Trip report: 2023 Chaos Computer Congress

The objectives of this document are to share some of the moments and experience that meant something to us during the 2023 Chaos Computer Congress, and notes for our future selves when we will set up our next participation.

The House of Tea

The House of Tea is a “Chill Room”, not a chill place. The concept is to offer teapots, teacups (and tea!), and provide a workflow for cleaning/preparing the tea. This place is great to have some chill time, share a cup of tea, discuss, play some games (chess and go boards are available) and all.

But it also requires a lot of help as it is a much appreciated and frequented spot! A really great place to be, rest, and participate: your help is always welcome!

Note that if you plan to help, try not to take all the mental load, ask wanderers for help! They’ll gladly give a hand, and you’ll be able to enjoy the experience without being burnt out.

The House of Tea kind of gained a reputation of being the “French embassy” of the CCC, since the majority of the people behind it are from there.

The CHATONS booth

Boris

The CHATONS booth was hosted by Komona. We had some flyers (printed by ourselves), the CHATONS kakemono, and a bunch of stickers from various associations. All of our material was written in French.

Notes for next time:

• Print more stickers! 1000 would be reasonable. This year, 200 Deuxfleurs and 200 Garage stickers were brought, and both stocks ran out on the CHATONS booth and on stickers exchange points across the event.
• Get extra stickers from other CHATONS.
• Prepare some material in English (e.g. flyers).

Aeddis

The CHATONS booth coud have had more material and activity. Most of the time, when I was at the booth, we were chatting between members but few people from the outside went to us. Most of my interactions where I had the opportunity to talk about CHATONS were when I went to other booths or while chatting at House of Tea. I think that the booth is an opportunity to talk about what we are doing as a group and share with others about that.

Maybe preparing a talk/meetup or Self Organized Session (SoS) could provide material and initiate discussion.

Overall, CHATONS is not really known, but Framasoft is: their name displayed on the kakemono started a few discussions.

I know the goal is not to make CHATONS a Framasoft property. But using the name of Framasoft to say that our group was founded by them and follows their philosophy, could be a way to spark interest to passer-bys.

The Chaos Post

This one is funny: the CCC has a post, which delivers both internationally (using standard mail delivery) and internally.

For the latter, they need volunteers to grab a few letters and distribute them. The trick is: not all postcards are equal. Some of them have a very detailed description (e.g. Tom at the CHATONS booth, Komona district) while others are much more.. vague (e.g. Tom in Hall Z). It might take you a while to find the right person, but it’s one of the best way to discover the whole event and their people. When you deliver a postcard, discuss with people, look at their stuff, you will learn a lot!

Advice for next year: be a post-person!

Heaven and the Angels System

The Angels are the volunteers on the event, they live in Heaven. There is no prerequisite for being one, only that you volunteer. It’s a good way to contribute to the event: the incredible quantity of Angels is instrumental in keeping the event price cheap (145€). In exchange for your service, you gain access to free meals (which are delicious) in the Angels’ kitchen. Your service is organised in shifts, consisting in 2h work in teams: a great opportunity to chat with people!

Advice for next year:

• Book your shifts early in the week – you will have more choice regarding the type of shifts you’ll be doing (crowd control, no trespassing, access control, BoC, dishwashing, bars..) and the timeslots.
• Look at the shifts during the event to help out when Heaven needs it!
• If you plan on doing some shifts that require some special formation, think about coming early to the event.
• Don’t forget to check the presentations going on at the same time as shifts you’re interested in.

General bits of wisdom

• Prepare a lot of cash! Almost nobody uses payment cards here.
• Talks are recorded, self-organised sessions and meetups are not. You can always watch the main sessions after the event, so focus on self-organised sessions.
• Look at the assemblies! That’s where the community lives and meets, and there are a bunch of very interesting associations, demonstrations, discussions, workshops and mini-events happening there.
• Flora matte and Tschunk are the way. Don’t bother drinking something else. (Aeddis said that.) (Maybe some tea…)
• Talk to people! Most of them are friendly and have a lot of stuff to share. It’s an occasion to learn but also to make connections!
• Unless you want to participate in specific workshops, it is very likely that you will not use your laptop at all during the whole event.
• The event is quite intense and goes by really fast. Watch out for your sleep and shower schedule, along with your meals. (That is: keep an eye on this “sanity” stat you usually blantly ignore.)
• The event is open 24h/24 but it’s pretty empty between 4am and 10am.

Other ideas

• We should prepare a talk to present what’s going on the French scene, or to present the CHATONS. People are highly interested in our organisation and experience. They’d love to reproduce this type of large organisation in their own culture/context/country.
• Come with your soldering iron and try to find some Billies!!!

See you there next year 😘