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Comment by michaelanckaert | Hacker News Reader

I’m there right now and it’s a wonderful event. Other conventions are commercial, in your face events but Fosdem is a welcoming, open event. Over 600 talks and some 8000+ people present.

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I think, though the cost is there, PyCon is amazingly accepting and welcoming. Yes, it isn't cheap, and cost is higher than FOSDEM, but it's one of the best conferences I've been to.

I'd say CCC is pretty similarly wonderful, although FOSDEM wins when it comes to price :)

For me the atmosphere at CCC was much nicer. CCC: Bunch of crazy hackers and makers FOSDEM: Your average software nerds

There are many more good technical talks at FOSDEM, though. The Congress is really nice - so nice that it attracts many people who just want to participate in a cool event.

What do you mean by "commercial, in your face"?

I mostly attend open source/tech conferences in the Americas. I think I know what you mean, but that's not the main difference I see between FOSDEM and those conferences.

There's still "commercial" at FOSDEM (plenty of sales pitches in sessions, to begin with) but I think what's strikingly different is that FOSDEM has no "agenda", that is, the event isn't crafted around a theme and said theme doesn't dictate the rest of the content and the discussion.

The only issue I had that it was to get into a room, especially an interesting one, except if you came ten minutes early or so.

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