How to “hack” yourself into conferences for free | Hacker News Reader

How to “hack” yourself into conferences for free

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17 pointsAndrewWarner21 comments

Not a fan of the copying/borrowing a badge ideas. If you don't support whatever the conference is covering, you shouldn't be there. If you do, you shouldn't mind fronting some cash to support the event.

Sometimes it's not possible to front cash to support the event due to lots of factors having nothing to do with lack of money or laziness. All the people who asked me about copying my WWDC badge were people who had the money to do so (and I know at least one tried to offer even more money than they were worth to existing attendees willing to sell their tickets), but Apple was actively refusing to sell any more tickets to the event due to having reached maximum capacity. I certainly hope that's not the case next year, but who knows. Moscone West is not exactly huge.

I realise I'm stating what for most will be obvious here but there is a reason why they stop selling tickets once they reach maximum capacity.

If there is a fire they may not be able to get everyone out safely if there are too many people. I could dream up other possibilities but hopefully the idea is already clear.

I understand that. My wishing for next year was for Apple to move to a larger venue to have increased capacity, not to illegally stuff more people into an overcrowded venue.

How to "hack" free food: just steal it!

While 3 out of 7 point are "stealing" in some capacity there is some goodness in here, specifically:

Volunteer, Offer to write, Offer to speak

As someone who's job it is to go to conferences to speak and look after the Yahoo booth I see a lot of conference action.

You will get so much more out of a conference by participating in a positive way than shiestering your way in. Both in the way people treat you but also your motivation to engage with the topics. I've met some really great friends and colleagues by offering to blog for them out of the blue, or help out when a speaker drops out.

You're right. Those 3 methods are best.

Let me ask you this though. If you knew that someone in the audience was so eager to hear you speak that she borrowed her friend's badge, would you be upset?

If I heard everyone in the audience was so eager to hear me speak that no one bought an entrance ticket, and therefore I would not be able to fund my research that made my speeches so interesting, I would doubt their intentions.

Sharing badges is borderline. 1 badge = 1 person (not a specific person) is seen as reasonable by some and unreasonable by other conference organizers. Personally I don't have a problem if the conference organizers don't.

I do have a problem with the ends justifies the means argument. The child was hungry so it should have stolen the candy. Really?

Walk in the service entrance, then act like you belong there. Will work for most conferences.

You might accidentally end up volunteering that way...

But before you say "I'm with the band" check whether there is a band.

Now I wonder how many roadies Tim O'Reilly has.

I had a few people ask if they could photocopy my WWDC 2008 badge (twas sold out, all about iPhone, et cetera). I can't believe how trivial it is for some of the conferences I've been to either. I could easily see that happening, but I wonder just how many people actually do so.

In her book, I think Sarah Lacy has a few examples of people doing that at the Web 2.0 conference.

Though it's fun to sneak into places (I had my share), it's better in the long run to use participatory strategies (e.g. what the author listed: volunteer, blog, speak, party)

Or better, organize and start your own conference. We are entrepreneurs after all.

Hi, my name is PG let me in.

Claim to be nickb instead; apparently nobody knows his real identity anyway.

I tried claiming I was Spartacus, but, man, that did not go well.

I am Spartacus!

I tried finding out who he was and interviewing him. I didn't get anywhere. I didn't realize he was such an unknown. Seems like a sharp guy.

His life story:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=99923

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