A Word about Conference Conduct

René Pfeiffer/ August 7, 2012/ Administrivia, Conference, Discussion

You have probably been to conferences, and might even have seen hackers in the wild attending events. When it comes to events where IT security is discussed, everyone needs a friendly atmosphere so you can trust the people you meet. The DeepSec conference aims to be a place where these criteria are met. We want you to be able to talk to anyone about anything. Judging from the feedback we got this goal was met. We’d like to introduce a statement published on our web site to emphasise our mission. It’s a policy to express our intention to provide a friendly and safe environment for everyone talking at and attending DeepSec events (the policy covers all DeepSec activities). Before any of you jump to conclusions, let me explain why we added the policy as a stance against harassment to our web site and why we talk about it here.

First of all there is no incident that we know about prompting us to deal with the topic of harassment. We want to keep our conference relaxed and welcoming, which means we need people to tell us about anything that happens in the future. This policy is to let you know that you will get support from our staff and the DeepSec organisation. There’s no “if” and no “in case”. If you feel harassed or offended, please talk to us in person or anonymously. We will help you.

Secondly this policy is not changing anything. We just want to make sure that you can count on us and that we actively try to maintain DeepSec events as something everyone can be heard, can listen and can interact freely. Especially for conferences and events dealing with (IT) security we believe this to be the most favourable mindset.

Our thanks go to the Ada Initative for sparking the creation of the policy. If you are organising an event, consider addressing the topic, too.

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About René Pfeiffer

System administrator, lecturer, hacker, security consultant, technical writer and DeepSec organisation team member. Has done some particle physics, too. Prefers encrypted messages for the sake of admiring the mathematical algorithms at work.