Exactly. I attend conferences for work, and every single one has free receptions and snacks. Not free, but cost is covered by vendors or the price of registration. And:
Exactly, again.
Maybe as stated above it makes the cost of registration cheaper for everyone else, but I can’t imagine it feels great to be there and watch a bunch of fellow attendees slurping and snacking and yourself being fended off by, what? security guards at the coffee station?
I admit, I’m unfamiliar with this particular conference. But seems tone-deaf.
I need to point out that we can be sure that at the meeting where this was discussed and adopted there were many who warned of this repercussion and were mocked for it by the clueless class.
“I guess you guys are looking forward to the free coffee you’re not paying for.” Braying and horse-laughs from the rest of the middle managers whose sole job seems to be enabling each other.
I’ve heard that this started appearing in fandom conventions two years back, resulting in similar backlash from attendees. Seems it may be some gadgetry marketed to convention organizers as a means of streamlining policing of selective event access and automating tracking of attendance numbers. It’s never gone well, especially if costuming is involved. Surprised it’s still around at all.
“Braying and horse-laughs from the rest of the middle managers whose sole job seems to be enabling each other.”
Middle managers? This conference is run by a small group of mostly volunteers. The group messed up on this, but they’re promptly changing the policy when objections were raised.
This is only the second Abstractions conference. I attended the first, and it had more diverse speakers and attendees than I’ve ever seen at a software conference. As a woman, that meant a lot to me.
They screwed up on this, but as soon as an objection was raised, they’ve changed the policy. I’ve helped run a small conference myself (not this one), and I know how tricky handling registration can be, so there’s no way they can entirely drop the bands at this point. I’ve volunteered to help day-of, so I saw the RFID demonstrated. It doesn’t register on a reader until it’s practically touching, so I’m nor concerned about my privacy.
Yeah, it’s like, 8 people, and they’re all available to the attendees directly via a conference-specific Slack channel (and other points of contact too). When the objections to this policy were brought up in that Slack channel, the immediate response was: “this is why we went this route, but we recognize your concerns and are working to address them.”
Like, sure, the whole thing could have been handled better, but this isn’t some conspiracy to harvest tracking data and sell it. This isn’t the kind of conference that is raking in big bucks or having huge amounts of floorspace dedicated to vendors. I’m skeptical that they’ll do much better than “break even” on this conference. (I don’t have any knowledge of their finances, but as an outside observer with a vague sense of what goes into projects like this, I’m making a guess)
And yeah, the 2016 con was great. Awesome set of speakers, very chill vibe. I think that, in this case, the reaction is out of proportion to the offense, but then again, I know and like the people putting on the conference and trust them because of years of positive interactions.
I recall (distantly enough that I had to do some Googling to confirm it) that the 1976 Worldcon in Kansas City required a non-removable hospital-style wristband as well as a name badge to signal membership. (That was the same year that the Dorsai Irregulars provided security and whisked Guest of Honor Heinlein around through the hotel’s secrud back corridors.)
I was of the impression that this conference has those as well, but I may be wrong. At the end of the day they need a way to determine who paid for what, and some sort of biometrics is going to be required for that. It could be a non-removable band or a photo. At least with the photo I can walk up to somebody and address them by name. In a former workplace of 400 people I found that quite valuable because there were a lot of people there who’s jobs I understood but who’s names I didn’t know.
They do not require any kind of photo, and “use biometrics instead of an arbitrary ID with no link to its owner once the ID has been claimed” is a terrible privacy take. This conference will have name badges, pronoun buttons, etc., but none of those are used for authentication.
…or, as has been mentioned, drinks/coffee/snacks tickets that are surrendered at the time of use. Access to VIP-type perks is neither a new problem, nor one that requires a high-tech solution.
Permanent wristbands sound like low effort for the organizers – but what works for a short-term casual event, like a concert or festival does not necessarily mean it’s a good idea for a longer or more professional one. I’ve no problem flashing a wristband at event security or a bartender or ride attendant, but I’ve less tolerance for wearing one for multiple days when I’m in a professional capacity.
