The October event will be hosted by the MySQL team at Oracle.
Program:
- 17:45 - Doors open / refreshments / drinks
- 18:00-18:05 - Welcome
- 18:05-18:55 - The Path to MySQL Open Innovation - Heather VanCura
- 18:55-19:00 - Short break
- 19:00-19:50 - MySQL Technical Session - Matthias Crauwels
- 19:50-20:00 - Q&A / discussion / networking
- 20:00 - End of meetup, with a possible external social gathering afterwards
The Path to MySQL Open Innovation
Abstract:
As the MySQL Community celebrates its 30-year milestone in 2025–2026, it reaches a defining moment in its evolution. Looking ahead, the community enters a new phase focused on expanding engagement, collaboration, contributions, and the pace of innovation.
Oracle and the MySQL Community are embarking on a bold transformation—reimagining how one of the world's most widely used open-source databases is built, governed, and evolved.
This session shares details on the next phase of that transformation following the MySQL 9.7 Community Edition release. Sparked by direct community feedback about the future of MySQL as an open ecosystem, this journey led to a multi-phase strategy to modernize MySQL's development model.
About Heather VanCura:
Heather VanCura serves as Vice President of External Standards & Community Engagement at Oracle, where she leads global strategy for Oracle's participation in formal and informal standards organizations and engagement in open-source projects worldwide. She also leads Oracle's MySQL community engagement initiatives, fostering relationships with developers, user groups, and open-source contributors around the world.
With extensive experience in community building, open governance, and developer relations, Heather focuses on advancing MySQL through open collaboration, modern development practices, and ecosystem growth. Her work strengthens connections between Oracle engineering teams and the global MySQL community, supporting open participation, greater transparency, and contributions that help shape the future of data platforms. She helps ensure that MySQL continues to evolve as the world's leading open-source database.
