Surprise Talk: The Origin Story
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Seidel, Erty
A tradition at !!Con is to tell the story of how !!Con came to be; this is the Origin Story.
 Let's give one more round of applause for all of our speakers this weekend. So I have a surprise talk. It does not actually take the entire ten minutes. But kind of a tradition here at Bang Bang Con is we like to tell the story of how Bang Bang Con came to be. The origin story. The origin story, yes. And that's because Bang Bang Con is a different conference and I hope you all have recognized that this weekend. We really strive to be both radically inclusive in our, just the way that we do our badges, the way that we do our restrooms, things like that. The way that we do our tickets. And also we really just try to be a safe space for learning and failing. And I think we've had some really, really great talks about both of those this weekend. I loved the quote in Irvin's talk. I'm sorry if I got your name wrong. That education and entertainment should be close together. Alright, and I think that we achieved that here at Bang Bang Con. So I want to tell a little bit about how we got started as our closing speech. And I think, yeah, oh yeah, I'm going to make this a lot bigger. And I understand that it's still going to be really small, so I will make sure to read things. Cool, so at Hacker School, or I'm sorry, as it is now called, Recurse Center, we have this internal chat application. And Maggie, who I believe is somewhere in the audience, was asking, hey, is anyone coming for Alumni Week, which happens at Recurse Center next week, actually. And Alex Kleimer, our organizer who is still somewhere over the Atlantic, said, you know, hopefully, you know, we'll see. Yes, this is in 2014, thank you. Specifically what? Like early January of 2014? Yeah, just like a few months before the very first Bang Bang Con. So Ian Whitlock, one of the Recurse Centerers, said, yeah, I'm trying to find, or my boss said, if I can find a conference in New York that's at least semi-work related, my company will pay for my flight. And he'd say, oh yeah, that would save me a bunch of cash. So Alex says, well, why don't you just make up a conference and pretend you're going, and then go. It's foolproof, right? Nobody would see through that. And Julia Evans, our last speaker there, said, you know, you might be able to organize a real conference by May if you really wanted to have no time. And Alex said, you know, I'll even do it for you, because Julia at the time was under strict orders to not organize any more conferences. And so Alex suggested that we call it Julia Evans blog posts con. And Allison, who I believe is in the audience somewhere, yeah, there she is, said I would attend the hell out of that, and asked for the CFB. So thank you for being our very first call for a call for proposals. And so Julia says, you know, you must submit a talk and the requirements. You must contain at least three exclamation marks in the title. Fortunately, we've relaxed that a little bit. But not really. And decides to call it exclamation mark con or bang bang bang con. So that's the secret history of bang bang con is actually there were three exclamation points at the beginning. So Maggie says, you know, we should pronounce it bang bang bang con. Julia says that she would actually go to that conference. Surprise. You know. And so Alex says, okay, well now we need a website. And Ian says, you know, bang bang con is a little easier for me, I'll give you that. And so they decide that they're going to make bang bang con. And Alex says, great, now we need, you know, space and, you know, a chair and everything. And Julia writes our very first CFP, which is that it's a programming conference about what excites us in programming. And that still shows up today, I think. It's about amazing things, surprising things, fun things. It's about strange things and silly things and heartwarming things. Did you find a super weird bug? Have you learned a programming language that kind of blew your mind? Did you teach some kids to program and did they find something amazing? Did your program make you giggle? We want to hear about it. You should give a talk at bang bang bang con. Oh, there's still three exclamation points there. It has to be programming-related, have an exclamation mark in the title. Upwardly file submissions are also encouraged. Thankfully we've gotten rid of that part, I think. You won't believe this one weird GCC bug. And then she apologizes because apparently she got carried away. Never apologize for that kind of thing, Julia. This is amazing. But she was really apologizing because, like I said, she was under strict orders to not organize any more conferences. So Alex says, okay, yeah, bang bang con is a year's a year to say I'm going to go get the website. And we start talking about, okay, well, are we going to have tracks? Is it going to be single