Hey carol you have been to both europe and asian tech events #FOSDEM and #FOSSAsia so could you tell me the primary differences. I would really like to know some differences
Wow, this is a tough one to answer. I can write a whole blog post about it. Maybe I should at some point. But shortly for now:
Ambience: both very open with people from diverse backgrounds. funny thing is I'm more familiar with the "western" FOSS crowds, I know enough people at FOSDEM that I'm hardly ever alone. however at FOSSASIA I was by myself for more than half the time. it doesn't bother me, I'm an introvert by nature, just interesting observation that I'm back in my "home" country but know less people in the communities because I've been away for most of my career building years.
devels: not sure what aspects you're referring to here, but again at both events there's a wide range of topics, technologies, from hardware to software, design to blockchain. so many concurrent tracks it's difficult to decide which ones to attend. I like that there was a dedicated kids track at FOSSASIA. I met one of my high school classmates who brought his sons there. In FOSDEM each devroom is responsible for selecting their own talks and building their agenda, which I prefer, although it may cause confusion with all the different CFP deadlines and submission processes.
volunteers: in FOSSASIA they recruited a whole army of secondary/high school kids to help out. they had several volunteer meetups beforehand to train them as well. so that makes up for them being younger and less experienced. in FOSDEM, the volunteers more or less organize themselves via emails, wikis, irc chats etc.
setups: FOSSASIA was held at the Singapore Science center and tracks were in lecture rooms, labs, or some makeshift spaces. there was even a "speakers lounge" where I spent a couple hours finishing up my slides. there wasn't too much hassle moving from track to track because it's mostly in one main building structure, as opposed to FOSDEM where a lot of time can be spent walking from building to building. however, if the event gets bigger they'll probably need a different venue. oh and during my presentation (and many others), the loud tesla coil would interrupt at regular intervals :P
resource management: what really impressed me at FOSSASIA was the video recording of the sessions. they were high quality and available mere hours after each talk. videos were handled very professionally by https://engineers.sg/ I'm thinking they are hired, not volunteers like at FOSDEM. The event itself was managed with EventYay, which is an open source event management system. I'm thinking of using it for the events I organize and contributing to its features when I can.
food: at FOSSASIA lunch boxes are provided for all attendees during the 3 days (well, included in event ticket price), with choices of chicken, fish, or vegetarian, and I believe those are in roughly equal portions. I tried all 3 and they were all decent. I can put some pics up later. there were also adequate seating. coffee, tea, and water available throughout (I drank a lot of coffee as I was still jet lagged). at FOSDEM, while there's more variety (Belgian waffles mmmm), I sometimes end up skipping lunch because of the hassle of long queues (in the rain), and lack of places to sit so you'll have to eat standing up
