In the context of stimulating data owners to make data ‘FAIR’ (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), we have developed the concept of the ‘Bring Your Own Data workshop’ (BYOD) for FAIR data. In a BYOD that focuses particularly on a Linked Data (LD) approach, engineers or bioinformaticians who are experts on their own data sources work with LD experts to generate Linked Data on a preselected set of data from their own resource. We report here on the organisation of a BYOD and on our experience from two BYODs, one that was held June 24-25, 2014 in Leiden, the Netherlands, and one that will be held in Rome, Italy, on November 26-27, 20141, following the EpiRare workshop2.