track, et cetera? And Alex says, okay, I'm about to register. And this next slide is very important for all of you because he registered the website for five years. So although us organizers haven't talked about bang bang con 2017 yet, we at least still have the website. So there's a really good chance it's going to happen, right? Yeah. So he goes to register the website for five years. And there's now the proud owner of bangbangcon.com. And everyone's like, cool. And he's like, wait, I just registered bangbangcorn.com by accident. For five years. And everybody died. Yeah, my favorite Alan at the bottom here says, don't worry, it's just a pivot. So surprisingly, we are actually a programming conference, not a farming conference. Although we actually did make use of the bangbangcorn name, any of you who are sponsor related. Now our official corporate title. So all of the sponsors wrote out checks to bangbangcorn, LLC. So at least we're making some good use of that name that we have for another, what, three years. So there's that. And this is the last slide, but Nick finally said, yeah, we'll host you at Recurse Center, which at the time was called Hacker School. And whoops, it turned into this. So thank you all for attending bangbangcon 2016. Could I get the organizers up here on stage just for a final recognition? Yeah, Maggie, Julia, why don't you come up as well? This is all of the current and past organizers of bangbangcon. Mine is Alex Splemmer, who like I said is still somewhere out over the ocean. Okay. So really what I want to say is thank you for coming to this conference, which started out as a complete joke and has turned into what I hope is one of the more inclusive and radically available conferences in the world. And I think that that is a wonderful story. So on that note, it actually isn't that hard to start your own conference. So if you have something that you're excited about, if you have something that you're interested in and you want a bunch of people who are interested in that same thing, to show up and celebrate that thing with you, which is an amazing feeling, we are always happy to help talk to people who are interested in starting conferences or who are running conferences in this space or any other space that want to make it more inclusive and more available. So thank you all for coming. It's been an absolutely wonderful weekend. And unless somebody else has something to say, I think that's it. Thank you for coming to BangmanCon 2016.
 Let's give one more round of applause for all of our speakers this weekend.  So I have a surprise talk. It does not actually take the entire ten minutes.  But kind of a tradition here at Bang Bang Con is we like to tell the story of how Bang Bang Con came to be.  The origin story.  The origin story, yes.  And that's because Bang Bang Con is a different conference and I hope you all have recognized that this weekend.  We really strive to be both radically inclusive in our, just the way that we do our badges, the way that we do our restrooms, things like that.  The way that we do our tickets.  And also we really just try to be a safe space for learning and failing.  And I think we've had some really, really great talks about both of those this weekend.  I loved the quote in Irvin's talk. I'm sorry if I got your name wrong.  That education and entertainment should be close together.  Alright, and I think that we achieved that here at Bang Bang Con.  So I want to tell a little bit about how we got started as our closing speech.  And I think, yeah, oh yeah, I'm going to make this a lot bigger.  And I understand that it's still going to be really small, so I will make sure to read things.  Cool, so at Hacker School, or I'm sorry, as it is now called, Recurse Center, we have this internal chat application.  And Maggie, who I believe is somewhere in the audience, was asking, hey, is anyone coming for Alumni Week, which happens at Recurse Center next week, actually.  And Alex Kleimer, our organizer who is still somewhere over the Atlantic, said, you know, hopefully, you know, we'll see.  Yes, this is in 2014, thank you. Specifically what? Like early January of 2014?  Yeah, just like a few months before the very first Bang Bang Con.  So Ian Whitlock, one of the Recurse Centerers, said, yeah, I'm trying to find, or my boss said,  if I can find a conference in New York that's at least semi-work related, my company will pay for my flight.  And he'd say, oh yeah, that would save me a bunch of cash.  So Alex says, well, why don't you just make up a conference and pretend you're going, and then go.  It's foolproof, right? Nobody would see through that.  And Julia Evans, our last speaker there, said, you know, you might be able to organize a real conference by May if you really wanted to have no time.  And Alex said, you know, I'll even do it for you, because Julia at the time was under strict orders to not organize any more conferences.  