Hi everyone,

We are officially two weeks away from GTA2026!

The Galaxy Training Academy will run May 18–22, so we are now entering the final stretch of track review, tutorial updates, testing, and event prep. Thank you to everyone who has already helped with planning, reviewing materials, creating tasks, and keeping things moving. We know this is a big community effort and a big ask on top of everyone’s regular work, and we really appreciate your time.

As a reminder, the event website is here:
https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/events/2026-05-18-galaxy-academy.html

We are using the GTA2026 GitHub Project Board to organize track updates, testing, video tasks, and other prep work:
https://github.com/orgs/galaxyproject/projects/86

Everyone should have access to the board. If you do not, please let me know and I will make sure you get access.

We are also using Slack for GTA2026 coordination, quick questions, and last-minute updates. Please make sure you are in the appropriate GTA2026 Slack channel and checking it regularly over the next couple of weeks. If you are not currently in the Slack channel, or if you know someone helping with GTA2026 who should be added, please let me know.

At this stage, the most important next step is for all track leads and helpers to review their track programs and tutorials. If your track program has not been finalized yet, please review it as soon as possible and add the finalized program information to the project board. Once the program is in the board, we can work through the remaining tasks, including:

1. Identifying what needs updating
   Review the current tutorials and flag anything that needs to be updated, revised, replaced, or removed.
2. Creating or updating tasks on the GitHub Project Board
   If something needs changes, please make sure there is a task for it so we can track progress.
3. Testing tutorials
   Once materials are up to date, tutorials should be tested on the relevant Galaxy instances: US, EU, AU, and FR.
4. Reporting issues or install requests
   If something does not work, or if tools/data are missing from an instance, please flag it so we can get it fixed before the event.
5. Recording and captions, if needed
   Many tracks are similar to last year, so we expect that most videos may not need to be updated. If a tutorial has changed substantially, is new, or does not have a usable recording, then we may need a new video. New or updated videos should also have captions checked.

We also have some exciting new content planned this year, including guest speaker videos from experts across the Galaxy community.

Thank you again for being part of the GTA2026 organizing team. We are so grateful for everyone’s help, especially during these final two weeks. This event would not be possible without the time, expertise, and support of this community.

As always, please reach out to me or Delphine with questions or concerns.

Many thanks,
Natalie