Fosdem is probably the biggest open source event in Europe,To quote the Fosdem guide, Fosdem is: free sofware, open source, 250 lectures, dev rooms, 5000+ hackers, and beer. A lot of open source projects are present over here, for example: Linux distributions like Debian/Fedora/OpenSuse/Ubuntu, Mysql, PostgreSQL, Gnome, KDE, etc. As always, the venue for the Fosdem is Brussels university.

Traditionally, the Fosdem opens in a very informal way with the beerparty in the beautiful city centre of Brussels. The concept is as simple as it gets. Go to a pub, order a nice Belgian beer and talk to friends and people you know whom you normally only speak to online with a communication method of choice. The number of people that showed up were amazing. The very big bar, Delerium was completely full. Most of the time, the ten meter long bar had people lined up three or four rows. Combine that with the number of people gathering on the streets and in the neighbouring bars, and the party was complete.

Joomla! is one of the many open source projects that is presenting itself on the Fosdem event We had a big team on the stand, which is a major advantage since it gives everybody the chance to go to one or more of the talks is being given. Alex Kempkens from the Joomla! core team. Peter Martin, a forum administrator of forum.joomla.org, and Marieke, Marijke, Guido and Sander from the newly founded https://www.joomlacommunity.eu. With her 16 years, Marieke is probably the youngest member on the Joomla! working groups, making a splendid good case that age doesn't matter if you want to contribute to open source.

Naturally, the focus of the event isn't directly Joomla!, so a lot of the talks you have with people are about the basics. What is Joomla!, why is it a good choice to run a website, what can you do with Joomla!., etc. The first day is nearly ending, we all had a lot of fun and this will no doubt continue tomorrow.