Bitcoin Forum

So who is interested in a global Bitcoin Conference (BitCon)? I noticed a few local meetups, but I think sooner or later, a global meetup will occur. When should it be? Where should it be?

I think it should be in middle America or the West coast so Plato doesn't have to drive all the way back to NYC to attend.

The folks at the Bitcoin Show are organizing it! Check it out at http://bitcoinme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9.

Wish I could go.

I would advocate for a country that does not harvest fingerprints and eye-scans from law-abiding foreign travellers for databases, upon border entry.

:o Is that the U.S.A?

I vote for Iceland!

SF Bay Area anyone? :o

;D For people traveling to USA I imagine the converstion at customs:

What is the puprose of your visit Sir?
Oh, nothing - just gonna promote new digital currency that cannot be shut down and is gonna destroy banking system and governments around the world

Pleasure then.

Do they scan everyone or just pick some at random?

I'd say more like:
Sir, this way please - these gentlemen are gonna escort you to guantanamo bay  ;D

That's me :P

Apparently there was a recent hijacking attempt in a Paris-Rome flight, so heightened security measures would be likely for international travel in the near future.

Maybe it will have to start as a mini-con inside of or close to another con such as Defcon or Blackhat or the like.

[BUYING] [10000 BTC] Set of 10 fingerprints, plus 2 retinas (prefer blue) to suit 35 yo caucasian male.

Everybody and have done for quite some time ... more than 5 years now I think.

Edit: actually longer, since 2002, it was part of the whole Patriot Act police state expansion boom. http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_1336.html

Iris scans and ten fingerprints from anybody entering as a requirement to get a visa for entry.

I remember as a kid dreaming of going to the USA - the land of free. How things change..

Yeah me too. I wonder if I've completely missed my opportunity.

I probably should go soon, before things get even worse... They'll want a drop of blood soon.

What's probably of more importance to everyone on this forum is the fact that the TSA is authorized to scan your laptop's hard drive upon entry to the country, and if I'm not mistaken, even go as far as to make a complete backup of the entire HDD.  My memory is somewhat vague, but I wouldn't be surprised if this new authority came as part of one of the numerous "Think of the children!" acts that have been so prevalent lately.

I'd argue that this alone is just as personally invasive as taking fingerprints, drops of blood, firstborn child, etc.

Side note: I'm fairly certain that these stories were covered on SlashDot within the past few years.  If needed I can attempt to go find them to back up my claim.

You forgot:   "Why?"

I think this forum is sufficient enough.  We don't need to waste money and energy for physical meetings.

But that one is trivial to get around with good encryption practices.

Having them copy my laptop hard drive wouldn't be personally invasive at all to me.

I can get tasered by the cops here just as easily as by US ones. This stuff expands everywhere eventually because all beauracrats want to expand their powah. They see some getting away with stuff and think "I wonder if that will work here".



I second the Iceland location.

True enough. Maybe a Teamspeak meeting or something.

We should probably wait until phone clients are more common really. It would be impractical to have a convention where everyone has to whip out a laptop to transact. I'm sure the bitcoin ATM machine would be there too.

The exchange of ideas can occur faster through speech, words, and human body language.

What kiba said. And don't underestimate the power of face-to-face meeting to build a sense of shared community.

Agreed with SunAvatar and kiba. But I prefer smaller meetings then a bit conference. Small meetups are always good -- better then one big, expensive, complex and centralized conference.

It is an interesting point. Small localised meet-ups but with some connectedness is harder to suppress if it comes to that. Brings to mind the operation of "terrorist cells" chillingly.

I agree.  Bitcoin is a distributed peer-to-peer currency.  It should be spread that way.  Meetups should be held that way too.  Also having a big centralized conference would attract all sorts of negative attention from the authorities, since it would have "giant money laundering operation" written all over it (as far as the state is concerned).

Anyway, at this point it is better to share bitcoin with other groups that have goals that may be advanced with bitcoin.  For example, your local libertarian meetup or local trade network for whatever it is you do.

But it would be cool if PorcFest 2011 has some talk on bitcoin...

i think we should try to avoid the use of the word BitCon.

-1 for Iceland.
It seems a central location at first for US/EU users, but it is an expensive flight from the US (and from Uk/Europe I think). Not that I'm against Volcanoes or Björk. But flight costs should be a major consideration along with housing.
 
Vegas is cheep for most Americans but not for anyone else, as I understand it.
London and Paris are cheep from NYC.  What about Cancun Mexico? Or Belize?
What cities are cheep for you to reach if you are outside USA?

London might be very cheap to get to, but is a very expensive city. I would say - Barcelona, Spain. It is very cheap to get to with Ryanair or Easyjet for anyone from EU. Just don't know if it's convenient for guys from US

I agree.

