Southern California Linux Expo

What Southern California Linux Expo does

Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) is a Pasadena, California-based 501c3 non-profit organization that produces North America's largest community-run open source conference, held annually since 2002 at the Pasadena Convention Center. Organized by Linux Expo of Southern California Inc., SCALE operates with a core team of approximately 17 staff and draws on roughly 100 volunteers during event execution. The 23rd edition (SCALE 23x) is scheduled for March 5–8, 2026, spanning four days of sessions, workshops, and community activities across tracks including Applied Science, Developer, Embedded Linux, FOSS@Home, Kernel & Low Level Systems, Observability, Open Government, Open Source AI, Security, and Systems and Infrastructure.

The core offering is the annual multi-track conference supplemented by approximately 15 co-located specialized events (AstriCon, Cloud Native Days, DevOpsDay LA, PostgreSQL@SCaLE, Open Source Career Day, PlanetNix, Apereo Foundation's Open Source in Higher Education, KwaAi Summit, SunSecCon, Birds of a Feather sessions, Capture the Flag, Incident Response Competition, Fedora Hatch Day, Game Night, and Libre Graphics Day). Supporting infrastructure includes the SCaLE 23x Mobile App powered by Guidebook, a HAM radio licensing workshop, and a non-profit exhibitor booth grant program. AWS provides web hosting and email infrastructure. Technical committees cover Networking/WiFi, Online Services, Audio/Visual, Training, and Diversity, with leadership distributed across named chairs.

SCALE generates revenue through two primary streams: tiered attendee registration ($80 early bird / $90 standard / $100 late for SCALE 23x) and corporate sponsorships structured across Platinum, Gold, Silver, and specialty tiers. Named sponsors include Microsoft, Google, Meta, Red Hat, AWS, Canonical, GitHub, Confluent, Clickhouse, Grafana Labs, ARM, Percona, TiDB, and others. The organization is explicitly vendor-neutral and distribution-neutral in outreach, maintaining a positioning distinct from commercial conferences.

Name

Southern California Linux Expo

Legal name

Linux Expo of Southern California Inc

Website

https://socallinuxexpo.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2002

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) is a 501c3 non-profit that organizes North America's largest community-run open source conference, held annually in Pasadena, CA since 2002. It serves open source developers, users, and corporate sponsors via a multi-track conference and ~15 co-located specialized events.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open Source Technology Conference

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192), Educational Support Services (61171)

akta.pro primary industry

Technology & Developer Conferences (MPAGAGAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Professional & Association Conferences (MPAGAGAB), Professional & Certification Expos Organizers (THAHABAD)

Keywords

• Open source conference
• Linux expo events
• Technology community conferences
• Annual community event
• Open source education

Headquarters

HQ city

Pasadena

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Conference Tickets: Attendee registration fees for the annual expo event with tiered pricing based on registration timing. Expo is open Friday-Sunday with talks and workshops Thursday-Sunday.
2. Corporate Sponsorships: Sponsorship packages from technology companies including Microsoft, Google, Meta, Red Hat, AWS, Canonical, and many open source foundations and companies. Various sponsorship tiers including Platinum, Gold, Silver, and specialty sponsorships.
3. Non-profit Status: Sponsored by Linux Expo of Southern California Inc, a 501c3 non-profit organization. Web hosting and email provided by Amazon Web Services.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Southern California Linux Expo organizes and hosts an annual four-day open source technology conference (SCALE) at the Pasadena Convention Center, featuring technical sessions, hands-on workshops, and specialized tracks. The event is complemented by co-located specialized conferences, a mobile app, HAM radio training workshops, and a non-profit exhibitor booth grant program. The core deliverable is an annual community-driven event uniting open source users, developers, and commercial vendors.

Product overview

SCALE is North America's largest community-run open source conference, organized by the Linux Expo of Southern California Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization. The core offering is the annual SCALE conference featuring multiple specialized tracks (Applied Science, Developer, Embedded Linux, FOSS@Home, Kernel & Low Level Systems, Observability, Open Government, Open Source AI, Security, Systems and Infrastructure) plus hands-on Workshops. Co-located events extend the conference including Cloud Native Days, DevOpsDay LA, PostgreSQL@SCaLE, and others. Additional offerings include HAM Radio training workshops, a mobile app powered by Guidebook, and a non-profit exhibitor booth grant program. The event runs four days with Expo open Friday-Sunday and talks/workshops Thursday-Sunday.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• SCALE 23x Annual Conference North America's largest community-run open source conference held annually in Pasadena, CA, featuring four days of technical sessions, workshops, BoF sessions, and an expo floor with commercial and community exhibitors.
• Conference Topic Tracks Specialized topic tracks within the SCALE conference including Applied Science, Developer, Embedded Linux, FOSS@Home, General, Kernel & Low Level Systems, Observability, Open Government, Open Source AI, Security, Systems and Infrastructure, and Workshops.
• Co-Located Events Specialized mini-conferences co-located with SCALE including AstriCon, Cloud Native Days, DevOpsDay LA, Open Source Career Day, Open Source in Higher Education, PlanetNix, PostgreSQL@SCaLE, SCaLE Youth: TNG, SunSecCon, Birds of a Feather Sessions, Capture the Flag Competition, Fedora Hatch Day, Game Night, Incident Response Competition, Libre Graphics Day, and Unofficial Social Events.
• HAM Radio Training (Tech in a Day) Technician class amateur radio license test preparation workshop with the license exam administered on-site, offered on both Friday and Saturday of the SCALE conference.
• SCaLE 23x Mobile App Conference mobile application powered by Guidebook, providing attendees access to event schedule, session information, and networking tools.
• Non-Profit Exhibitor Booth Grant Program SCALE donates booth space, power, and resources to open source projects and non-profit organizations to showcase their work to the SCaLE community at no cost.