And so Alex suggested that we call it Julia Evans blog posts con.  And Allison, who I believe is in the audience somewhere, yeah, there she is, said I would attend the hell out of that,  and asked for the CFB. So thank you for being our very first call for a call for proposals.  And so Julia says, you know, you must submit a talk and the requirements.  You must contain at least three exclamation marks in the title.  Fortunately, we've relaxed that a little bit.  But not really.  And decides to call it exclamation mark con or bang bang bang con.  So that's the secret history of bang bang con is actually there were three exclamation points at the beginning.  So Maggie says, you know, we should pronounce it bang bang bang con.  Julia says that she would actually go to that conference.  Surprise.  You know.  And so Alex says, okay, well now we need a website.  And Ian says, you know, bang bang con is a little easier for me, I'll give you that.  And so they decide that they're going to make bang bang con.  And Alex says, great, now we need, you know, space and, you know, a chair and everything.  And Julia writes our very first CFP, which is that it's a programming conference about what excites us in programming.  And that still shows up today, I think.  It's about amazing things, surprising things, fun things.  It's about strange things and silly things and heartwarming things.  Did you find a super weird bug?  Have you learned a programming language that kind of blew your mind?  Did you teach some kids to program and did they find something amazing?  Did your program make you giggle?  We want to hear about it.  You should give a talk at bang bang bang con.  Oh, there's still three exclamation points there.  It has to be programming-related, have an exclamation mark in the title.  Upwardly file submissions are also encouraged.  Thankfully we've gotten rid of that part, I think.  You won't believe this one weird GCC bug.  And then she apologizes because apparently she got carried away.  Never apologize for that kind of thing, Julia.  This is amazing.  But she was really apologizing because, like I said,  she was under strict orders to not organize any more conferences.  So Alex says, okay, yeah, bang bang con is a year's a year to say I'm going to go get the website.  And we start talking about, okay, well, are we going to have tracks?  Is it going to be single track, et cetera?  And Alex says, okay, I'm about to register.  And this next slide is very important for all of you  because he registered the website for five years.  So although us organizers haven't talked about bang bang con 2017 yet,  we at least still have the website.  So there's a really good chance it's going to happen, right?  Yeah.  So he goes to register the website for five years.  And there's now the proud owner of bangbangcon.com.  And everyone's like, cool.  And he's like, wait, I just registered bangbangcorn.com by accident.  For five years.  And everybody died.  Yeah, my favorite Alan at the bottom here says, don't worry, it's just a pivot.  So surprisingly, we are actually a programming conference, not a farming conference.  Although we actually did make use of the bangbangcorn name, any of you who are sponsor related.  Now our official corporate title.  So all of the sponsors wrote out checks to bangbangcorn, LLC.  So at least we're making some good use of that name that we have for another, what, three years.  So there's that.  And this is the last slide, but Nick finally said, yeah, we'll host you at Recurse Center,  which at the time was called Hacker School.  And whoops, it turned into this.  So thank you all for attending bangbangcon 2016.  Could I get the organizers up here on stage just for a final recognition?  Yeah, Maggie, Julia, why don't you come up as well?  This is all of the current and past organizers of bangbangcon.  Mine is Alex Splemmer, who like I said is still somewhere out over the ocean.  Okay.  So really what I want to say is thank you for coming to this conference,  which started out as a complete joke and has turned into what I hope is one of the more inclusive  and radically available conferences in the world.  And I think that that is a wonderful story.  So on that note, it actually isn't that hard to start your own conference.  So if you have something that you're excited about,  if you have something that you're interested in and you want a bunch of people who are interested in that same thing,  to show up and celebrate that thing with you, which is an amazing feeling,  we are always happy to help talk to people who are interested in starting conferences  or who are running conferences in this space or any other space that want to make it more inclusive and more available.  So thank you all for coming.  It's been an absolutely wonderful weekend.  And unless somebody else has something to say, I think that's it.  Thank you for coming to BangmanCon 2016.
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