Been there the last 5 years. Here a few small tips:
- Plan your interesting talks before (via iOS / Android-App)
- Be early in the rooms (some rooms are _really_ crowded, e.g. when an engineer of Youtube presents something in the Go devroom -> Popular speaker, popular topics / technology)
- If you want to meet people there for a chat / beer / coffee, get in touch with them before via twitter, slack, you name it
- Want to make the best out of it and come from abroad? Events before FOSDEM: GRIMOIRECON EU 2017 (https://grimoirelab.github.io/con/) and Git Merge (http://git-merge.com/) and after: Config Management Camp (http://cfgmgmtcamp.eu/)
- Get a hotel near by or with a tram station near by. Location is quite good reachable by tram.
- If you join by car and want to drive to FOSDEM directly be early every day. Parking spots on the campus are very limited. There are some near parking spots at the street here: https://goo.gl/maps/4gf2Ag2YktA2 (dont park on spots reserved for goverment persons)
- If you love books, get some money with you, i think O'Reilly has a big booth there and sell books for lower prices
- If you love to met new people (FOSS, tech people) and don`t fear crowdy places and drink beer, join the Friday beer event in the city: https://fosdem.org/2017/beerevent/. But be aware: If you don`t feel well joining crowded places (i mean really crowded like a music festival in front of a stage), don`t join. Personally i love the event. Every year i meet know people. Last year some people from the VLC project. The year before some people who running big public accessible networks in a private college from Scotland with support from the goverment, and so on. Nice chats
- If you are part of a technology / community / project that is represented there (e.g. Go, MySQL, Jenkins, etc.), get in touch with them before on the mailinglist or slack and ask who is there. Often those groups are going for dinner on friday, saturday or sunday evening to meet people they know often from internet only. Most of these groups are open to join, just ask before
- According to your behaviours on breakfast: There will be a small booth where you can buy belgium breakfast (mostly crossaints). If you more like bread, buns with cheese or sausages or whatever, have breakfast before you join the event in the morning. Do it in a bakery, hotel, or in a rush on your way.
- According to your behaviours on lunch: There are small foodtrucks there who sell food like sandwiched, fries, noodles, etc. Mostly fast food related things. If you a more used to salad and eat in a calm location, go outside (you have to leave the campus for this)
- Get your notebook charger: There are hacking rooms available
- Hold a few bucks / euros back to buy a FOSDEM shirt and support the organizers.
These are a few tips that comes into my mind.
If you have dedicated questions, feel free to ask them. I do my best to answer them.
PS: I will be joining this year again. Starting with a car from Düsseldorf, Germany. ~2h ride.
// Edit: Only formatting