Hak5 EU Meetup Thread

[moonlit]

Bump (and maybe even a little grind... maybe)!

[Shaun]

Bump (and maybe even a little grind... maybe)!

What do you want people to say?

Anyway:

http://forums.hak5.org/index.php/topic,6399.0.html

[wetelectric]

I might actually come to this as the one Londoner here.. fun fun fun

[degoba]

I am in as well. Second weekend works for me. I believe I will be flying over with DarkSenay.

[cyber_eagle]

As soon as the wiki is up I'll make a page for this thing, it's really taking off. I think its great how its magically grown out of nothing with no one particularly in charge. But we will need a few people to get the thing implemented once we finalise the decisions. Whose interested? Plenty of room for people to make their own stuffs to do at the thing even if you aren't one of these.

Also, if you are coming, don't forget to add your name here: http://forums.hak5.org/index.php/topic,6399.0.html

[DarkSenay]

we NEED a Wiki page for this shit. Where art thou wiki??

[DarkSenay]

Just updated, check the first post for current info on the meetup.

[nxt471]

[me=nxt471]moans about the 16+ issue (im under that age)[/me]

[cyber_eagle]

Wiki is up :D

http://wiki.hak5.org/wiki/Meetup/London

(Do we wanna have discussion on the forum thread, or on the wiki page? - either way I'll keep it updated with the latest)

First Priorities:

• [li]Finalise 2nd weekend of august as the date (note: this clashes with ccc camp, but then, maybe no ones going to that anyway who'd be at the meet)[/li]

[li]Which Hostel?! We should then consider booking it, and trying to get group rates.[/li]

[cooper]

I'm missing any discussion on food.

As I may have said before, gimme a stove, some assorted pots and pans and have that issue sorted in no-time.

If we are going to go this route though, any allergies or other diatery requirements that people may have need to be conveyed well in advance.

[cyber_eagle]

Ok, I added a food section quickly.

Also, register your interest/participation in the table at the bottom of the wiki page. I transfered people form the other forum thread, but all those need acknowledging/updating.

[Shaun]

Which Hostel?! We should then consider booking it, and trying to get group rates.

The problem with that is payment. Maybe it isn't a problem, I have no experience booking for a large number of people, but would a hostel expect a single person to be paying for everyone?

Edit: Also to be honest it's going to be impossible to stop anyone coming who wants to regardless of their age, if it's in a public establishment at least. If someone decides they are coming regardless of how good an idea everyone else thinks it is then they need to be prepared that everyone might decide to go out drinking or something and what they might do in that situation.

Edit 2: Regarding food, a venue really needs to be decided upon first, since we would need to know what facilities are available before deciding anything. It may just be that people want to go out to eat in restaurants or get food from take-aways (or take-out or carry-out as various nationalities might call it).

[stingwray]

I thought as I will be attending the event to meet all you lovely people, that I should put some of my infinite wisdom into the topic.  :P

Firstly on the age topic. I'm quite happy to allow people of any age to join in some of the events/activities during the day, but for staying the whole weekend/while during evenings/night should be limited to 18 and over only. This is mainly because of legalities of the matter and the fact that i'm pretty sure that no one at the event is going to want to take responsibility for the under 18s.

This makes it for the under 18s effectively a day out to london which with reasonable parents they would be allowed to do. While still giving freedom for the evenings and nights and making legalities easier.

On the issue of hostel, having a base would be useful, unfortunately I won't have a flat in london in august (unlikely) as its summer holidays and I'm not at Uni then  :D I'll have a look at what I can find to make some suggestions, obviously not being too far away from center of london would be great, although tube fares arn't too bad if you buy day tickets.

If the worst came to the worst, we could always join the polish immigrants in Hyde Park and camp  :P

Food will probably consist of whatever you fancy I would say, if your out and about during the day then you can either get something while out, or take something with you. I doubt we would be having big meals as such, unless we organize them before. Speaking of which, BBQ in Hyde Park anyone? We'll just get a ton of those portable one use BBQs. But in general, find out what facilities we'll have.

Just to end with, 2nd weekend of august is fine with me.

