Call for help for a FOSDEM stand

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Dear GNOME community,

FOSDEM is one of the biggest FOSS conferences in Europe, with more than 7000 attendees in the last years. It takes place in the ULB university in Brussels every first weekend of February (1st and 2nd next year), and virtually everybody is there.

The GNOME Foundation has had a stand to give out stickers, do outreach and share with our community there many years in a row. However, given the current budgeting situation for the GNOME Foundation, and the need to reduce expenses, it is possible that the GNOME Foundation won’t be able to pay for several staff members to attend FOSDEM. Therefore, it is likely that the GNOME stand at FOSDEM won’t be managed by staff. Therefore, if we want to retain a stand, we will need help from community members to help organize, coordinate, be at the stand for the two days (9am to 7pm approx.), and help cleanup on Sunday. Therefore, I’m looking for:

  • One or two people to either write the call for stands (FOSDEM 2025 Call for stands :: pretalx), or be as a secondary contact (then I could send it myself). Ideally these people could help coordinate too.
  • At least 5 to 6 people committed to spend time at the stand for at least 2 hours each day. Being at the stand can be quite exhausting, so being able to take turns is a must.

At the stand, the idea would be to have:

  • A table cloth: We should have one from previous years. I can help coordinate for the staff to send it to me or to whoever else, or help with printing it
  • Stickers: we should have from previous confs and years, but we should also print some. I can help getting the expense reimburshed or asking the Foundation to get them printed and sent.
  • A banner: We should get the Foundation to send it to one of the organisers, I could help if need be.
  • Laptops/tablets/phones to demo: this is up to the community, and I can probably not do much here. So help organizing the demo would be greatly appreciated.

If you have more ideas of things that we should have, they are completely welcomed. In principle, selling merch would be discarded due to the logistical effort it carries with it, but if somebody wants to put the effort, it should also be possible.

If we don’t get enough people interested in helping, then we will unfortunately not be able to apply for the stand.

Thanks everybody, looking forward to your replies!
Pablo Correa Gomez

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I’m still deciding whether to go to FOSDEM, but if I do go, I’ll be happy to help.

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I helped at the stand for many years (never signed up beforehand), though not since things switched to another building (H instead of K). In the past there used to be an event box with contained various essentials. I never set it up though so not sure what was in there.

If it is within H building (like last 2 years or so) then I’m not sure of the value of the stand. It’s very cramped, dark and crowded in there. So it’s difficult for people to hang out at that stand as they’ll easily block the flow of people walking by. It’s also way more exhausting to stand there and somewhere with some space and some light.

There used to be circular colourful stickers with the GNOME logo on it. Those used to be highly popular. I have away hundreds of those. But no idea who arranged things like that.

I really like the stand at it was at K building; a place to meet other GNOME people. If it’s like that then time flies by rather quickly (for me).

Forgot: we often sold t-shirts and socks; various sizes including kid versions. Though no idea if that’s still popular. Price usually was low (so slightly above cost of making them); quality was always good.

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I am pretty sure I have these at my home in London – after FOSDEM last year they were used at OpenUK’s State of Open conference in London, and they ended up with me afterwards. I’ll check exactly what I have when I get home next week.

Like Allan, I’m not totally sure whether I’ll go to FOSDEM. If I do, I’m happy to help; if not, I can arrange for these to end up with the right person.