New blogpost:
-
@neil I think you captured the experience in your post. Remember to rest and recover, its an intense event.
My first FOSDEM was 2015, I presented in 2020. The crowds really are overwhelming. Presenting at FOSDEM and knowing folks makes a huge difference. But I wouldn't attend now.
@anna wrote about their experience last year:
https://notapplicable.dev/daring-to-dream/
I really liked their references to systems design and came away with a book recommendation, that I need to get.
-
@neil When you said you were planning on going, my thought was that it would be far too crowded and far too much booze for your liking.
@mansr Oh, I avoided all the alcohol events
But you were right about crowds.
-
New blogpost:
"Reflections on my first day (ever) at FOSDEM"
I suspect that the fact that I'm hanging around my hotel room, writing this and doing other admin-y bits, rather says it all...
https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/02/reflections-on-my-first-day-ever-at-fosdem/
@neil That is extremely useful to know. Thankyou!
-
New blogpost:
"Reflections on my first day (ever) at FOSDEM"
I suspect that the fact that I'm hanging around my hotel room, writing this and doing other admin-y bits, rather says it all...
https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/02/reflections-on-my-first-day-ever-at-fosdem/
@neil Oh wow this saddens me immensely to hear. My takeaways would likely have been the same as yours it seems.
It can be incredibly hard as an organizer to say no, but that does seem to be what has been the problem here. The number of attendees need to match the venue size, and scheduling talks properly is much more important than total talk throughput.
Thank you for your writeup.
-
New blogpost:
"Reflections on my first day (ever) at FOSDEM"
I suspect that the fact that I'm hanging around my hotel room, writing this and doing other admin-y bits, rather says it all...
https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/02/reflections-on-my-first-day-ever-at-fosdem/
@neil Sounds like it hasn't changed much since the times I went there, in the early '00s.
People getting up and leaving as soon as the Q&A started was the most annoying thing for me. This is not how conferences are meant to happen, and I find it incredibly rude.
The SF cons I've been to have all scheduled 1h talks with 30m between, so you get time for a breather.
The academic ones have usually been more tightly packed, but with, say, 2-3 closely themed talks/session.
-
@neil Oh wow this saddens me immensely to hear. My takeaways would likely have been the same as yours it seems.
It can be incredibly hard as an organizer to say no, but that does seem to be what has been the problem here. The number of attendees need to match the venue size, and scheduling talks properly is much more important than total talk throughput.
Thank you for your writeup.
-
-
New blogpost:
"Reflections on my first day (ever) at FOSDEM"
I suspect that the fact that I'm hanging around my hotel room, writing this and doing other admin-y bits, rather says it all...
https://neilzone.co.uk/2026/02/reflections-on-my-first-day-ever-at-fosdem/
@neil I've only ever gone as part of a group, which may or may not mitigate some of your experience (it doesn't make any difference to people being oblivious about quietly entering or leaving talks, mind)
I think the issue with timing is that it's not really one event, it's a whole bunch of mostly independent events, with dev rooms being entirely run by their organisers
RichiH tends to give some kind of infrastructure talk on the Sunday which you might find interesting and maybe will go into the WiFi
-
I was definitely peopled out by the end of yesterday.
And yet the people were also the best bit...
-
-
-
@annehargreaves I guess that it must suit some people, as it has been running a long time, and I am just a first time attendee!
@annehargreaves @neil yeah honestly that sounds like a hate crime
