Soo hard to get a ticket. I was there for 35c3. Worst part is that since you don't know if you will get a ticket or not and you book hotels/flights only after you nab a ticket, you are paying increased prices vs booking far in advance.
Defcon has CCC beat in this area because you know you will get a ticket at Defcon. On the flipside, Defcon 27 last year was a complete mess because there were so many people. It was more Linecon than Defcon. However I am thankful to DarkTangent and his crew's efforts. The Goons did the very best they could and I am glad they are still doing it.
At 35c3 I got totally ripped off by Leipzig Taxis and my hotel which was cheaper but further away and not on the train path(at least easily).
Was it worth it? YES. Was worth every last penny. I am so thankful to the Chaos Computer Club for their efforts in putting on such an amazing event year after year. If I manage to make it back there again I will be volunteering as an Angel. I just wish it was cheaper to make it to Leipzig from the US but I understand that they are stretched to the gills in terms of capacity.
I heard a rumor that they have already maxed out capacity at Leipzig and there is no bigger place in all of Germany?
There are bigger exhibition grounds in Germany (obviously Hannover, probably Köln and Frankfurt, possibly more), but not for this budget.
By multiplying attendance numbers and average ticket prices, I estimated the total budget for the last Congress at 2.5 million €. Most of that is going to be spent on the venue and the transit pass included in the admission fee. So without any insight into how the budget is divided, it's fair to estimate 1.5 to 2 million going into the rent for the venue. Given that we're talking about an entire exhibition grounds for over two weeks (buildup starts around the 17th of December and teardown usually ends around the 2nd of January), that's an absolute steal. I find it highly unlikely they would be able to get as good a deal for a larger exhibition grounds.
And even if they did, you cannot scale up a conference just by moving to a larger venue. You also need to have the team to back it up. After seeing Congress move from Hamburg to Leipzig and grow into its current size (with over 3000 volunteers doing the bulk of the work), I'm somewhat skeptical they could do it again so soon. The inner circle of seasoned volunteers needs to be grown accordingly.
Besides that, it's an open question if Congress actually wants to grow further. Accomodating more and more attendees from more diverse backgrounds runs the risk of losing your own identity. Simply put, I wouldn't want Congress to be "yet another Burning Man". It's really good that we have had more representation from artists, activists and even public officials in recent years, but it should still be recognizable as a CCC event.
>There are bigger exhibition grounds in Germany (obviously Hannover, probably Köln and Frankfurt, possibly more), but not for this budget.
Oh ok thank you for the clarification. Your description just makes it so much more amazing that they have kept this up for 36 years now. Again, I was deeply thankful for all the amazing work the Angels and the greater Congress leadership did in making 35c3 such an unforgettable event.
I just wish it was a bit easier to get prepared to buy a ticket. It was very difficult and nerve wracking when I was up early to get in line for the ticket. The first sale caused the website to time out and so I thought there is no chance for me to compete with what I assume were automated ticket buyers.
The second sale is where I got lucky and grabbed a ticket as fast as possible. There must be some middle ground between this and having full open admission no? It is impossible to get perfect so I do not fault them for this.
>Besides that, it's an open question if Congress actually wants to grow further. Accomodating more and more attendees from more diverse backgrounds runs the risk of losing your own identity.
Yes absolutely. There is no perfect solution to this. One one hand it would be a joy to introduce the hacker spirit to as big of an audience as possible. It could only lead to a better world. On the other hand, you run into problems that Defcon is experiencing with its 30,000+ attendees.
>Soo hard to get a ticket. I was there for 35c3. Worst part is that since you don't know if you will get a ticket or not and you book hotels/flights only after you nab a ticket, you are paying increased prices vs booking far in advance.
Which is why you join one of the manymany assemblies and get into the voucher rounds.
>I just wish it was cheaper to make it to Leipzig from the US but I understand that they are stretched to the gills in terms of capacity.
My only recommendation here is to fly into Berlin and take the hourly train down to Leipzig. It' somewhat cheaper to fly into and the train ride is a nice ride.
>I heard a rumor that they have already maxed out capacity at Leipzig and there is no bigger place in all of Germany?
There is place for more people in leipzig, but AFAIK there are internal discussions how large they want it. Hamburg could be used, but not everyone can fit into the CCH. Heard rumors about them considering going for CCH and the large halls nearby. But I'm not privy to orga details so these are all rumors.
>Which is why you join one of the manymany assemblies and get into the voucher rounds.
Can you elaborate on this further? I do not know what this means. I was not part of any local assemblies as I am not German, nor do I speak German, and many of the assemblies at 35c3 seemed to be treating me very coldly as they are just local clubs from all over Germany. (Understandable, I do not fault them).
>My only recommendation here is to fly into Berlin and take the hourly train down to Leipzig. It' somewhat cheaper to fly into and the train ride is a nice ride.
yes. I was looking into this, Do you have a recommendation for a good website to explore train timetables and routes? What I have to be careful about is timing because if I need to stay overnight in Berlin then it may increase the cost such that if it wastes a lot of time, then it may not be worth saving the additional plane money(as many flights have stops in some other city on the way to Leipzig anyway).
>Can you elaborate on this further? I do not know what this means. I was not part of any local assemblies as I am not German, nor do I speak German, and many of the assemblies at 35c3 seemed to be treating me very coldly as they are just local clubs from all over Germany. (Understandable, I do not fault them).
You don't need to be german. International hackerspaces also get vouchers for CCC and travel in groups. Check with your local hackerspace.
Think of assemblies as "interest groups" and several are quite approachable over IRC/Matrix.
Feel free to also poke me next time you travel if you need people to chat with or hang around.
>yes. I was looking into this, Do you have a recommendation for a good website to explore train timetables and routes? What I have to be careful about is timing because if I need to stay overnight in Berlin then it may increase the cost such that if it wastes a lot of time, then it may not be worth saving the additional plane money(as many flights have stops in some other city on the way to Leipzig anyway).
Google maps covers most of the train transits in Europe. But the leipzig train went almost every hour except for in the middle of the night if i recall correctly. This isn't a transit that goes twice a day and should be easy to jump onto if you don't arrive in veryvery odd hours.
Defcon has CCC beat in this area because you know you will get a ticket at Defcon. On the flipside, Defcon 27 last year was a complete mess because there were so many people. It was more Linecon than Defcon. However I am thankful to DarkTangent and his crew's efforts. The Goons did the very best they could and I am glad they are still doing it.
At 35c3 I got totally ripped off by Leipzig Taxis and my hotel which was cheaper but further away and not on the train path(at least easily).
Was it worth it? YES. Was worth every last penny. I am so thankful to the Chaos Computer Club for their efforts in putting on such an amazing event year after year. If I manage to make it back there again I will be volunteering as an Angel. I just wish it was cheaper to make it to Leipzig from the US but I understand that they are stretched to the gills in terms of capacity.
I heard a rumor that they have already maxed out capacity at Leipzig and there is no bigger place in all of Germany?