It’s been a long, strange year. Since some of us are going to be in the same room together for the first time in eons and might have forgotten about the normal social contract that exists in shared spaces, we’d like to remind everyone of our Code of Conduct.
Many years ago, Summercon published its first real code of conduct. This was kind of a landmark, since the Summercon team has always prided itself on a certain amount of constructive chaos. That early code of conduct looked like this:
If you love anarchy, want to break things, set off fire alarms, or generally behave like a twelve year old, you probably should stay away–even if you are a twelve year old. Especially if you are a twelve year old. It’s not that kind of event, and we’re not those kind of people. Even though we’re a group of hackers, breaking the law is still illegal.
If you’re interested in meeting your peers in the security world, meeting some of the finest people you’ll ever know, putting names to faces, and learning about the latest trends in security analysis, we’d love to see you. Mingle, socialize, make lifelong friendships. That’s what we’re all about.
We still believe in that.
But the world has grown. And while we still love that constructive chaos, we’ve grown a lot, too. We want everyone to have a good time. And because not everyone knows what that means, we’ll be very clear:
Summercon is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for conference talks or exhibitors. The conference reserves the right to eject anyone who engages in behavior that is threatening or patently offensive to the community, regardless of whether it occurs at the conference venue, parties, or online.
Conference participants violating our rules may be thrown out of the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organizers.
If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of the conference staff immediately. Anyone wearing a red Summercon Staff shirt is empowered to intervene.
In case you don’t feel comfortable approaching a member of the staff, call us at 720 586-4225 (720 586-HACK) so that you can speak directly with the conference organizers about your concerns.
TL;DR: Not to be all heavy or anything, but top legal minds tell us we should say this: we reserve the right to eject anyone at any time for any reason at the sole discretion of the conference organizers.
Thanks for listening. Sorry if this harshes anyone’s mellow, but it’s easier to have a good time when everyone knows the ground rules. Have fun, everyone!