It’s happening again! FOSDEM 2025 has been announced and, like the previous years, the FPA are thrilled to organise once again our world-famous FreeCAD events. These will take place in Brussels, from January 28th to February the 2nd 2025, together with FOSDEM. Be ready for several days full of coding, open-sourceness and fun!
This year, we will once again do the event together with our friends from KiCAD , and we’re preparing even more stuff for developers of both projects to have a look at the other side of the mirror. Let’s see what crazy joint ideas can come to life…
This is what we’ve prepared for you (so far):
Tuesday, 28 January 2025: FreeCAD hackathon at HSBXL
9h00 to 17h00, Brussels hackerspace , Brussels
The Brussels Hackerspace (caution, it has changed location since last year!) will host FreeCAD for a day, where we can meet, code, exchange ideas. This is open to everyone, please check the hackerspace website for directions and details.
Wednesday, 29 January 2025: FreeCAD hackathon
9h00 to 17h00, Atelier des tanneurs , Brussels
A full day of hacking, coding and discussions with FreeCAD developers. This year, we will be doing the hackathon at Atelier des Tanneurs. Please register if you intend to come (no problem if you change your mind later, it’s mostly so we can get an idea of how many people will be there). Bring your computer and your ideas!
There will be coffee/juice/snacks during the day, and there are many food options around the venue.
Thursday, 30 January 2025: KiCAD and FreeCAD hackathon
9h00 to 17h00, Atelier des tanneurs , Brussels
Another day of hacking, coding and discussing with FreeCAD and KiCAD developers. Each project will have its own dedicated room, but there will be plenty of space for people from both communities to discuss ideas together. That day, we will have a FreeCAD for KiCAD developers and a KiCAD for FreeCAD developers sessions, to explain briefly to developers of each project how the other works, how the code works, where to start hacking, etc. Please register if you intent to participate to that day.
There will be coffee/juice/snacks during the day, and there are many food options around the venue.
Friday, 31 January 2025: KiCAD and FreeCAD day
9h00 to 17h00, Atelier des tanneurs , Brussels
This day is open to public, no registration necessary. So please spread the word! The day will be packed of presentations from FreeCAD and KiCAD community members. On the FreeCAD side, as previous years, the event will be organised as an unconference : Participants willing to discuss a topic or present something (max 15 minutes please!) can write their idea on a post-it note when arriving, and these will be arranged (and re-arranged) on time sheet during the day.
There will be t-shirts for sale, goodies to grab, and a lot of FreeCAD fun. There will be coffee/juice/snacks during the day, and there are many food options around the venue.
Saturday 01 February 2025: Restaurant night
19h00 (to be confirmed), Volle Gas , Brussels
At night we will gather together with KiCAD in a Brussels restaurant. There are vegetarian options available. Please register if you wish to come, so we can book adequate space.
Saturday and Sunday, 01-02 February 2025: FOSDEM
9h00 to 18h00, Brussels university, Solbosch campus , Brussels
FOSDEM is a world-famous 2-day open-source developers meeting happening every year in Brussels. It brings FOSS developers from all around the world for an intense week-end packed with conferences, discoveries, talks, discussions, networking, and more. FOSDEM is free to attend, no registration necessary. Be sure to browse their site to discover everything the event has to offer, and pick your favourites. On Sunday, there will be an Open Hardware and CAD/CAM dedicated room, where we will certainly have a couple of FreeCAD-related talks, and many more that should interest FreeCAD developers and users. If you plan to propose a talk, be sure to submit it here before 1 December 2024.
FreeCAD and KiCAD will also hold a stand at FOSDEM (exact location to be confirmed), where people from the two projects (plus any possible other guest star project) will be available to discuss and showcase the projects, and there will be goodies to grab and swag to buy.
Practical info
Like previous years, travel funding is available to help developers to come to the event. Be sure to read the rules to apply. Train/bus travel is preferred, when possible.
There will be no food offered during the events, but the Atelier des Tanneurs is in a lively part of the city full with bars, frietkots, take-away places and restaurants close by. Typically, we stop for half an hour or an hour during the day to grab something to eat. At FOSDEM, there are many restaurants and food trucks right on the campus.
Brussels can be cold in February. If you are lucky, you will get cloudy (possibly rainy) days with temperatures around 0 to +5˚C. If unlucky, you could get something as low as -10˚C.
If you don’t know Brussels yet, half a day or a day suffice to get a good tour of the city. We will prepare some self-service tour options later on.
That’s it for now, we are thrilled to make this incredible event happening once again. See you there?