37C3 Presale: Modus Operandi

We’re preparing for the 37C3 presale, which will work slightly differently than in the past:

Just like in previous years, we want to make sure that the active heart of our community – the people who shape Congress – can make 37C3 awesome again. Since our events are run entirely by volunteers, this first and foremost includes our angels (volunteers) who dedicate their free time and effort to make the event possible in the first place. It also encompasses all the hackspaces and activist groups who contribute to the Chaos community both during 37C3 and throughout the year.

At the same time, it’s important to us that we provide an opportunity for newcomers to come to 37C3 and get to know and join our community!

However, even our core community has outgrown the CCH in Hamburg, which will be our Congress venue. While that is fantastic in many ways, it does also mean that we can’t guarantee that everybody who wants to attend will be able to.

Our previous system, which used a mechanism of replicating vouchers, can’t be used this year: Replicating vouchers require quite a bit of time to function (they have to be redeemed, paid for, and then passed on). Due to our move to Hamburg and the fact we were all busy with Camp during summer, we simply no longer have that time. Instead, there’ll be a slightly modified presale process:

• All 36C3 Angels who clocked in at least 20 hours will receive 2 vouchers, each of which is valid for the purchase of a ticket within a timeframe of approximately two weeks. If you receive an angel voucher, you’ll have that time period to purchase your ticket, which will be reserved for you during that time.
• All Chaos community groups that have received vouchers from us in the past will each receive one voucher, granting access to the two first presale dates. During these presale dates, the first-come-first-served principle applies until that round’s tickets are sold. This voucher can and should be shared within your extended group. Each of these vouchers allows the purchase of a large – but not unlimited! – number of tickets, so it’s advisable to not just share them on Twitter. However, who you share this voucher with is ultimately up to you.
• Finally, there will be two more presale dates that are open to everybody. Each presale date is allocated its own quota of tickets, so there will definitely be tickets available for general sale.

All Chaos community groups will receive an email today to their last known contact address. Please check if you have received this email, and contact us at 37c3-tickets@cccv.de by 2023-10-25 otherwise. If we have missed an entire group that, in your opinion, should be represented at Congress and is not connected with any other local groups, please also reach out to us at 37c3-tickets@cccv.de. (Please note that groups that are close to each other, either by location or organisation, are expected to share their vouchers – if we started handling more than one group per city/area, we’d have a full-time job on our hands.)

All angels who have worked more than 20 hours and have given us permission to contact them via email will be contacted by us today (letting them know they will receive vouchers soon). If you receive no email from us and think it is more likely that the email got lost than that you did not reach 20 hours, please contact us at 37c3-tickets@cccv.de and tell us your Engelsystem name, the email address you used back then, and any other context that might be helpful.

We’ll have another blog post for you as soon as we know the presale dates and ticket prices. The actual vouchers will also be sent out at that time – please be patient until then!

See you soon!
Your 37C3 presale team