FOSDEM 2023

Past week I assisted the FOSSDEM 2023 conference in Brussels. It was two days of talks of different topics like programming languages, containers, security, etc. It was a blast! I am these days watching the videos of the talks I could not see in person

My advice for future FOSDEMs

Travel

• Pack light. Do not bring a suitcase, bring a 40L backpack with a couple of change of clothes. Brussels is a city packed with shops, so in the case you need some clothes, go to some store and buy them.
• Fly to and depart from Brussels Airport.
• Use the train to Bussels Midi (Brussels Central Station), that zone is in the center of the city and is well-communicated by transport.
• I brought my laptop with me and it is useful if the room is full and even then you want to assist to the talk.ç
• Leave for the airport Sunday evening, or even better, on Monday.

FOSDEM campus

• FOSDEM is held in the ULB.
• Buy a T-Shirt and pick-up a map and the schedule for the conference.
• Select the rooms you want to stay. Select backup rooms in case it is full. I stayed in the golang room, because is a language I would like to improve.
• There are food-trucks in the campus, but my advice is to go to a close restaurant and eat proper food there.

Is FOSDEM worth it?

Being that Brussels is only a short plane trip away from where I am based from (Madrid), it is convenient.

The miriad of topics, people, technologies you can find in the FOSDEM is very much worth it. In my case I have so many more talks I want to watch online, that I could not attend there.

In the conference you can find creators of popular open-source libraries and tools, and even if you are not interested in chit-chat with them, being able ot attend a talk of someone that knows so much of a tool, it has value for you.

Besides that, the cultural diversity that shows a conference of this kind is unique. You not only are going to learn something, but are going to learn about the point of view of somebody about something. That can help you as a person, and of course as a developer.

Thus, if your company sponsors your trip and you are going to meet your mates there, it also has a social component that you cannot underestimate.

And last but not least, the ULB campus is great and next to the city center, only 1h walking or 15 min in bus from where the hotel I was staying. Do you feel like walking through beautiful streets after 7 hours packed in a classroom? That is what I did. Do you prefer to take the bus? You also can do it.

Conclusion

FOSDEM is a good conference with several interesting tracks, you should go and attend some talks, even when you are not an expert on the topic they are talking about.