cyber_eagle

I'm not sure about price ranges for hostels either as last year was the first time i staye din one, but that sounds pretty cheap to me. Maybe too cheap lol.

It's starting to look like september is the clear winner. Shall we go with it and close this issue? Last time it took us a while to confirm the date which made it hard for some people.

We might also want to consider how long we'll have to get stuff organised. Probably any of these months would be fine, but just something to consider.

I shouldn't think language would be a major problem in a big city like berlin. They must be used to tourists. I usually manage even in the sticks with a phrase book and some patience. Chances are some germans will pop up in the thread soon anyway lol.

Nice one moonlit. And let me reiterate, this is a planning (and ideas) thread. The event doesn't just pop into existence by itself, when there's some solid plans some page will be put up, maybe on the wiki maybe on the site somewhere, with definitive information. If you aren't interested in helping to plan or suggesting ideas but just want to be told when and where and show up, wait for that. But of course, getting involved now is also encouraged!

cool, i might be at defcon in august so at least from my perspective and possibly others it'd be cool not to clash with that. thats august 8-10 plus some days before and after for travel. If anyone knows of any other events going on that might cause annoying clashes speak up quick before we pick a date, which should be pretty soon by the way things are going.

For sure, full blown cons take way more than we could do now. But aiming for "con-like" makes a meeting a lot better. In fact metatrons whole post made a lot of sense, kudos lol. I'm not sure, it all depends on cost of course, but it would be nice to have our own space. It was hard to do our own slightly unusual thing in the hostel. If a meeting room is too large/expensive we might consider just getting a larger hotel suit and using that during the day. We're actually doing something like this at work next friday and saturday, gong off to some country estate with i think self catering accomodation and generally hacking the place up and presenting to each other with a no-slides-hands-on feel. Of course we'll be doing much more structured stuff cos its based on research people have done but the general way its done, low key but with our own space, is a good model. If people wanna grab a beer, they grab a beer. That prtty much worked last time. Preferably none would be required. Just fun accessable things. The subject of knowledge was only raised because super-leet-skillz events are fun, but not practical for our purposes lol. Its more something to bear in mind when we come up with ideas. So here's what I'm thinking. For most people who come there should be little to no requirements, except maybe a room booking or contribution (or not depending what we do). But I think we need to get a few people together who are responsible for stuff. Bringing key things, setting stuff up, whatever. For everyone wondering whats going on, sit tight, stuffs being worked out here, don't think anythign you've read so far is final.

Berlin could be good on the surface. Its a pretty cool place, easy to get to, makes a change from last year without being too hard for people to get to. as far as i know the east is still pretty cheap too. My only concern would be the new german hacking laws. They are still pretty untested but seem quite restrictive, with lots of people pulling research and tools down and some people refusing to set foot there. Of course we're all pretty low profile so it might not make much difference but its definitely something to keep in mind, especially depending on what activities we want to do.

Well this is a geek meetup right? So lets think of something unique to that kind of meet we can do during the day and/or night. If we leave enough time to plan it more specifically than last time we can build on that experience. For a start, lets try to get somewhere we know ahead of time has stable(ish) internet. This is hak5, so maybe we could try to generate some actual content this time, something we tried but failed at last time mostly due to the shoddy intenet connection. It doesnt have to be live but that might be fun just for the hell of it. Maybe we can come up with cool things to demo, discuss, present or whatever. Things that get content at the end but are also fun to do. Maybe some competitions, nothing too fancy cos we wont get it organise otherwise. something stupid but fun, i'm thinking along the lines of building shmooball guns and chilling beer in creative ways. except not those things because those have been done hehe. Building the biggest catapult, modding a waterpistol with the most cool and unecessary tech possible (lasers, soud effects, led's) and having a geek water fight. I'm really thinking aloud here, but you get the idea i hope. if we can get an idea who is definately coming (i said definately, not like last time when most of the definates didnt show up lol) we can see what skills (iif any hehe;) they have and maybe people can come up with some tutorial like sessions that could also be filmed, and those who may already know stuff could help, or just have a good laugh. maybe that ones a bit ambitious to get quality but meh, its just ideas. The obvious one is a lan party with some game or other, lots of beer, rofls and streams. If a meet happens in more than one location, link them up, challenge each other. I'd love to suggest CTF, but I think thats asking a bit much for this group. You'd have 1 or 2 people dominating and everyone else having no clue whats going on lol. There's lots of things we could do, but we cant do them all, if we stand a chance of doing any we should prob pick 1 or 2 and really focus on them. We had lots of ideas last time but nothing really came of them. It was still fun hanging out but I think we all thought we could improve it next time around. Assuming everyone can get to wherever it is, I think most people who were there last time would prob come this time, so we know we have some people who are likely to show up this time, and we can really try and pull together and make it work good. I know i know, but aiming high is good!

