R Exchange 2026

Established in 2020, R Exchange provides a regional opportunity for open-source data science enthusiasts from a variety of disciplines to connect and learn from each other.

WHERE

The Auditorium,
Aitken Street entrance,
National Library of New Zealand,
Wellington

WHEN

Thursday 7 May 2026

Go to: Is R Exchange for me? | Here's what our attendees say | Schedule | Speakers | 2025 Gallery

What can I expect?

R Exchange 2026 will feature talks by speakers from a wide range of organisations, plus as always, a keynote from the Posit team. Talks cover new R packages to improve and automate workflows, case studies how open-source dashboards are being used to support the communication of complex science and technical talks on data pipelines, deployment and data linkage. In-depth workshop sessions will offer something for everyone from how to get started with open-source tools to Positron and approaches to integrating AI into dashboards. And there will be plenty of time between sessions to meet like-minded people, share learnings, frustrations and opportunities.

Explore the full programme here.

Why open source?

Open-source tools are commonly used to complement proprietary products; they can help you tackle more complex problems and provide added flexibility. Learn with us how to better visualise outputs, automate reporting, and scale up data products and workflows.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at events@epi.group and keep up-to-date on the latest announcements via LinkedIn and our newsletter.

Is R Exchange for me?

The numbers speak for themselves.

Established in 2020, R Exchange has been attended by over 300 participants from 90 organisations.

It is quite humbling to see how this event has grown so much in only a few years. We remember the first R Exchange, when we were in a small, 30-person room on the Terrace and stopped at the supermarket on the way to the event to get some baking for the breaks.

The event would not exist without the enthusiasm of New Zealand’s open-source data science community and it is a real privilege for us to organise and host this event as part of our B Corp commitment to support local communities and to be about more than just profit.

Here's what our attendees say

"This was my second year attending and I very much enjoyed it. We work on an application that uses R in a bespoke manner for reporting purposes, so it’s highly useful to see the ways R is used elsewhere across the public service."

"I have definitely gotten a lot of connections and learnings out of it. I even felt motivated to do some sharing in the future too! Looking forward to next years' R Exchange."

"Many companies try to spearhead their respective user communities but it’s almost always artificial and profit driven. You can tell in attending R Exchange how much you are truly trying to support all the R community, not just current and potential customers. Huge respect!"

Schedule

The event will be split into three sessions, with morning tea and lunch provided and followed by networking.

9:00am – 10:45am | Session one: Keynote and invited speakers

11:30am – 1:00pm | Session two: Workshops

2:30pm – 4:05pm | Session three: Lightning talks

See full schedule

Speakers