IRCAM has published dates for the 2027 IRCAM Forum Workshops: 24, 25 and 26 March 2027, at IRCAM in Paris. Registration opens on 23 October 2026, a week from now.
If you use Max, Spat, Antescofo, Modalys, the ASAP and Snail applications or any of the rest of IRCAM’s catalogue, this is the event where the people who write them explain what changed and why. It is also, consistently, one of the better-value technical conferences in the field.
The practical details
- Dates: 24–26 March 2027, at IRCAM, Paris
- Language: all talks in English
- Hours: sessions run 09:30 to 18:00, on site at IRCAM
- Registration opens: 23 October 2026
- On-site registration deadline: 15 March 2027
- Included: access to all events, free buffet lunch throughout, and discounts on associated events
Registration is compulsory for all participants and speakers — presenting does not exempt you — and is only confirmed once payment has been received.
Two things to note before you book travel. Students must send a copy of a student ID card; IRCAM confirms the profile update and the student rate then appears automatically, so the discount is not applied at checkout by default. And the cancellation terms are firm: cancel within ten days of the start and 30 per cent of the fee is retained; cancel on or after 18 March 2027 and there is no refund at all.
A summary of the 2025 edition, for anyone deciding whether the format suits them.
Why this one is worth the trip
Most conferences in this space are either academic — papers, peer review, a proceedings volume — or commercial, which means a trade floor. The Forum Workshops are neither. They are a user meeting for an institution’s software, which produces an unusual room: composers, developers, researchers and sound designers who all use the same tools, in the building where those tools are made.
Past editions have carried keynotes from figures including Miller Puckette, whose work underlies both Max and Pure Data, and panel sessions on the future of music software. The archive of those talks is on IRCAM’s channel and is worth a browse regardless of whether you attend.
The practical value is specific: the gap between what IRCAM’s tools can do and what most users know they can do is enormous, and it is closed far more efficiently by three days of demonstrations from the authors than by any amount of documentation.
And before that: Japan, next month
Separately, IRCAM is taking the Forum on the road for the first time. The inaugural edition of IRCAM FORUM Workshops “Hors les murs” runs as part of a Japan tour from 19 to 23 November 2026, in partnership with festival MUTEK Japan. The workshop session is on Friday 20 November, 10:30 to 16:00, at MoN Takanawa in Tokyo, with speakers travelling from Paris.
Worth knowing if you are anywhere near Tokyo next month, and worth knowing even if you are not: an institution that has run its user meeting in the same building for decades deciding to hold one abroad, attached to a festival rather than a conservatoire, is a change in posture.
Other calls and deadlines worth checking this week
For readers tracking open opportunities rather than conferences:
- BlenderNation’s animation contest, with a $1,500 prize pool, is open to entries
- CTM 2027’s spatial audio lab call — see our coverage below
- MUTEK Montreal’s digital creativity call
As always, read eligibility before you spend an evening on an application. Geographic restrictions and residency requirements are where most of these quietly exclude people, and they are rarely in the headline.
Sources
- IRCAM Forum Workshops Paris 24–26 March 2027 — Registrations
- IRCAM Forum
- IRCAM Forum Workshops 2025, Paris: resume — Ircam on YouTube
- IRCAM