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:
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.
Merchandise Pickup:
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.
Other Things:
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).
Code of Conduct & Behavior:
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.
Comms:
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.