Kiwicon 8: It Is On

We've shaved the venue drama llama to a light stubble, and are pleased as punch[1] to announce that Kiwicon 8 is actually gonna happen. If you've been to previous Kiwicons, then things are going to be a bit different this year - for a number of reasons. "Get to the point!" you demand. 

Kiwicon 8 will be:

11 - 12 December 2014 at the St James Theatre, Wellington

Yes. New venue! The St James is just down the road from the Opera House, and is bigger and better and has more bathrooms, so the mens will be slightly less like World War One trench warfare the morning of day two. 

Yes. Thursday, Friday! This is a pretty big change from our usual weekend slot, and while this is a result of our venue constraints, we think this is going to be a good thing. Yes, you'll have to take a coupla days off work. But you get the whole weekend to recover. 

Yes, its gonna be a bit more expensive. We're still working the budgetin' and sailin' the wide accountan-sea (after Kiwicon 7 resulted in a non-trivial loss; no we're not very good at this) but we're anticipating that student prices will remain at $30, and regular tickets will be somewhere between the current $60 and $100. 

Beyond the core con on 11-12 December, there's a bunch happening. The full schedule is going to be:

• Tue 09 Dec: Corporate paid training day
• Wed 10 Dec: Free training day
• Thu 11 Dec: Kiwicon 8 Day 1
• Fri 12 Dec: Kiwicon 8 Day 2
• Sat 13 Dec: Survivor's Day

The Tue/Wed will have our signature Kiwicon training event - the same classes on two days, the first day is full price corporate jerk training, the second day is free community training. If you get paid to work in infosec, you pay for training. If you're not yet paid to work in infosec, then you can apply for one of the limited free community spaces on the same courses.

The Survivor's Day is something new we can do because the core 'con is Thur - Fri. The Saturday after, once you've woken up, come hang with the rest of the Kiwicon massif for some BBQ meat and other events to help ease your pain - a burden shared!

The changes we've had to make this year open up a bunch of options for Kiwicon, and we're aiming for a bigger, better, badder-ass Kiwicon than ever. We reckon you'll dig it, man. 

Aww yiss.

Yours much cyberly,

The Kiwicon Crue

[1] punch in the face for being mad enough to run Kiwicon. Again and again and again and again...