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• AstriConminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 March 2026Co-located event at SCALE 23x focused on Asterisk and telecommunications open source topics.
• Cloud Native DaysminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 March 2026Co-located event including workshops, sessions, and deep dives around Cloud Native technologies including Kubernetes and containers. SCALE provides venue and attendees while Cloud Native Days provides specialized content.
• DevOpsDay LAminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 March 2026Southern California's premier conference focused on the human side of technology delivery, co-located at SCALE. Now in its 15th year.
• PostgreSQL@SCaLEminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 March 2026Co-located event featuring PostgreSQL-related topics for all experience levels including how-tos, case studies, and discussions of PostgreSQL internals.
• Open Source Career DayminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 March 2026Co-located event (5th year) where the community shares real talk from practitioners about navigating open source careers.
• PlanetNixminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 March 2026Co-located event focused on Nix/NixOS open source topics.
• Apereo FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 March 2026New for 2026: Partnership with Apereo Foundation for Open Source in Higher Education event, providing sessions dedicated to using, developing, and managing open resources within academic environments.
• Hotel DenaminorOthers · 7 October 2025Preferred hotel partner offering discounted room rates for SCALE attendees.
• Hyatt Place PasadenaminorOthers · 7 October 2025Preferred hotel partner offering discounted room rates for SCALE attendees.
• Pasadena Convention CentercoreOthersThe primary venue for SCALE events. SCALE 23x returns to the Pasadena Convention Center March 5-8, 2026. The convention center provides the physical space for sessions, workshops, and expo hall.
• Amazon Web ServicescoreTechnology or IntegrationAWS provides web hosting and email services for the SCALE website and infrastructure.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• DEF CON: DEF CON is a long-running, community-run security/hacker conference with comparable volunteer scale, grassroots ethos, and tiered corporate sponsorship model. Its hacker/security community substantially overlaps with SCALE's security track audience.
• FOSDEM: FOSDEM is a community-organized, volunteer-run open-source conference held annually in Brussels. It is the most direct analogue to SCALE: free/cheap community-run event, broad Linux and FOSS developer audience, no single corporate owner, and similar vendor-neutral ethos.
• PyCon US (Python Software Foundation): PyCon is a community-organized, volunteer-run developer conference with a similar grassroots structure, tiered ticket pricing, and sponsor mix. It serves as a useful operating-model analogue for SCALE even though its topic focus is narrower (Python only).
• DevOpsDay LA: DevOpsDay LA is co-located with SCALE each year and shares the same community-organizing ethos. As a long-running (15-year) community-run tech conference in the same region, it is structurally and operationally very close to SCALE's co-located events.

Broad incumbents

• Red Hat Summit: Red Hat's flagship corporate conference directly overlaps with SCALE's enterprise Linux, cloud-native, and open-source audience, and competes for the same enterprise sponsorships. As a SCALE sponsor and ecosystem participant, it is a relevant adjacent incumbent.
• KubeCon + CloudNativeCon (CNCF): CNCF's flagship cloud-native conference competes for the same enterprise sponsors (AWS, Google, Microsoft, Red Hat) and developer attendees that SCALE courts through its Cloud Native Days co-located event, but at a global scale with substantially larger booth and sponsorship packages.
• GitHub Universe: GitHub's annual developer conference addresses a heavily overlapping developer/OSS audience and pulls from the same sponsor ecosystem as SCALE. It is a relevant commercial incumbent alternative for sponsors deciding how to allocate open-source marketing budgets.
• Open Source Summit (The Linux Foundation): The Linux Foundation's flagship open-source conference attracts many of the same sponsors and developer audiences as SCALE, but with foundation backing, global rotation, and significantly larger programming budgets. It competes for sponsor dollars and attendees in the same open-source ecosystem.

Others

• O'Reilly OSCON (historical) / O'Reilly Open Source Convention: OSCON was the historical corporate-owned North American open-source conference that SCALE's founders explicitly cited as a motivating alternative when launching SCALE in 2002. O'Reilly remains a relevant thematic peer via its conference and publishing business, even though OSCON itself is no longer running as a standalone event.

Regional players

• PostgresConf (United States Postgres Association): PostgresConf is the community-organized PostgreSQL conference that runs alongside PostgreSQL@SCaLE as a co-located event. It is a comparable community-run database/dev event model and shares sponsors (PostgreSQL, Percona, Crunchy) with SCALE.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/socallinuxexpo
• YouTubeyoutube.com/socallinuxexpo
• Facebookfacebook.com/1383700687094594
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/southern-california-linux-expo
• Instagraminstagram.com/socallinuxexpo

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles11 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Southern California Linux Expo