FOSDEM 2026 - Refelctions from the Day After
FOSDEM 2026: Reflections from the Day After
The day after FOSDEM always feels a bit strange. You are tired, your head is full of ideas, and you are already thinking about next year. FOSDEM 2026 was no exception. As usual, it was simply amazing.
Talks & Venue
This edition of FOSDEM took place at its usual location: the ULB Solbosch Campus in Brussels. It is one of the few venues that can handle the huge number of people attending the conference. As far as I know, FOSDEM is the largest open-source conference in Europe.
If you have never been to FOSDEM, it is important to know that there are dozens of tracks happening at the same time. This makes planning your schedule quite difficult. Because of this, my first tip is simple: use one of the many mobile apps available to plan your talks in advance.
However, don’t expect everything to go according to plan. Getting into a session (especially a popular one) can be difficult. Here are a few practical tips to improve your chances:
- Tip: attend the session before the one you want and stay in the room.
- Tip: always prepare one or two alternative talks. This is one of the advantages of having so many sessions running in parallel.
And if none of this works, don’t worry. All talks are recorded and can be watched online later.
Other Conference Events
In my opinion, talks are not the best part of FOSDEM. The people are.
You will find many opportunities to talk to others about almost any topic you can imagine. You will also meet very diverse people, not only those working in the IT sector.
If that is still not enough, there are many after-parties organized all over the city. They are a great way to continue conversations in a more relaxed environment. This year, I went to the Home Assistant meetup at a pub near the beautiful city center. It was a lovely evening, with many interesting discussions and some great new connections.
FOSDEM Junior
For the second year in a row, I brought my son to FOSDEM to attend workshops designed for children. This year, we were also joined by his friend Elena, who lives in Brussels. It was her first time attending an event like this, and she was very impressed.
Both children did a great job during the workshops. However, their favorite activity was probably sticker hunting across all the different stands at the conference. They even managed to collect some very nice and fancy swag.
HAM Radio
The HAM radio booth is one of my personal favorites at FOSDEM, together with the related talks.
This year, I spent some time outside one of the buildings, where a mobile radio station was set up. Most of the time, it was surrounded by fellow HAM radio operators, which almost guarantees interesting conversations.
I also received a QSL card from one of the operators I spoke with. Of course, it does not count as an official contact, but it was my first physical QSL card. This experience motivated me to be more active on the airwaves and to try exchanging more cards in the future. For that, I will need to design my own QSL card, which I am genuinely excited about.
Meshcore
Finally, the highlight of FOSDEM 2026 for me was using Meshcore, an alternative to Meshtastic that is growing very fast in Europe.
At the beginning of the conference, people started appearing in Meshcore’s public channel. However, the connection was not very reliable. The campus is large and consists of many buildings, which made communication difficult.
Around midday, someone installed a repeater in the parking lot. This completely changed the situation. Suddenly, conversations became clear and stable, and more people started joining the network.
A big thank you to whoever took the time to set up that repeater, it worked extremely well.
One of the most impressive moments was seeing an unplanned meetup happen as a result of this. Many Meshcore and Meshtastic users met face to face. Someone even manually relayed relevant messages between the two systems. The best part? The meetup itself was organized via Meshcore.
Closing Thoughts
FOSDEM is not just a conference. It is a place where technology, curiosity, and community come together in a very natural way. Whether it is through talks, spontaneous conversations, workshops for children, or even experimental mesh networks, FOSDEM continues to prove why it is such a special event.
I am already looking forward to the next edition.