Before FOSDEM officially started, the database community gathered for MySQL Belgium Days (Pre-FOSDEM), a two-day event bringing together MySQL developers, DBAs, engineers, tool builders, and open-source enthusiasts. It was an excellent space for deep technical discussions, knowledge sharing, and reconnecting with the community, hosted by the amazing Frederic Descamps. The event featured strong participation from Percona and the wider MySQL ecosystem, with talks led by Peter Zaitsev, Marco Tusa, Fernando Laudares Camargos, Arunjith Aravindan, Vinicius Grippa, Pep Pla, and Yura Sorokin.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://percona.community/blog/2026/02/09/pre-fosdem-fosdem-2026-community-databases-and-open-source