FOSS4G Belgium took place on 15 October at Bruxelles Environnement site in Brussels, a sustainable, low-energy building showcasing excellent environmental architecture. As proudly featured on the event lineup, we were thrilled to participate as Bronze Sponsors for this year’s gathering of the Belgian open-source geospatial community.
It was an event-filled day for our team. Tomas, Gabriel, and Jan represented us on stage and at our sponsor stand, leading sessions, engaging with users, and taking part in community-wide discussions throughout the day.
Tomas gave a talk in the Sylva room highlighting what’s new in collaborative data collection using QGIS and Mergin Maps. He walked attendees through recent platform improvements, seamless sync enhancements, and real-world workflows that help field teams collaborate efficiently across desktop and mobile.
During the flash talk sessions in the Agora room, Gabriel shared insights into the engineering challenges of building a mobile GIS application. He focused on ensuring reliable offline data synchronization, robust local storage, and conflict resolution mechanisms for field teams operating in remote areas with poor connectivity.
In the afternoon, Tomas ran a hands-on, 90-minute workshop titled From field to map: Collaborative data collection with QGIS & Mergin Maps in the Aqua Workshop room.
The session was fully booked well in advance. Participants went through a complete end-to-end workflow: configuring project layers and custom forms in QGIS, packaging projects for mobile deployment, collecting field data on devices via the Mergin Maps app, and synchronizing spatial updates back to the cloud in real time.
One of the presentations we attended was Seth Girvin's update on MapServer, which was a great reminder of why this OSGeo classic remains such a workhorse for web mapping. He walked through recent speed boosts and new features that keep the platform fast and reliable for heavy-duty spatial data.
Between sessions, our stand and the venue corridors were buzzing with activity. One of our highlights of FOSS4G Belgium was reconnecting with existing customers and meeting new QGIS users.
Hearing directly from field managers, GIS specialists, and developers about how Mergin Maps fits into their daily workflows gave us valuable feedback and fresh ideas for upcoming release cycles. The energy of the local Belgian community from government representatives to independent consultants left us inspired for what’s ahead.
No event in Brussels would be complete without enjoying local Belgian beer culture! We had a fantastic time unwinding and continuing discussions during the evening social networking event. A huge thank you to the organizers at OSGeo.be, Bruxelles Environnement, the volunteers, and our fellow sponsors for hosting a smooth and well-run event. Special thanks to everyone who attended our talk, joined the workshop, or stopped by to chat. See you at the next FOSS4G!
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