I'd be up for a meet anywhere in europe. I *might* be in las vegas for defcon but I don't know yet, I may not be able to afford that, or if i'm there with work I wont be able to run off to hackpack meets all day lol. I think meets in the us vs meets in europe will pull a pretty different crowd based on who can get there. though some people can get anywhere of course. It'd be cool to get meets in different places but in a sense they become totally different events then.

I already created hackpack in the wiki to redirect to Meetup/London, though we could redirect Meetup/London to hackpack and rename it more, I don't think it really matters at this point. After the event we can have a page about the event in general, but that page is more of a dynamic organisational thing right now.

Sorted. Welcome to the first hackpack 8)

well we've had no new votes on the name for a while, but i'd like to see a few more ideally before we close this. But if not never mind, anyway.. *BUMP* hehe. Also what do people think on hackpack vs hackpackers, sort of like the event vs the attendees perhaps.

Deposit sent :-)

Yeah most people say "ee you", but that didn't stop us having a lot of puns by pronouncing it "you" (it kinda is that depending how you say it), which I actually stole from signs around liverpool on sites funded by the eu that say "thank eu" lol. Maybe "hack eu" or hack.eu (hack you!) is better after all, I'm just thinking if theres ognna be lots of these things you can't have a description of the event all the time, not that its this scale but like cansecwest, eusecwest, etc. thinking aloud I guess.

It was pointed out by a few people that the meet has very little to do with hak5 anymore, so thats part of it. Its grown beyond it in some ways its more like a general meeting/party under the hak5 banner, and in fact its not even technically that. Some people have already been confused or disappointed by the fact that none of the hak5 crew will probably be there (unless we're lucky). But we also want to give this an identity. Right now its just an slapshod nothing, but its generating way more interest and activity than anyone expected, and people are already talking about how cool it would be to pull it off well and have it as a semi regular event, with other groups getting involved and adding to the geekery and fun, bringing their own things to it to share with the wider community. There's no real requirement to have watched every episode and discuss them alone. A name turns it in to a "thing", its something that sticks in peoples mind. You must have noticed how people respond when something has a name, its as if it suddenly exists. Look at all the medical conditions that are actually collections of symptoms with no known cause or connection, or those based on gradients to which no separate identity can be given. A name brings identity and organisation around a single symbolic entity. Of course I never expected to describe it in those terms but I figured I may as well explain it lol. As for the other things with names, I don't know about those, they probably are pretty pointless, but TKAF is obviously nothing but a bit of fun name wise hehe. Personally for this I think a name is better than a sentence describing what it is. Also, while I'm posting... The point has been raised that hackpackers could sound like fudgepackers. Most people see it as a pun on backpackers, and anyway we are indeed "packing hack", but still... figured I'd throw it out there for debate. A simpe solution is just to go for "hackpack", which is a pretty fair name for an event, and implies attendees are hackpackers

Looks ok to me, wifi in lobby, and they have a "DVD Player with a wide screen projector" so as long as theres enough of us to muscle other people away fro it we have our movie night hehe.

