(Sorry, this went just to Chris T last time.)
I did make it to FOSDEM. YottaDB had a table, and I gave a talk (
https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/dragonscgo/).
In the first two hours on Saturday morning, we had more people stop by
our table than in the entirety of All Things Open in Raleigh last year,
and over the two days, we had more people stopping by than all the
events we attended in the US in 2019 put together. It was just non-stop
action, to the point where I didn't get to go around and talk to the
other FOSS projects or attend any talks but my own. The main down sides
were the long lines to get food and drink, even though the organizers
had brought in food trucks.
I
got to Brussels Friday early afternoon, and as I had the rest of the
afternoon free, I took a self-guided tour of Brasserie Cantillon, the
only brewery within the Brussels city limits that still brews the
traditional lambic ales (other breweries have relocated to outside city
limits). The tasting room at the end of the tour was full of FOSDEM
attendees from many countries. I spent my time there talking to someone
from California working on the Linux kernel for RISC-V.
At
the (Google funded) dinner on Saturday evening for those presenting at
or organizing the Go track, I met people from all over the world,
including Brazil and Israel.
I plan to be back at FOSDEM next year.
Regards
– Bhaskar
P.S.
For what it's worth, I got a $518 round trip airfare, Philadelphia to
Frankfurt (I had other business in Germany and Belgium) and Brussels to
Philadelphia on Aer Lingus via Dublin. You clear US Immigration in
Dublin flying to the US on Aer Lingus from Dublin, so when the flight
lands, you walk off as you would on a domestic flight.