--- EDIT ---

I've done some looking around at hostels, there are a good number around and the good ones seem to have some nice facilities, such a secure lockers, and internet (could be interesting  :P)

Prices seem to be from £15 - £35 depending on type of 'room', group bookings are possible as well it seems, but have to be by application.

It is worth noting that many hostels do not allow people under 18 to stay there, and those that do, have an age limit on 16, or that you must be with your legal guardian. Also depending whether dorm rooms are booked, people under 16 are not allowed to stay in unisex dorms. Just worth noting.

[deleted]

I have just been to the wiki and have read the Meetup Page. I think an small amount of time on one of the days to allocate under 18's would be good for the people under that age. There are alot of people who view hak5 who are under 18. You are allowd to go into bars on your own at 14. You have to be 16 to order alcahol.

[Shaun]

You are allowd to go into bars on your own at 14. You have to be 16 to order alcahol.

Since 2003 minors have been able to enter many pubs unsupervised regardless of age, but you can't enter a pub if it is primarily or exclusively for consuming alcohol (that is, if they are also intended for serving meals you can go in); for pubs which fit that description you have to be 16 to enter unless with an accompanying adult. You can't order alcohol until you are 18 in England, but your parents can order you wine, beer or cider to go with a meal in a pub or in a restaurant. You can order those at 16 yourself under the same conditions in Scotland only.

In reality there's nothing really stopping anyone who wants to turn up since this meet is in public establishments, but you have to think about the situation you are putting others in and what situation you might end up in if you are left alone because you can't enter the bar everyone else went to.

[cyber_eagle]

Yeah, I agree with pretty much everything stingwray said, and terasoft.

I vote we allow under 18's for a large period during the day, we can come up with a cut off time closer to the event.

As for pubs and minors, I figure if we go to one during the day minors can have soft drinks and all will be fine, especially because as you say its a public venue. But I'm not getting into a "buying you alcohol" situation, and I think managing something beyond the day would be a legal nightmare, and prevent people from being able to relax. But its also a good point about ending up leaving people on their own because they cant get in or whatever, and thats also not a situation I want to be in, leaving a minor alone in london.

I'd also say that for food we just sort of please ourselves, and if we all decide to go out to a restaurant, or order take out, or whatever we can just do it. Of course it might be integrated into some plan if theres some super cool place bear by, but essentially, we eat out lol.

However, the BBQ sounds like a damn cool idea. Would give us a change of scene and everyone loves a bbq ;) are there any local laws in london about alcohol in public? Or bylaws in the parks about bbq's? We should check that but if alls well we could get some beers in a cooler down to one of the parks and stuff. I think that sounds really cool.

Sounds like stingwray is our local hostel scout ;) Interesting about the age rules, another reason to have the age policy suggested.

Secure lockers == great for us geeks, theft was something I was bothered about.

Internet == there'd better be! lol. (ustream anyone ;) )

It would definately be good to book in as a group if we have the right numbers and the price is right, I'm guessing its cheaper and we are more likely to get almost the whole place ot ourselves which would obviously rock.

[stingwray]

Well I'm currently living in London until the 24th of June, my exams have finished now as well which means that I have plenty of free time.

I think we need to decide firstly on the hostel. Are we all just going to book at the same one, are we going to try and get a booking for a whole dorm (depending on numbers etc.) or other options.

Most hostels come with a self-catering kitchen for meals, with breakfast being supplied inclusive of the price.

Some hostels have a lock in / curfew, which we would obviously not want as it would make it extremely boring.

The only other question I have is that is it just the one night on the saturday (the 11th I believe) or are we making friday night / saturday night as well?

Finding a hostel which meets the requirements of that shouldn't be too hard, there are tons in London, we really want to be inside of zone 1 of the tub network, that way a day rider is about £5 so we can hop on and off all day at our pleasure.

I'll look into the BBQ legalities, I know of friends that have had small ones in parks in london before, but being a big group brings more attention to us.

--- Opinions on Discussions now. ---

It seems that we have agreed that under 18s will be allowed to join us during the day, which is great and makes everybody happy. We do still need to decide somethings though.

