I heard about both Frappe and Frappeverse for the first time in 2023. I had joined FOSS United as a very fresh intern the same week Frappeverse 2023 was supposed to happen. I couldn't attend the event, but I surely liked the Apple-style conference Frappe was pulling. The way everyone came one after another and gave updates or launched their new products was my very first experience.

Fast forward to 2025, when I joined Frappe as a full time employee working on Frappe Cloud, I was on ation at that time, but it was fun watching people walk back and forth in nervousness; a few even touched my hand to show how cold their hands were.

And now, fast forwarding to 2026, I left Frappe Cloud and declared it as the last engineering stint of my career to join Design. The first project I picked up was re-designing Frappeverse with a new concept.

A drama or any theatrical act is organized with a lot of intent, meaning, and narration in place. Once all three aspects are done very well, then the Drama ends up delivering the message to the audience. There was a lot of good intent last year through the community discussion, but to me, something felt missing the whole time. Maybe I was new to the conference as a team member, even if I had been an attendee before. You can call me stupid, but during Frappeverse 2025, I was just silently imagining the conference like a theatrical drama or a music show. Displays saying surreptitious things and playful drawings, the stage decorated with a jester's shoes and so much more. But I kept on coming back to reality every now and then.

This year, Frappeverse is aimed at being more about the community and the people in it. We did a lot of things in 2026, including Frappe's first-ever code freeze in the last 17 years. The organization, internally, is getting structured, and now a few things are getting away from the "vibe-based" choices.

We picked up the brutalist style for designing Frappeverse this time. To be very honest, I wanted to make my own style of brutalism, which I could name something once the conference is over. I was blending a lot of things together with a lot of intention. From using a noisy background of multiple languages as a way to signify the togetherness of the community to paying homage to the Nehru Centre Auditorium. I remember how excited Rushabh was when I showed the first draft with the Auditorium image in it. After that, I started building some natural connection with the designs.

This year's Frappeverse will be about the previous "1005 Best friends" and the newer ones coming. We will all be together in one of the most alive cities of the country, inside a very beautiful piece of architecture designed by I.M. Kadri. Who knows, maybe the conference might really have Jester shoes on the stage, looking at the audience, or maybe the conference will be an Art exhibition of Open Source Products. No promises.

See you all at Frappeverse 2026. Register if you haven't!