Notes from ConfConf

Introduction

Early this month, I attended ConfConf in Sofia, Bulgaria.

ConfConf was an unconference-style gathering of organizers around FOSS conferences, organized by FOSDEM. We shared our experiences, challenges, and fresh ideas about running FOSS events. It was interesting to talk about what we struggle with, what's different and what’s exactly the same across countries and how we could help each other grow.

Session Takeaways

Out of 14 sessions over 2 days, here are a few that felt most relevant for IndiaFOSS/FOSS United:

• The Video Box
• Funding Models
• CFP Reviews
• Succession Planning

The Video Box

This was the most interesting session for me at this event. Recording and live-streaming our conferences often gets tricky, we always seem to be juggling unreliable hardware, inconsistent software, need for skilled volunteers, and unpredictable internet, plus multiple vendors that come with venue restrictions. The session aimed to make all of that less painful, by sharing a robust solution.

People at FOSDEM have designed and built an open Video Box (hardware plus software) to simplify recording and livestreaming for themselves. What’s cool is they actively share their work with other organizers. I spent two days learning about the hardware and even brought a Video Box back to India. 

Shree, who’s one of the co-chairs of IndiaFOSS 2025, is already experimenting with it. FOSDEM also lends out these boxes to organizers so others can play, hack, and contribute back.

Funding Models

For this year’s IndiaFOSS, about 50–60% of our funding is coming from sponsors; the rest is from subsidized ticket sales, merchandise, and donations (from both individuals and institutions) to support diversity at the conference. 

In the funding session, the focus was on making community support a bigger piece of the pie, less dependence on sponsors, more on people who care about the event.

Ideas shared: Increase merchandise sales, run more donation campaigns, and even earn from things like food and coffee stalls. It reinforced the value of community-led funding, and I think this is something we should push further.

CFP Reviews

Reviewing talk proposals (“CFPs”) is straightforward with 50 or so proposals but with the 340+ we got for IndiaFOSS 2025, it’s a challenge. FOSDEM gets 5x or more, so naturally, I wanted to hear how they manage.

Their hack: distribute the workload. Devroom organizers review their own proposals, while a core team focuses on the main stage. For main stage talks, they often filter by looking at speakers’ prior experience choosing folks who’re already known for strong talks or have a track record in the community, as slots are limited and proposals are many. That saves them time, and it’s an idea we might borrow: start with the profiles we already know are reliable, then look at new and upcoming speakers to make sure we find fresh voices.

Succession Planning

Succession planning is about making sure our conference doesn’t die, now or in the future. Right now, critical decisions regarding IndiaFOSS fallback to the staff at the FOSS United Foundation because of our experience organizing the conference. In order to ensure the long-term survival of the conference, there is a need to formalize the guidelines for the conference.

Seeing how FOSDEM works inspired me. A charter would help us with:

• Making decisions by consensus (but knowing when to call a vote)
• Handling exceptions (like removing a member, changing documents)
• Defining clear leadership roles

This should be on our to-do list after the current edition. I also learned FOSDEM is planning to make their charter public in upcoming months so it will help to create our own.

Comparing India & Europe

One topic I hoped to connect on was waste management. Interestingly, it is barely a problem in European and even Asian countries like Taiwan and South Korea. They have a good waste management system in place, culturally. Participants usually throw waste in the right bins. It’s more of an Indian problem, and we need to come up with our own solution to fix it.

Actionable Items

• Use, experiment with, and contribute to the Video Box project.
• Start charter documentation for IndiaFOSS.
• Broaden the funding base - more community support, less sponsor dependence.
• Promote eco-friendly events: The IndiaFOSS conference has already been successful in maintaining a low- or zero-waste event. Our goal is to encourage our other events to adopt similar eco-friendly practices.

Conclusion

It’s no small thing to organize a conference that relies mostly on community funding and still keeps talks meaningful and logistics simple. Balancing succession, making events eco-friendly, and keeping recording/livestreaming affordable isn’t easy.

ConfConf showed me that we’re not alone in these struggles. It was a mirror for us: somewhere, we’re getting it just right; somewhere, we have more work to do. Our goal is to make IndiaFOSS and our regional conferences self-sustaining, and we’ll keep improving by learning from the global FOSS community and our own experiments.