EuroFOO - Day One (am)

barbie on 2006-09-17T12:10:41

It seems my conference tour is not nearing an end yet, as this weekend I'm in Brussels for euroFOO, the Friends of O'Reilly ad-hoc conference prior to the main EuroOSCON.

Breakfast with Gnat and Allison was interesting. Gnat is thinking of cool people to invite to OSCON 2007. He's got a large list and even if only 10% say yes, it'll be a great set of people to do some cool presentations.

The welcome and introductions by Tim O'Reilly and all the attendees was first up. I had been a little unsure of where I fitted, but after the personal introductions it seems there are a few people doing perl, some doing email type things and plenty involved in community. Social-wise I've gained quite a passion for community and without realising it have been trying to understand how to ensure communities like Perl Mongers and YAPCs can introduce more new people to Perl. There are a lot of people here with web based thoughts and ideas, which has also caught my interest from an accessibility perspective.

The format of euroFOO is very much a "create your own conference", and there are some very interesting sessions being suggested. I haven't suggested any of my own, but by the look of things there are several I could hopefully contribute to. We'll see.

It's been interesting to put names to faces for a few people, and it's nice to see some old faces I haven't seen for a long time. I get the feeling I'll be all talked out by Tuesday when I fly home.