In that sense, at least, the event is being held by people who understand the hack mindset. I noticed that the puzzle was very easy, and that the "elite hackers" are in fact a recruitment agency, and therefore that the main purpose of the event is probably for a recruitment agency to put their recruiters in the middle of a bunch of hackers while eliminating competing recruiters who have the same goal.

... but I still did the puzzle.

[edit] And everyone else is doing it too, and posting their solutions here! "Blazing guitarpocalypse"[1] indeed.

I might attend the event, but that's mostly because I'm in Austin and feeling curious, and not because the website convinces me the event will have a high quality.

[1]http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/02/fizzbuzz-the-progra...