General notes34c3

Summary FHB at 34c3, 17/3/2018

Greetings to all,

it took longer than usually but here it comes, short overview of Food Hacking Base (fhb) activities at 34c3 and summarization of whole event.

It has been our first event in Leipzig and second in a big hall like this, first one being Hall H at 31c3. It seems like this type of environment is best for our activities and concerning the space allocation, water source, drainage, lights etc. it worked really well for us. It would definitely come handy to make such an arrangements that there will be at least two or three people from our group coming three days before the event or so at least, because this time Algoldor was sick and if it was bit worst and the furniture was not build and other things organized on the spot we would be very pressed. We need to think about this.

Considering the event the general consensus seems to be that having our info at our fhb wiki again worked really well for us, we should try to transfer the info on Day 0 to the event wiki, that would be good because lots of people relay on CCC wiki for the event. From the point of view of set up it was going really well. For example the lights over the tables, that was very handy, our illuminated fhb sign was positioned high with important things to promote close to it so it cached up the attention. With few exceptions, people are getting used to our routine, keeping quite organized and cleaning their stations after finishing their projects, that helps to the core group a lot. Algoldor was very happy with the Probiotic Drinks Everywhere Project where we brought more than 100 l of different brews which were all drunk entirely by day 3 without even promoting it a lot, we got close to €200 in cash from that, bit over €100 clean.

Finances, we ended up with around €1200 clean profit after the event, which is the best so far. This is what we have now to our disposition, it is great that we are finally in a decent plus numbers, lets build it up! I think for future events we should try to keep an eye better on the donations flow especially the ones coming from the workshops. This means asking workshop givers (especially the ones who are with us for longer) to be more independent in the means of writing down and calculating the expenses and donations immediately, to whom they give it in the group and post it somewhere online at least for the group purposes. Seems like sharing the responsibility and relaying more on several people being involved on the basic level should work better, because if they keep the track it is easy to put it all together later on. We will not manage to hold on all the data but we can come up with something what is more accurate and what makes our life more easy next time.

The tear down was done quickly, next time, and that is Algoldor's comment it would be very nice if more people get involved in the work rather than quite numerous group of people sitting down and chilling out when few others are running around like crazy. Also it would be good to stay for the "after party" because it is where the people who put most of the energy to the event meet and it is also good time to discuss stuff with the other teams and orga in the manner of what went fine and what should be improved.

So all in all the congress went for us well, smooth, we have ended in plus numbers and it seems we have made it nice and clean in and out from the event.

Now after the 34c3. It looks like that the next big event where we will meet are Electromagnetic Fields 2018 in Eastnor, Ledbury, Herefordshire, UK, 31th of August till 2nd of September. We need to start to get ready for that from the point of view of getting entry tickets, asking for place and so on. First contact email was sent to the orga but no response so far, another should be send before the end of March. Importantly for this spring and also for future events, Algoldor is getting ready the Fermentation Mobile (food truck) aiming now on buying the truck/van, rebuilding and having it certified by the beginning or mid of the summer. Algoldor is going to ask for fhb support for the crowdsourcing campaign which will be run in April and May, having it as a part of fhb, therefore contacting our usual supporters and using fhb channels for promotion. The idea is that this mobile fermentation center will be used for both Algoldor's and fhb activities which are overlapping a lot, we will definitely profit as a group from having it to our disposition at the events. Details are being discussed already and we will continue with that especially at IRC at our #foodhackingbase channel at oftc network. Algoldor will be also present at Newline at Gent on 14-15/4 so will be fhb, hope to make it to more events after, please do recommend!

For now that would be all, thank you all for participation and support, we are definitely moving forward!

Sincerely from various parts of the world,

FHB