We can’t wait to see you at FHIR DevDays 2022, an international festival of FHIR that you will remember! 

On behalf of the Firely DevDays Team, 

Ward Weistra

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