Glad to have returned after missing out on FOSDEM for a while. However, I agree with OP on that undeniable success leading to heavy crowding. I also missed some hacker hardware stands, there were very few this year.

I always enjoyed chatting with people demoing SDR/small cool hardware hacks as a refreshing break from whatever high-tech presentation room I got stuck in for half a day :-)

It would almost be good to ... have a bigger campus.

Tough luck on that though.