fosdem-2026

With FOSDEM just a few days away, it is time for us to enlist your help.

Every year, an enthusiastic band of volunteers make FOSDEM happen and make it a fun and safe place for all our attendees. We could not do this without you. This year we again need as many hands as possible, especially for heralding during the conference, during the buildup (starting Friday at noon) and teardown (Sunday evening). No need to worry about missing lunch at the weekend, food will be provided.

Would you like to be part of the team that makes FOSDEM tick? Sign up here! You could really help us out with the following:

• Loading the van on Thursday - Move all of our gear out of our storage and into the vans for transportation to the venue. Note that this task is not at ULB but in Kortenberg, see the details in the task description.
• Build-up - Setting up the venue on Friday: this mostly involves carrying tables to their destinations and setting them up, putting up signage, covering the walls in brown paper... in short: transform the campus into a conference venue. We need as many volunteers as possible for this task.
• InfoDesk - Be available at the InfoDesk during the weekend: help out fellow attendees with their questions, sell t-shirts etc. Proficiency in English is a must, but if you are proficient in other languages as well, it certainly wouldn't hurt.
• Virtual InfoDesk - Want to volunteer, but cant be present at the ULB? We also have our InfoDesk on Matrix. Provide technical support for people watching streams, or pic up other questions about FOSDEM as them come in.
• Heralding - Briefly introduce the speakers and the topics of their talks, make sure all talks end on time by giving speakers cues near the end of their time slot. Keep an eye out on room safety and report potential issues such as overcrowded rooms before it becomes more than a "potential" issue.
• Video - Capturing and recording video. Ensure the livestreams to thousands are up and running and all talks are recorded.
• Tear-down - (and cleanup) on Sunday evening: collecting beer bottles, tearing down the network, pulling brown paper off the walls, taking down the signage, stacking the rental tables in neat heaps, broom the floors etc. Basically, make sure we're welcome again next year.
• Unpacking the van on Monday - All of our gear needs to come out of the vans and back into storage after the conference. Note that this task is not at ULB but in Kortenberg, see the details in the task description.
• And many the many other tasks and ways to volunteer over the weekend.

For more information, please have a look at our volunteer documentation

If any or all of these sound like your kind of gig, pick your task(s) at our volunteer tool, subscribe to the volunteers mailing list and keep an eye on #volunteers:fosdem.org and #infodesk:fosdem.org on Matrix. Feel free to shout out and introduce yourself!

If your non-geek partner and/or kids are joining you to FOSDEM, they may be interested in spending some time exploring Brussels while you attend the conference.

Like previous years, FOSDEM is organising sightseeing tours.

The same as last year: come and take part in a very rapid set of talks!

Thought of a last minute topic you want to share? Got your interesting talk rejected? Has something exciting happened in the last few weeks you want to talk about?

Get that talk submitted to Lightning Lightning Talks!

We have two sessions for participants to speak about subjects which are interesting, amusing, or just something the FOSDEM audience would appreciate:

• Saturday
• Sunday

Selected speakers line up and present in one continuous automated stream, with an SLO of 99% talk uptime.

To submit your talk for this session, make sure you meet some standards:

• will be presented in less than or equal to 256 seconds (very strict time limit!)
• slides created in .pdf format
• nothing too offensive
• about something FOSDEM attendees would appreciate

Reviews will be done on a rolling basis until the evening before each session (so friday evening for the saturday session, saturday evening for the sunday session). There will be some priority given to entertaining and lighthearted talks (until we have too many and need something serious to balance them out).

To submit a talk, follow these steps:

1. Follow this link and press the “Submit a proposal” button
2. Select track “Lightning Talks”
3. Attach your slides in pdf format as a resource
4. Wait for an acceptance notification, which will be sent out periodically as we get closer to the event
5. Confirm you’ll be able to attend the session
6. Await further instructions

As in previous years, some small rooms will be available for Unconference style “Birds of a Feather sessions”.

The concept is simple: Any project or community can reserve a timeslot (1 hour) during which they have the room just to themselves.

These rooms are intended for ad-hoc discussions, meet-ups or brainstorming sessions. They are not a replacement for a developer room and they are certainly not intended for talks.

To apply for a BOF session, enter your proposal at https://fosdem.org/submit. Select the BOF/Unconference track and mention in the Submission Notes your preferred timeslots and any times you are unavailable. Also mention if you expect a large audience (most rooms are 40, one has 80 persons).

Reservations can be made in advance or during the event itself subject to capacity.

Attendees should be aware of potential transportation disruptions in the days leading up to FOSDEM.

Rail travel

Railway unions have announced a strike notice from Sunday January 25th, 22:00 until Friday January 30th, 22:00. This may affect travel to Brussels for FOSDEM and related fringe events.

While there will be a guaranteed minimum service in place, train frequency may be significantly reduced. Also note that international connections might be affected as well.

Road travel

From Saturday January 31st (evening) until Sunday February 1st (noon), the E40 highway between Leuven and Brussels will be fully closed.

Traffic will be diverted via the Leuven–Brussels expressway.

Further details and links to official railway and traffic information sources are available on our transportation page.

We are pleased to announce the schedule for FOSDEM Junior. Registration for the individual workshops is required.

Links to the registration page can be found on the page of each activity. The full schedule can be viewed on the junior track schedule page.