Large Business community plans for FOSDEM 2027

As many of you know, FOSDEM 2027 will be happening on 30 & 31 January 2027 in Brussels, Belgium. This is a highlight of the calendar for me and many other people in the open source community. It's entirely volunteer organized (buy a T-shirt!) and free to attend. If you can make the trip, it's well worth your while.

Last year the Distributions community held a face-to-face meetup just before FOSDEM. The OpenSSL Corporation and the OpenSSL Foundation would like to host community meetups on January 29 in Brussels. (Likely we'll return last-year's venue: Mitwit office, Avenue Louise 143/4, Brussels.)

For the second year in a row, the OpenSSL Foundation will have a stand at FOSDEM. We'd love to invite community members volunteer to join a Foundation staff member at the stand. Last year we met many open source enthusiasts and gave out so much swag! Even an hour shift would be a huge help for us.

I encourage everyone to consider giving a talk at one of the many devrooms. I submitted a talk for the Community room and the Security devroom is a natural place for many OpenSSL community members. Even if you don't speak about OpenSSL, giving a talk is a great way to get involved.

I'm also gauging interest in having an OpenSSL Project dinner on either Saturday or Sunday. There are logistical challenges that would need to be overcome, so there are no guarantees. Still, FOSDEM is a unique opportunity to meet up with many people in the community.

I'm adding a poll to this discussion. Your answer isn't a commitment, but just an indication of who might be available for the various things. I hope to see you in Brussels this January!