Welcome to Kiwicon X
New Zealand's Hacker Con
Well, we had ourselves day one of Kiwicon X. We're a bit out of breath, but Anitsirk summed it up pretty good: https://www.flickr.com/photos/4nitsirk/31012756156/
Hope everyone enjoyed it, cause we're gonna do it all again today.
See you soon, neighbours.
<3
The Crue
Update 20:46pm:
The council's building inspection team has concluded their review of the Michael Fowler Centre, and it is undamaged, safe for occupation, and clearly is as solidly built as it it is ugly. Kiwicon X is happening. The Crüe is proceeding with preparations, all systems are go.
Yes, there will be aftershocks, but there will also be great talks, good people, delicious food trucks, and lots of other Kiwicon-stuff. We'll update twitter and here if there's anything you need to know. See you in 60 hours!
Update 11:20am:
Training venue has been given the tick, so training is go for Tue/Wed.
Original 11:02am:
You've probably heard that there was an earthquake in NZ last night, and Wellington took a fair ol' shake. Everyone involved in running Kiwicon is fine and we're awaiting an update from the council and building engineers on the status of the Michael Fowler Centre. Its a much newer and better quake-engineered building that the previous ones, so we're much more relaxed than than we would have been were it still at the Opera House. We'll let you know when we have more information, but we are proceeding on the assumption that we're on.
The same holds for the Training; we're talking to the venue, and we'll advise when we have more info.
The airport is open, busses are running, but trains and ferries arent. It'd pay to check with your accomodation provider about their state later in the day or tomorrow once they've had a chance to assess everything. If you're arriving and you end up without a place to stay, get in touch, and we'll try and sort something out.
<3
The Kiwicon Crüe
Unsettlingly sincere greetings, traveller upon the cyber-planes[1]. We are the multiplicity known in physical realm as the Kiwicon Crüe. Soon you will join with us and become learned in our Ways and Truths as part of your journey to the Electric Godhead.
Be kind to the other pilgrims you may meet on your progress, especially if they are not as enlightened as you. As has been revealed to us in the inner circles of the sacred mysteries, you must walk these labyrinths:
Ticket pickup is available on Wednesday afternoon (2pm-6pm) on the ground floor of the Michael Fowler Centre, (“MFC”; the main con venue). We’re not doing ticketing at Meow. However if you want somewhere to hang out with Kiwicon peeps, this is the place to be.
On Thursday, ticket pickup will be open at the MFC downstairs foyer from 7:30am, and from 8:15am on Friday. You’ll need to wear your Kiwicon X badge and lanyard visibly at all times in the venue.
To pick up your ticket, you’ll need to know your order number, and ideally your name. You do remember that, right? We’re really going to need everyone’s help to get through the sheer volume of ticket pickups - Kiwicon X is 50% bigger than K9, and twice K8. If you can pick up on Wednesday, please do so at the Michael Fowler Centre.
If you’ve pre-ordered Kiwicon tshirts or hoodies, collect them upstairs at the Renouf Foyer in the MFC on Wednesday afternoon, or during the con on Thur/Fri. You’ll also need your merch order number (which may be different from your ticket number).
If you didn’t pre-buy merch, there will be limited cash sales of t-shirts available, starting lunchtime Thursday. No hoodies are available for cash.
Beyond the main con (check out the schedule, talks etc), there’s lots going on. There’s the lockpicking village, the Hamiltr0n 3: Shadow over Hamiltr0n capture the flag competition, the eighth instalment of Te Kuiti Warrior, a swag-store filled with all sorts of hacker goodies to buy, and Kiwicon At The Movies will screen the 1992 classic “Sneakers”. All of this is happening Thursday night at the MFC.
On Friday night, join us at the afterparty (at Eva Beva & The Fat Angel, 31-35 Dixon St, less than 5 mins walk from the MFC).
We remind you that Kiwicon has a Code of Conduct, which you can read here, with some FAQs here. This applies to the con, all associated events, and, we’d like to think, daily life; summarised thusly “don’t be a dick”[2]. Please be excellent to the (very classy, very brass and glass) venue, staff, volunteers, Crüe, and each other. Kiwicon is huge, filled with people (many of whom aren’t necessarily the best at, y’know, being Social), exciting, has alcohol, flames, lasers and a lack of sleeping patterns. There’s a lot going on, and for this to work, we need everyone to Be Excellent To Each Other. Please do so.
If you find yourself in a situation where you’re uncomfortable, need help, or something’s going on, find a volunteer (orange lanyard), Crüe member, or MFC venue staff-member. If all the crowds, noise or business is overwhelming, we have a Quiet Room on the far left end of Level 2, where you can get away for a bit, look at the sea, and chill. Similarly, if you’re not into alcohol, there’s Kiwicon branded softdrinks, water, and some friends of Bill about.
The Kiwicon website has the schedule, and we’ll be relying on Twitter for immediate comms during the event, as getting to our hacker-proof website-CMS on the road is hard! Follow @kiwicon on Twitter for the latest.
With these mundane words out of the way, we return to our previous, on-brand spiritual-alien-hippy pastiche:
Deepest feelings of warmth,
The Concipient Crüe
[1] Like, uh, as in “astral”, not the flying VXWorks box you travelled here in
[2] We stole this from somewhere, Wil Wheaton.
We did some counting, and we can fit a few more people in. We've re-opened ticket sales temporarily; these will not last, and when they are gone, they are so very very gone. No correspondence will be entered into.
Our hold is full of human cargo; the spaceship Kiwicon unfurls its spirit sails and embarks on its journey to the firey stage of the MFC.
And by full, we mean 2052 of our 2048 tickets (don't ask about the selling out codepath) are gone. We are full up. All sold. Tickets are, like the parrot, no more.
If you've got a code you've yet to redeem for a ticket, drop us a line at kiwicon@kiwicon.org.
Paid training tickets are still up for sale where there's room, but the free signup has closed now, as has merchandise sales.
See you at the 'con...