Perth, Australia | 2026
R Exchange
Established in 2020, R Exchange provides an opportunity for open-source data science enthusiasts from a variety of disciplines to connect and learn from each other.
WHERE
Perth (CBD)
Western Australia
WHEN
14–15 October 2026
What can I expect?
R Exchange Perth will feature talks by speakers from a wide range of organisations, plus, as always, a keynote from the Posit team. Talks showcase innovative approaches to mapping data, AI integration and the diversity of open-source use cases, for example speakers will demonstrate how data pipelines and reporting can be improved with open-source workflows and how open-source dashboards are being used for data exploration and storytelling. In-depth workshop sessions will offer something for everyone, from how to get the most out of Positron, automated reported with Quarto and enterprise solutions for open source data science. 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 6 years ago in New Zealand, R Exchange has been attended by participants from over 100 organisations, many of them regulars. Now we are bringing it to Australia, starting with Perth.
The event would not exist without the enthusiasm of Oceania’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
Day one of the event features an afternoon workshop.
Day two will be split into three sessions, with morning tea and lunch provided.
DAY ONE | 14 October 2026
1:00pm – 5:00pm | Pre-conference workshop – Taking the plunge into Positron
6:30pm | Optional welcome dinner
DAY TWO | 15 October 2026
9:00am – 10:45am | Session one: Keynotes and invited speakers
11:30am – 1:00pm | Session two: Workshops
2:30pm – 4:10pm | Session three: Real-life applications
4:10pm | Nibbles & networking
Speakers
Matt Fraser
Manager of Biodiversity and Ecology | Bio
Generating impact with bespoke open-source tools to conserve marine biodiversity at scale
Dr Kiel Hards
Bringing next generation mapping approaches to R with the Toro package
Workshop: Taking the plunge into Positron — Posit's R & Python friendly Data Science IDE
Workshop: Taking your automated reporting game to the next level with Quarto
Dr Uli Muellner
Open-source data science in a disrupted world
Workshop: Open source data science in restricted environments
TBC
Keynote speaker from Posit's technical team
AI in secure environments
Keen to get hands-on?
Check out the "Dashboarding for impact with R Shiny" Masterclass
12–13 October 2026 | Murdoch University