We need a name! A bunch of us talked it out in irc and we ended up with a few choices, cast your vote! http://forums.hak5.org/index.php/topic,6798.0.html

The hak5 eu meetup is starting to come together with some fun activities and people getting confirmed and booked in, its become a "thing" and it needs a name to stick in peoples mind! Make you're choice, these are the best of the ones we argued over in the irc channel

jackp10, if you wanna come add your name to the list at the bottom of the wiki here: http://wiki.hak5.org/wiki/meetup/London You should prob also keep an eye on this thread

Urgh, my internet is annoying, had trouble getting a stable connection lately hence why I haven't been around. I got a pm about the hostel, seeing as no one is in a better position to see places I'm willing to go for anything in the right place at the right price,that place seems to be, so count me in! When we have 12 or more we can do this thing, I'll add a bit to the wiki when we do so we can see who is booked in and who isn't (and where). We should decide where we want the bbq, I notice the hostel has facilities, but if any of the bbq friendly parks are nearby it might be nicer there. Also, the 16+ could attend that part, the hostel needs guardians for under 18's and I'm not being a guardian lol. I guess I'll find out what locations are near there where we can hold it and we'll decide where to go. If people want an irc meeting how about we say Saturday June 30th, weekends are good for most people and it gives you more than half a days notice. I can probably provide a voip conference if people want but its probably easier on irc so people don't talk over each other.

Yeah I don't think the ymca will suit our needs so well. I'll take a look at those hostel links in a bit. I also wanna post that I got an email from Ian Forrester, he organises geek type events like geekdinners and barcamplondon, google him he's the man ;) Anyway he wanted to help out organising this and he's certainly the man for the job. He tells me we can have that BBQ after all, in wimbledon park, so I think we should put that back on the agenda for sure. I'm sure he'll get on this thread soon too, but one thing he asked was if we wanted to send the word out to other groups like Dorkbot and 2600. Of course its still a "hak5" meetup, but I think the more the merrier, with a bunch of cool geeks all getting together to have fun under the Hak5 banner, I think that could be really good for the uk/eu hak5 community at large, plus its good advertising for the show hehe. If this takes off it could even become a regular event! So what do you all think?

Yes, I agree it doesn't need a ton of structure. It would be nice to have a few random activities thrown out there, but not with a firm date and whatever, just something we can say "lets do the xyz!". Date 2nd weekend of august. Consider it set. Do we wanna say saturday and sunday night? Or friday and saturday night? (or all three?) As soon as a few ppl say what they think is sane, that'll be set too, cos its crunch time around here lol. If people wanna stay longer, I'm sure one or 2 will, thats fine, but you're on your own booking wise. Food, we will figure it out on the day. If we wanna cook, we can go buy something, of we wanna go out, fine. Drink, I'm thinking BYOB, and buy your own while you're there. Unless we get a collective beer fund going, but I think we'll default to BYOB. Its just easier. The age issue is being finalised in this thread: http://forums.hak5.org/index.php/topic,6462.0.html. It looks like its gonna end up being 16+ during the day, 18+ the rest of the time. But direct any other arguments to that thread. I like the various wifi/bluetooth/whatever ideas, we don't need massive structure for them, but having an idea before hand makes it easier to get down to the fun on the day. And remember, everyone is legally responsible for themselves. DON'T be a retard about it... We're whitehats remember 8) pshhh There is one more, important issue. What Hostel? I'm over 200 miles away from London so I'm not exactly qualified. We can just pick one with the right conditions, ie. no curfew, tolerance for noise and alcohol, and the right size for group rates. But if ANYONE is down there and can give us a bit more than google can, now is the time to speak up!

Cool guys don't forget to add your names to the list at the bottom of the wiki here http://wiki.hak5.org/wiki/Meetup/London And discussion about whats gonna happen there in this thread: http://forums.hak5.org/index.php/topic,6166.100.html And yeah, it will be a bit of everything I think, just depends what people want to do. :)

Yeah ok I can go with that. We can't have it all, its a compromise as it is.