I'm often at events mostly to meet people, aka hallway track etc. I do go to sessions too, in part because video posting can be unreliable/very delayed but also because I know I'll often never get around to watching the videos anyway. That said, keynotes at large events I tend to watch streaming as I have very little interest in getting crowded into a room with 10,000 of my closest friends so I can watch the speaker on the distant stage up on a monitor :-)

Really? You are always able to get into Janson or the other big one.

I think the atmosphere is definitely worth it.

>You are always able to get into Janson or the other big one.

Not always. The one time I tried on the morning of the first day it was full.

Yes okay sry. If you are trying to get inthe first and only talk in the morning (the keynote which explains what fosdem is) then you might not be able to get into that one.

It was the one after that. But fair enough that a lot of people show up for the opening keynotes to start out. That said, the event was very crowded generally and you really did need some sort of strategy that took that into account. I was a lot more organized this year than I've been in some years past and was able to better use my time and minimize frustration as a result.