FOSDEM 2022 will be online (opens in new tab)

True, have gone to FOSDEM the last two times it was held and got a nasty cold the first time and a flu on the second time.

This effect is well known at scifi/comic/cosplay conventions where it's colloquially called "con flu" or "con plague". I think people would have benefited from masking up at any type of those events. But I guess that may not make for the ideal costume photo.

true, though (1 data point) I have always been surprised that I have never got sick during or after FOSDEM.

I've been there every year since 2012, never caught a single bug... You just got unlucky I guess

Well, there are a lot of RCEs and exploits at FOSSDEM so it's normal to be powned.

One of the good outcomes is that, even after events go back to being in person, there's going to be a more significnt online component than in the past. FOSDEM has been very good about this for a while. But more commercially-oriented events in particular worried that having everything on video would take away the incentive for people to pay and attend in-person--or that the videos by themselves just weren't worth the cost of making them.

Companies have seen though that they can get a lot more reach through video even if attendees are far less involved overall. I do think we'll see the presentations mostly being done in-person though. It's still more hybrid in that regard right now but in-person attendees are mostly not going to watch videos.

It used to be possible to have both, fosdem was streamed online live. I think it's best to have the choice, looking forward to fosdem 2023!

as long as sound is well recorded, so often you had online talks that were entirely unwatchable

At least you don't have to run between rooms, running across ULB campus, while leaving 5 minutes earlier to still assure a place. :)

I think they just made the call this week. I last checked not long ago and there was no info on the site yet.