What: BitCan or BitPro (name to be determined)
Who: Anybody, global or local
Where: San Luis Obispo, CA (SLO) (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=San+Luis+Obispo,+CA&aq=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=42.310334,74.003906&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=San+Luis+Obispo,+California&ll=35.281501,-120.651855&spn=10.933123,18.500977&z=6)
When: Whenever Plato comes through California
Why:

• Plato wants to travel along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH)
• The PCH comes through SLO
• There are beaches only 10-15 minutes away
• The SLO area is wine country with several microclimates in the area
• There are plenty of mountains to hike
• There are bike trails to ride
• There are disc golf courses in some of the parks
• There is plenty of lodging due to the fact that SLO is a college town and parents swarm on certain weekends, so it can handle conventions, if you plan it right
• It has several microbreweries in the area, a homebrew culture in town (DIY attitude), and Avila hosts the California Festival of Beers every year on the last weekend of May put on by the charity http://www.hospiceslo.org/ (http://www.hospiceslo.org/)
• The people here are friendly (it's a tourist town) Oprah has my back on this one (http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/story/2011/04/San-Luis-Obispo-Its-the-happiest-place-in-the-USA-/45900412/1)
• The SLO Experiment (http://www.youtipit.org/en/tip?junketId=J2652)
• There is an airport if you want to fly in, or, it's about a 3-4 hour drive from either San Francisco or Los Angeles if you take the 101, or, take your time traveling up or down the PCH
• On Thursday nights from 6-9pm, the main street downtown closes off to traffic and the World Famous Farmer's Market happens. All sorts of organic food, BBQ, music, entertainment, free bike valet, free parking at meters around town after 6pm
• If it happens on the first Thursday of the month, you can participate in the Bike Happening (http://bikehappening.org/) where bike enthusiasts get all dressed up and bring out their fancy rides to show off around downtown at 9:30pm after the Farmer's Market closes down. And after the Bike Happening ends, all those interested go to watch or participate in the Bike Sumo tournament where two riders square off and try to knock the other one off. Two men enter, one man leaves - Thunderdome style
• The reason Vegas is great for conventions is because there is lots to DO when not at the convention itself. SLO has all the legal fun, so let's have a legally fun Bitcoin Block(chain) Party. The SLOcals will appreciate the tourism boom (so long as it's a positive experience)
• I don't see anyone else in this thread putting up a better itemized solution yet so  :P

How: Get the word out about the Bitcoin Block(chain) Party happening in SLO! The SLOcals will see a bunch of bright, enthusiastic people coming into town with new ideas about how to tackle economic problems and create jobs. They're already used to it with the students that go to Cal Poly. Who doesn't want to come to this party?!

BitCon - Lol

I think something should be organised for London / Europe.. :)

Vote London too. It's the hub of the world. If anything is organised there, then I might be able to setup free hosting for a bunch of people by asking around.

great, so all the bitcoin activists travel to The Capital Police Statism (London) for BitCon, then they all get arrested for anti-government conspiracy, and then bitcoin gets setback.

Just a thought: Attach the event to DEF CON 17 or some other large event that at least some Bitcoiners will already be interested in. It's a simple way to get some extra attendants, plus Bitcoiners can go to the other event and proselytize. ;)

I might even be possible to do a presentation at the other conference for even more exposure.

As for the location:

If it's in Europe, it should be in London.

If it's in the US, it should be anywhere with an international airport. I'd make the trip provided some of the bigger names attend and they bring the finished Bitcoin ATM prototype. Oh, and some Alpaca socks!! :D

Can you please explain why?

I am french, I'm the #3 most prolific writer on this forum and as such I am offended by this proposition.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend anybody. London is convenient for conventions because it's the most densely populated area in Europe (so there are usually lots of potential attendees close by), it has direct connections from/to every European airport and it's been my experience with past conventions that you get the best attendance there because of those factors.

Note that I'm in Switzerland, so London would be further for me than it is for you, but it's still pretty convenient to shuttle out of Zurich Kloten.

But that's just my experience, if it's in Europe and it has an interesting enough roster of speakers to warrant traveling, I'll attend wherever it is. Ultimately it's going to depend on where we can find somebody who has the actual time, money and energy to organize a convention.

My guess is that London is the most optimal place in the world in terms of average air/train fare paid by conference visitor.

Why not simultaneous conventions on different continents? With video feed to see everybody else.

IT LIVES! HAHAHA!

http://bitcoinme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9

This is actually a good idea.  Iceland is a very short flight from North America and a really cool place to visit.  Plus, they're probably in the mood to talk about alternatives to traditional banking. ;)

Not exactly the easiest place to get to though, first fly to London(or your favourite transport hub) and then on, better just to go to london.