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.
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.