Firstly, if we are visiting pubs etc in the day, then whether under 18s get in or not will be purely on whether the establishment allow it, so during the day, those places should be avoided so as not to divide the group. The other thing is that it has to be made clear that if at a pub, then no one which can buy alcohol will be buying for anyone who is not old enough. I don't want to sit and listen to a 16 year old going around and asking all the 18+ if they will buy them a drink.

The other thing to mention about the age discussion is parents. Some will allow their children to go on their own, which makes easy, some will come to london with them for the day, but go off and do their own thing then meet their child(ren) up again to go home, fine. However personally I don't want to have the parents following around with us all day (unless of course they are Hak5 fans as well), plus it is so very uncool. As all ways I suppose there is nothing to stop this, but more of a if you parents won't to join you, then for your own good decide not to go.

As for food I think a BBQ if possible would be great, at the end of the day on saturday, after which the under 18s can leave after that. Breakfast will probably be provided from the hostel, which leaves lunch, so if people want to bring something, great, if they want to get something thats fine as well.

The one thing to note about restaurants and take-out in london is that they can be more expensive than normal, not always, and as usually it depends on where you go to.

--- Edit ---

Just looked, in all of the royal parks (so hyde park, Kensington park etc.) the consumption or sale of alcohol, and the cooking or BBQing of food in the park is forbidden. So that counts that idea out really.

Obviously could be else where but I have no ideas on that.

[cyber_eagle]

Yeah, we certainly don't want a curfew hostel, ew. If we can book a dorm as a group it would be better because we can be more gaurenteed of doing our own thing. Cos, noise is gonna be pretty unavoidable with a group of alcohol fueled people.

As for the length, whether to make it along weekend or not, I wanna wait for other peoples view on this. It would make it more expensive, but then people coming from overseas want something worthwhile lol. If enough people wanna go for it I say we do it. If not, we shouldnt book as a group longer than the one night cos we'll have to foot the bill. But if you ask me, 2 nights is probably wise, but I'm thinking sunday night as well so we can leave at our leisure on monday. People from overseas might do friday night as well, I guess the start and end is pretty flexible seieng as peopel can basically start whenever the hell they like... So yeah... lets hear other peoples opinions on this!

I agree with stingwray entirely on the age thing. I'd be happy setting that as the rule, but I'll wait for more people to have a chance to post. I also agree that parents following everyone around would totally crush the anarchic spirit that goes along with such a gathering ;) I think essentially, people have to realise that while we're allowing younger people because we're not boring farts.. it IS ultimately gonna be an adult environment. Just like the internet actually.. so its not a big deal lol.

Sounds like we have the food thing down too. If anyone knows of a place where we CAN have a bbq, PLEASE let us know, because the idea totally rocks and I wanna do it :P

[VaKo]

I really do think we need to draw the line at people under 16. I know it sucks  but there is to much to go wrong and like it or not we would be vaguely responsible if something goes wrong.

[cyber_eagle]

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

[cooper]

Currently my plan is to arrive sometime on saturday and leave monday morning, but I'm open to suggestions for lengthening it.

View me as neutral on the age thing. I don't see why we should prevent kids from being there, but I don't really care much about it either.

[DarkSenay]

Alright, stuff needs to start being finalized so we can actually get things arranged so people can make travel arrangements.

Accommodations need to get done as soon as possible, is anyone looking at Hostels??

Finalize the date, 2nd weekend in August seems to work, lets for sure get this set.

Lets get the venue setup, we can use the hostel for most of our geeky shit, they are usually pretty lenient about it.

- Warwalking with a key cracking competition anyone?

Food can be made at the hostel or on a bbq anywhere. I'm pretty good in the kitchen myself if we can just get a bit of money from everyone and then go grab some groceries and hack up some meals.

The main part of the meetup is just to see the other hak5 fans and have a good weekend. It doesn't need a ton of structure, it will actually be better if it doesnt.

[cyber_eagle]

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!

[Shaun]

Which nights it is on makes no difference to me. I don't really have much to add at this point, but I thought I'd chime in - maybe everyone else doesn't mind which nights they are and that's why there isn't much comment on that.

[stingwray]

I'll get looking on a hostel now, I have a couple of days free from lectures and work and I am in London right now.

I'll bring a couple back to choose from which I think have what we want.