[hackerspaces] [hackerspaces-announce] BruCon in Brussels, Sept. 09

[jaromil]

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On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 10:23:47AM +0200, astera wrote:
> Ohai hackers,
> 
> as you might've heard (or read, respectively) before, starting this  
> September 18th, Brussels, Belgium, Europe has a new hacker conference:  
> BruCon.
> 
> http://www.brucon.org

from brucon's website (just a 2 days conference, not a camp eh)

- -------

 Normal registration fees (including VAT) for BruCON are:
 180 Euro early bird (prior to July 3rd 2009)1
 250 Euro 1st of July - 31st of August 2009
 300 Euro afterwards and at doors

 Students fees²:
 50 Euro early bird (prior to July 1st 2009)
 90 Euro afterwards and at doors

 1 Early birds can win a  security course, see below. This discount is
 only for valid registrations before  the 4th of July and for payments
 received the 6th of July at the latest.
 
 ²  Only  applies  to  the  first  50  students.  After  this,  normal
 conference  prices will apply.  No other  discounts apply  to student
 prices. Current student tickets still available: 40

 Note: To  save on processing expenses,  all fees paid  for the BruCON
 conference  are non-refundable. BruCON  can accommodate  transfers of
 registrations  from one  person  to another,  if  such an  adjustment
 becomes necessary.

- -------

and there is even people complaining that HAR or CCC is too expensive,
with a 150 - 185 EUR entrance fee for a fully equipped week of camping

far from willing to bash  brucon specifically, i'd simply like to pose
a few questions regarding all this:

 1- who benefits? who is actually  earning $$ on it?

 2- what do i get from it? is participation to such a conference going
    to provide you with certificates, titles, paper you can use to get
    a job  (or stuff like  that, if you  know what i mean)?   and even
    then,  is  there  someone   taking  really  seriously  a  "brucon"
    attendance certificate? how is all this spendable?

 3- what is the "quality check" on such initiatives (if not a critical
    thread  on  a  mailinglist,  and  a  web of  people  known  to  be
    professional, at least)? is there a scientific committee?

 4- what about starting  to push  forward the  idea of  discounts for
    "hackerspace members", rather than "students"?

refrain: this mail is not  really intended to be bashing brucon (still
it  is real  hard  to avoid  that),  just raising  some questions  and
calling  for  a  reality  check  about what  this  network  thinks  on
conferences.  last but not least, thanks Astera for the pointer.

and greets from  HSF2009: voluntary donation for entrance  to a 4 days
conf in  Paris, writing you  just while Karsten  is showing us  how to
open up the Oyster card :P

ciao :)

- -- 

jaromil, dyne.org developer, http://jaromil.dyne.org

GPG: 779F E8B5 47C7 3A89 4112  64D0 7B64 3184 B534 0B5E

  Nowadays  only  soubrettes, body  builders,  media  owners and  "the
  richest bozo  in the  pond" tend  to be elected  by a  population of
  zombified  slaves happy  to run  inside  their guinea  pig wheels
  Fravia, April 2009, http://fravia.com/swansong.htm
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