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39C3: Self-organized Sessions

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000

TL;DR

Workshops, group meetings, short talks, … – Our collective term for all of these is Self-organized Sessions.
You can create Self-organized Sessions already, but dedicated rooms will become bookable gradually this time. The start date for each round has now been determined, see below!
An overview of all Self-organized Sessions can be found in the Hub.
If you are interested in a session, log in and mark it as a favourite – this helps us estimate how large the room needs to be.
To create new sessions yourself, use the Hub’s Backoffice.
Assemblies can decide whether they want to open their “rooms” for Self-organized Sessions. To use that feature, please contact the Hub Support.

Self-organization is the magic word

You want to organize a group meeting or a gathering on a specific topic? Run a workshop? Host a competition or a game? Have you organized something outside the building? Would you like to give a short talk or screen a film? Start a follow-up discussion to one of the main talks? Or plan anything else that needs a place at Congress?

Instead of listing all these things individually or making separate categories, we introduced the term Self-organized Session (SoS) a few years ago. As the name says: these sessions are organized by you.

To create a session, click the plus icon in the top-right corner of the Hub homepage and then select “Self-organized Session”. You will be forwarded to the Hub Backoffice. If you don’t have a Hub account yet, you should create one first.

More details can be found in the Events Howto.

Room booking

Self-organized Sessions can take place almost anywhere as long as you follow the rules. This is why the location field is a free-text field. Of course, you should check beforehand whether the place you want to use is actually available. For example, you can meet at a bar or inside an assembly (please coordinate with the assembly in advance!). Areas that cannot be used under any circumstances include escape routes – meaning any type of passageway, corridor, hallway, etc.

If you need a space for more people, you can book one of the rooms listed below, or ask an assembly whether they have space available for your session.

When publishing the session, the system checks whether the selected room is still available at your chosen time; otherwise you will see an error message. Once you have filled in the information and saved and published the session, it will appear in the overview so that other participants can find it. If you selected one of the pre-defined rooms, it will later also appear in the full schedule.

This year, not all slots will be released at the same time. Booking for the central SoS locations will open in multiple rounds, so new sessions can still be added throughout the entire period.

The first round will start on Sunday, December 21st at 11:00 CET.
The subsequent rounds will start in Days 1, 2, and 3 at 11:00 CET, i.e., every 24 hours. So new sessions can be added throughout the entire period.

Also new this year: When you select a room, the free 25-, 50- or 80-minute time slots will be shown. Sessions therefore always start on the full hour or on the half-hour.

The following rooms are available for Self-organized Sessions:

SoS Stage H for up to 200 people, located in the center of Hall H (ground floor),
SoS Lecture E with theatre-style seating (chairs in rows) + banquet seating (5 large, round tables) in the back, approx. 235 seats; (Hall E, 2nd floor),
SoS Workshop D with banquet seating (large round tables – ideal for workshops), approx. 120 seats (Hall D, 2nd floor), and
SoS Lecture 6 with theatre-style seating for approx. 60 people (Hall 6, 1st floor).

These four SoS rooms will become bookable via the Hub at specific times yet to be announced.

Please note that each round follows a “first come, first served” principle. Some slots may already be used for team meetings or, for example, the CCC regional meetup before public booking phases open.

In addition, the following lecture halls are coordinated by assemblies:

You can find further event locations on the venue overview page in the Hub.

Equipment

All rooms listed above are equipped with a projector/screen and a sound system, but sessions will not be streamed or recorded by the VOC.

What is not okay?

Commercial advertising & crypto-shilling
Off-topic content
Discrimination

Closing remarks

We trust you to submit cool and relevant sessions. Slots will be released in phases and will be visible immediately after booking.

If you come across sessions that seem problematic, you can flag them. Our moderation team will review and decide.

