Pre-registration for talks

[bobby6k]

Hi,

I would like to make a suggestion: What about creating a pre-registration site for all talks? I mean the fire marshall problem will probably arise again this year and some people argued last year that "this is a hacker con and nobody would like to register him- or herself" but in my opinion instead of standing outside in the hot sun people would definitely register themselves for single talks. I mean I know the talks I would like to see/hear and so I would register myself for these talks. What do you guys think? I mean I flew more than 10000 miles to get to the DefCon and I was VERY disappointed when I wasn't able to take part in some presentations....

Bye and thanks,
Sebastian

[highwizard]

Hi,

I would like to make a suggestion: What about creating a pre-registration site for all talks? I mean the fire marshall problem will probably arise again this year and some people argued last year that "this is a hacker con and nobody would like to register him- or herself" but in my opinion instead of standing outside in the hot sun people would definitely register themselves for single talks. I mean I know the talks I would like to see/hear and so I would register myself for these talks. What do you guys think? I mean I flew more than 10000 miles to get to the DefCon and I was VERY disappointed when I wasn't able to take part in some presentations....

Bye and thanks,
Sebastian

How would you work it? Would it be first come first serve, would someone have to stand at the door with a check-list for each talk? Or are you talking about Pre-Registration for the Con? If it's Pre-Reg for the Con it really doesn't do anything to help with the seating issue. Would you have to sign up for talks months in Advance? What about the people who signed up for every talk, and if you were left unabled to get into ANY talks what-so-ever? Would you still come to the Con? If No, then why would this be good for Defcon? If you can't get into a talk there is always the option of watching it on your TV in your room.

[Contrarian]

Given the size of the talk areas, add about an hour inbetween talks to clear them out and then let in people one at a time, each time checking to see if they have pre-registered.

Or we could...

at the end of the talk use tear gas to get everyone out and then use high-powered fans to clean the air, then use a biometric scanning device along with automated turnstyles that would check each person's thumbprint against the pre-registration database as they came in. If they wern't pre-registered a giant scoping fork would scoop them out of the queue or a trap door will open and shuttle them off to one of the pools to immediately let the next person pass.

[phobal]

at the end of the talk use tear gas to get everyone out and then use high-powered fans to clean the air, then use a biometric scanning device along with automated turnstyles that would check each person's thumbprint against the pre-registration database as they came in. If they wern't pre-registered a giant scoping fork would scoop them out of the queue or a trap door will open and shuttle them off to one of the pools to immediately let the next person pass.

G8 style, yoh.

[ndex]

Disney FastPass Model

If anyone has used the Fast Pass at Disney, maybe a scheme based on that would work.

You get a ticket for a talk that saves your place in line. You still have to stand in line to get in, but you have a "reservation" for a seat. There would be a finite number of tickets for each talk, once they're distributed, the "line" is closed.

The complications and cost of working out a system like this, however, would exceed the return value of reduced bitching by all y'all, especially when you can be ignored and I can go back to my room and watch the talks from my bed.

But, if you'd be willing to see the cost of admission go up by 25% it might be possible to work out a fair system that would allow convention organizers to post signs that says "No more live seating available for this talk - please watch from your room" well before the talk begins. They might even get around to it by DCXV... if someone volunteers to do the coordination and all the work.
-ndex