TL;DR. Agnes sits ~10 km west of Brussels [2], so the 30 km circle catches almost every major Brussels venue (ULB Solbosch, VUB Etterbeek, Brussels Expo, BeCentral) plus Mechelen at the edge. The anchor dates for 2026 are FOSDEM (31 Jan – 1 Feb) [3], Microsoft AI Tour (26 Mar) [7], Cybersec Europe (20–21 May) [9], EuroBSDCon (9–13 Sep) [11], and Apply AI Summit (17 Nov) [18]. Leuven, Antwerp and Ghent fall outside the 30 km ring.
Geography first
Agnes is in Sint-Martens-Bodegem (Dilbeek), Flemish Brabant, Processiestraat 3, 1700 [1]. At ~9.6 km from Brussels-Centre as the crow flies [2], the 30 km radius covers:
| Place | Approx. distance from Agnes | In radius? |
|---|---|---|
| Brussels (Centre / ULB / VUB) | 10–17 km | ✓ |
| Brussels Expo (Heysel) | ~13 km | ✓ |
| Aalst | ~15 km | ✓ |
| Vilvoorde | ~17 km | ✓ |
| Halle | ~17 km | ✓ |
| Mechelen (BruCON venue) | ~22 km crow / ~30 km road | ✓ (edge) |
| Leuven (KU Leuven, imec) | ~36 km | ✗ (just outside) |
| Ghent | ~50 km | ✗ |
| Antwerp (Devoxx) | ~50 km | ✗ |
Leuven is the painful miss — KU Leuven, imec, and PyData Belgium [15] all sit just outside the strict 30 km circle. Antwerp Devoxx (5–9 Oct 2026) is well outside.
2026 conferences inside the ring
| Dates | Event | Venue | Topic | Free? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jan – 1 Feb | EU Open Source Week | Various, Brussels | Open source, fringe + 35+ side events [5] | mixed |
| 29 Jan | Simpl Community Event + EU OSS Awards | Brussels | Open source policy, awards [20] | varies |
| 30 Jan | EU Open Source Policy Summit | Brussels | Policy [20] | varies |
| 30 Jan | Zephyr Project Meetup (FOSDEM Fringe) | Brussels | Embedded/RTOS [6] | free |
| 31 Jan – 1 Feb | FOSDEM 2026 ⭐ flagship | ULB Solbosch, Av. F.D. Roosevelt 50 [4] | Open source — 600+ talks, 80+ devrooms, 8000+ devs [3] | free, no reg |
| 26 Mar | Microsoft AI Tour Brussels | Brussels Expo | AI, Azure, Copilot [7] | free (reg) |
| 22–23 Apr | Cyber Intelligence Europe 2026 | Hilton Brussels Grand Place | Gov/military cybersec, EU policy [8] | paid |
| 20–21 May | Cybersec Europe 2026 | Brussels Expo, Hall 5 | Benelux’s biggest cybersec expo [9] | free expo |
| 26 May | AI Summit Brussels 2026 | U-Residence, VUB Main Campus | EU AI Act, governance, AI engineering [10] | paid |
| 2 Jun | OWASP Belgium chapter meeting | KU Leuven, Heverlee (outside ring) | AppSec — secure coding w/ AI, IoT [14] | free |
| 8 Jun | Open Source Policy & Ecosystem Forum | Brussels | OSS policy [12] | paid |
| 9 Jun | European Open Source Security Forum | Brussels | OSS supply-chain security [12] | paid |
| 9–13 Sep | EuroBSDCon 2026 | Brussels (likely VUB) | FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD — 2 days tutorial + 2 days conf [11] | paid |
| 24–25 Sep | BruCON 0x12 | Lamot Congress Center, Mechelen | Hacker / infosec community con [13] | paid |
| 20–21 Oct | AMTSO Cyber Research Conference | Brussels | Anti-malware testing & research [12] | paid |
| 17 Nov | Apply AI Summit | The EGG, Brussels (hybrid) | EC flagship, AI adoption, 900 stakeholders [18] | free (reg) |
Pick by interest
Open source / Linux / FOSS. Block out the last week of January 2026 — FOSDEM is the gravitational centre of European open source [3], and EU Open Source Week wraps a policy summit, the OSS Awards, and dozens of fringe meetups around it [5][20]. Both ULB Solbosch and the surrounding fringe venues are 15–20 min by car from Agnes.
BSD / systems / infra. EuroBSDCon 2026 (9–13 Sep) — the European BSD conference rotates each year; this is its Brussels turn [11]. Sponsors include Apple, ARM, OPNsense.
Cybersecurity.
- Industry expo: Cybersec Europe (20–21 May, Brussels Expo) — biggest Benelux floor, free badge [9].
- Hacker / community: BruCON (24–25 Sep, Mechelen) — at the edge of the radius, but the canonical Belgian infosec con [13].
- Policy / government: Cyber Intelligence Europe (22–23 Apr, Hilton Brussels Grand Place) — CCB Belgium speakers, EU policy angle [8].
- AppSec local: OWASP Belgium chapter meets quarterly; one 2026 meeting at BeCentral / Proximus-ADA Brussels is in radius (the 2 Jun KU Leuven one isn’t) [14].
AI / ML.
- Vendor day: Microsoft AI Tour Brussels (26 Mar, Brussels Expo) — free, Azure/Copilot focus [7].
- EU / governance: AI Summit Brussels (26 May, VUB U-Residence) — EU AI Act compliance, governance, engineering [10]. Same week as Cybersec Europe — feasible double-header.
- EC flagship: Apply AI Summit (17 Nov, The EGG) — European Commission convenes 900 industry stakeholders on AI adoption [18].
Java / JVM. No single big conference inside the ring in 2026 (Devoxx is Antwerp, ~50 km out). Fall back on meetups: BeJUG hosts free evening sessions across Belgium [16], and BruJUG is the Brussels-local chapter [19].
Python / data. No big Brussels conference; PyData Belgium meets quarterly but recent venues are Dataminded / Dataroots in Leuven [15] — just outside the ring. If a future PyData lands at a Brussels venue it’d qualify.
Recurring local meetups (Brussels city, all in radius)
| Group | Cadence | What |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Intelligence Brussels | irregular | AI discussion, project spawn [17] |
| Brussels WiMLDS | ~monthly | Women / minorities in ML & data [17] |
| BruJUG | irregular | Java in Brussels [19] |
| OWASP Belgium | quarterly | AppSec, rotates BE cities [14] |
What’s outside the ring (worth the extra drive)
- Devoxx Belgium — 5–9 Oct 2026, Kinepolis Antwerpen. Biggest JVM conference in Europe, ~50 km from Agnes.
- Leuven.AI Conference / KU Leuven / imec events — Leuven is ~36 km out. DATE 2026 (imec) and Neurotech Leaders Forum (23–24 Jun, imec Leuven) are the standouts.
- OWASP BeNeLux Days — co-organized by OWASP Belgium, rotates location each year [14].
Notes on the ring
The 30 km radius from Sint-Martens-Bodegem is a tight constraint: it includes essentially all of metro Brussels and reaches Mechelen at the edge, but deliberately excludes Leuven, Ghent, and Antwerp. If the constraint is “drivable for a same-day return after a 19:00 dinner at Agnes”, the radius effectively becomes Brussels-only — Mechelen is 30 min by car, the others are 45+ min.