Rust Team Health Summit: September 8 in Montréal
The Project Directors advocated for another gathering of Rust Project Team Leads this year, and we’re excited to make it happen on September 8 in Montréal!
Over the past several weeks, we’ve been reaching out to Rust Team Leads and members of the Leadership Council to understand who’s able to attend and what conversations would be most valuable. Those discussions are helping shape both the attendee list and the agenda.
We’ve chosen to hold the Rust Team Health Summit alongside RustConf 2026 in Montréal because so many Project members will already be gathering there.
Rust Team Health Summit Logistics:
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2026 • Time: 09:00-17:00 EDT • Location: Palais des Congrès de Montréal
By Invitation. Please contact the Rust Project Directors if you are interested in attending! RustConf attendance is not required.
This is not the first time the Rust Project has done something like this. In addition to the Rust Project All Hands held alongside RustNL earlier this year, the Teams Health Summit takes inspiration from the Rust Leads Summit hosted alongside Rust Nation UK a few years ago. That event was widely seen as a success and led to a lot of consensus being built around the idea of project goals, now a key part of the how the project organizes itself two years later. A special thanks to Tyler Mandry for leading the charge on that gathering and helping demonstrate the value of creating dedicated space for Project leadership to connect.
As with any event like this, the Rust Team Health Summit isn’t somewhere for us to make decisions, but rather an opportunity to spend the day talking about how we work together as a project. Topics will include leadership, mentoring, succession planning, recruitment, cross-team collaboration, and lessons learned from running teams across the Project. The goal isn’t to solve every challenge in a day, but to learn from one another, identify common patterns, and begin building resources that can help current and future Rust leaders.
This summit also builds on work that’s already happening across the Rust Project. Previous leadership gatherings demonstrated the value of creating dedicated time for team leads to connect, and conversations over the past year have reinforced that many teams are facing similar organizational challenges. The Team Health Summit is an opportunity to continue those conversations with a broader focus on sustaining the Project over the long term.
By hosting the Rust Team Health Summit alongside RustConf and having the Rust Foundation supporting the logistics, we’ll be able to lower barriers for participation and creating space for Project leaders to invest in something that’s easy to postpone but essential to Rust’s future: the health of our teams.
Who should attend?
The summit is intended for people who play leadership roles across the Rust Project, including team leads, team representatives, Leadership Council members, Project Directors, and Foundation representatives. Project members can reach out to the Project Directors if they are interested in attending.
Note: Attendance at RustConf is not required to attend the summit, although we’re excited to hold it alongside the conference while so many members of the community are already gathering in Montréal.
Beyond the people in the room
Not everyone reading this will be a Rust Project Team Lead. But whether you’re a contributor, maintainer, Foundation member organization, or anyone building with Rust, the long-term success of the ecosystem depends on something that’s easy to overlook: healthy, sustainable Project teams.
When we have opportunities to share what works, build stronger relationships across teams, and develop better practices for leadership, mentorship, and collaboration, the benefits extend well beyond the people in the room. Stronger teams are better able to welcome contributors, maintain critical infrastructure, navigate leadership transitions, and continue delivering the stability and innovation that the Rust ecosystem depends on.
We’re grateful to the Rust Foundation for investing in the people who steward the Project through this event, and to Foundation members whose support helps make that investment possible. While attendance at the summit will be limited, we hope the lessons, resources, and relationships that come out of it will benefit the Project and everyone who depends on Rust for years to come!
Healthy open source projects grow because people intentionally invest in each other, share what they’ve learned, and build systems that help future contributors succeed.
We’re looking forward to spending a day intentionally investing in one another and the health of how we lead the project. Looking forward to seeing many of you there!
