This fall, Heather VanCura will meet with Java developers, educators, students, user groups, customers, and community leaders across Brazil and Europe. From São Paulo to Germany, London, Lisbon, Dublin, and Glasgow, the tour will provide opportunities to discuss what is next for Java, and how the global community can continue to help shape it.
Java has always evolved through collaboration. For three decades, developers, organizations, experts, educators, and community leaders have contributed ideas, expertise, and energy to the platform. The Java Community Process (JCP) plays an important role in that work by providing an open, structured forum for the industry to collaborate on Java technologies and standards.
As Chair of the JCP Executive Committee and Vice President of External Standards and Community Engagement at Oracle, Heather VanCura works closely with the global Java ecosystem to advance participation, transparency, and innovation. The tour will bring that work directly to communities across the regions, creating space for people to share their experiences, priorities, and ideas for the future.
The Fall 2026 tour will focus on several connected conversations: Java’s ongoing evolution, the impact of AI on software development, the future of programming education, and the role of community in sustaining a healthy, innovative ecosystem.
The Brazil portion begins with a combined Java and MySQL community gathering in São Paulo, followed by participation at IA Brazil, TDC São Paulo and a visit to FIAP. These events will explore the next chapter of open-source collaboration, the changing role of education, and how AI is affecting the way people learn and create software. At TDC São Paulo, Heather VanCura will join the international track to discuss how open source and standards support choice, interoperability, and flexibility for developers building modern solutions.
In Germany, the tour includes a university visit at H-KA Karlsruhe, followed by a Java user group event organized in collaboration with communities from Frankfurt, Heidelberg, and Walldorf. The visit will create an opportunity to engage with students and educators on the future of Java, programming education, and community participation. The user group session will introduce the JCP Executive Committee, explain why its work matters, and highlight ways developers and organizations can stay connected to Java’s evolution. The Germany visit concludes with the JCP Executive Committee face-to-face meeting hosted by SAP in Walldorf.
The conversation continues in London with an open roundtable hosted by the London Java Community. Rather than a traditional presentation, the session is designed to create space for discussion around Java in education, the Java ecosystem, AI, and work taking place through OpenJDK and JCP community working groups. Community members will be invited to share the opportunities, challenges, and questions they are seeing in their own organizations and local communities.
In Lisbon and Dublin, the focus will turn more directly to education and the next generation of developers. Sessions on the future of Java and programming education will examine how the Java community can support learners and educators as the development landscape changes. The Dublin program will also include a university visit and Faculty Day, creating additional opportunities to engage directly with students and educators. These questions affect how people enter the industry, how teams develop skills, and how the benefits of technology can be broadly shared.
The tour will also include Community over Code in Glasgow, where the Java conversation connects with the wider open-source ecosystem. Java, MySQL, and countless other technologies benefit when communities build relationships across user groups, universities, open-source projects, and standards organizations.
The tour reflects a core principle of Java’s success: the platform is strengthened by the people who care enough to engage. Developers, students, educators, architects, technology leaders, and community organizers all have a role in helping shape what comes next.