If you have any further questions about Self-organized Sessions or workshops, feel free to contact 39c3-sessions@cccv.de, or go to the Infodesk during Congress. When contacting us, please always include a link to the relevant Self-organized Session — preferably the URL of an SoS draft created in the Hub Backoffice, or the public event URL https://events.ccc.de/congress/2025/hub/event/detail/XXX.

Image by Yves Sorge, CC BY-SA 2.0

38C3: Self-organized Sessions

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 07:00:00 +0000

TL;DR

We categorize workshops, group meetings, short presentations, etc. as Self-organized Sessions.
You can create self-organized sessions stubs now, but public room booking will only be possible from 17 December.
An overview of all self-organized sessions can be found in the Hub.
To register a self-organized session, use the Backoffice of the Hub.

The magic word is self-organization

You want to arrange a meeting of a group or a discussion about a specific topic? Give a workshop? Host a competition or a game? Organize something outside the building? Want to give a short talk or show a movie? Start a follow-up discussion to one of the big talks? Or plan something else that needs a place at Congress?

Instead of listing all these things individually or creating categories for them, we introduced the term self-organized session a few years ago. Self-organized sessions are, as the name suggests, organized by all of you.

To create a session, click the plus sign in the top right-hand corner of the Hub homepage and then go to “Self-organized Session”. You will be redirected to the Backoffice. If you don’t yet have an account in the Hub, you should create one beforehand. When the session will take place, how long it will last, what you will do there and where it takes place is up to you. For example, you can meet at a bar or in an assembly (please check with those assemblies beforehand!).

If you need a room for more people, you can also book rooms for this purpose from 17 December. When you save the session, a check is made to see whether the selected room is still available at the selected time, otherwise an error message is displayed. Once you have supplied all these details and saved the session, it will appear in the Overview where other participants can find it. If you have selected one of the specified rooms, it will also appear in the schedule (Fahrplan) later.

The following rooms are available for self-organized sessions:

Saal E with theatre-style seating (chairs in rows), approx. 250 seats,
Saal D with banquet seating (large, round tables, e.g. for workshops), approx. 120 seats, and
Saal 6 with theatre-style seating, approx. 60 seats.

These rooms are bookable via the hub, equipped with projector/display and PA, but sessions are neither streamed nor recorded by the VOC.

Further self-organized rooms can be found on the overview page in the hub.

If you have any questions regarding Self-organized Sessions / Workshops, free to contact the “Off Stages & Space Session Orchestration (OSSSO)” Helpdesk via 38c3-ossso@cccv.de or in person at Congress, by visting our desk next to the Infodesk.

Please note that this system runs on a first come, first served basis. The Hub enforces that there can only be one session in a given time slot per room. Some slots might already be reserved by “Orga” team meetings or other sessions (e.g. CCC Regiotreffen) before the public booking phase.

Header image from Yves Sorge, CC BY-SA 2.0

38C3 Hub / Wiki / Assemblies

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 06:00:00 +0000

We have opened the 38C3 Public Wiki – which we generally call “Hub” by now. The hub is meant as the central place for getting information about content at Congress: It aggregates the events from the main stages (Fahrplan), community stages, assemblies, as well as self-organized sessions into one schedule which is then also used by the mobile apps.

You can view the registered and accepted assemblies in the Assembly list. Please note, the Assembly team has not yet processed all registrations and the list will fill up over the next few days.

If you miss your Assembly in the list, please check the status of your registration in the backoffice first before sending an email to the assembly team.

Additionally, you can present your projects, share knowledge in the wiki, put your stuff up for grabs, look for ride-sharing options, and find like-minded people to start projects with.

All features are described in more details in the respective sections of the info pages.

As of now the hub’s search only includes information managed by the hub – which right know does not include the info pages, nor the phonebook, nor media.ccc.de, nor this event blog.

The hub project is still in development, and we’d like to hear about your ideas on what should be included! We have several ideas planned but are a bit short-staffed – if you like to help, the source is available. You can contact the team via Matrix #hub:events.ccc.de or email.