We are in London = higher quality conference. That's all that matters to me. Build the highest quality schedule and topics. Bring together the best and brightest.
Our organisation's (Bitcoin Consultancy) mission statement is:
"In April 2011, we formed this consultancy as a collaborative effort to take bitcoin outside the world of tech geeks and hobbyists into the real world."
This conference's mandate is:
"To bring bitcoin to a global financial centre, and be a turning point bringing bitcoin to the fore of the mainstream. It is here that bitcoin will leave its perilous infancy, as the new world briefly meets the old before displacing it."
If you notice the actions of our group, everything is aligned with these statements. From our outreach (Bitcoin Media), to the exchange (Intersango to spread BTC) and our development (libbitcoin to enable people to build lots of bitcoin applications). This conference will be no different, and you will see it designed accordingly. We want to grow bitcoin through the vehicle of this conference. It will be a serious pensive arrangement with deep discussions, not a fun-community weekend piss-up.
London is our avenue for doing that. For building the best conference, we are here and have our support network here. It is where we can best perform. Berlin is foreign unfamiliar non-English speaking territory for us. It's not like to create a conference you just rent out a church hall and throw some plastic chairs in. There is a lot of micromanagement and behind the scenes organisation.
And saying you want to punish us with a boycott until you get a sunnier location of your choosing, when this is our highest quality offering is simply childish and ungrateful. I'm not getting paid working 14 hour days, and the rest of my group is also overworked and underpaid. We are in this because we are lovers of bitcoin (and opensource in my case
).
Our organisation's (Bitcoin Consultancy) mission statement is:
"In April 2011, we formed this consultancy as a collaborative effort to take bitcoin outside the world of tech geeks and hobbyists into the real world."
This conference's mandate is:
"To bring bitcoin to a global financial centre, and be a turning point bringing bitcoin to the fore of the mainstream. It is here that bitcoin will leave its perilous infancy, as the new world briefly meets the old before displacing it."
If you notice the actions of our group, everything is aligned with these statements. From our outreach (Bitcoin Media), to the exchange (Intersango to spread BTC) and our development (libbitcoin to enable people to build lots of bitcoin applications). This conference will be no different, and you will see it designed accordingly. We want to grow bitcoin through the vehicle of this conference. It will be a serious pensive arrangement with deep discussions, not a fun-community weekend piss-up.
London is our avenue for doing that. For building the best conference, we are here and have our support network here. It is where we can best perform. Berlin is foreign unfamiliar non-English speaking territory for us. It's not like to create a conference you just rent out a church hall and throw some plastic chairs in. There is a lot of micromanagement and behind the scenes organisation.
And saying you want to punish us with a boycott until you get a sunnier location of your choosing, when this is our highest quality offering is simply childish and ungrateful. I'm not getting paid working 14 hour days, and the rest of my group is also overworked and underpaid. We are in this because we are lovers of bitcoin (and opensource in my case
).Did I miss something? When did Bitcoin become highjacked by self-proclaimed consultants that seem to know what's best for BTC's promotion?
Your mandate sounds a bit deterministic, even dogmatic. You admit that it is doability and not other factors that limit your venue location to London. Most people in Berlin speak fluent English, let alone many other languages. I don't buy the altruistic reasoning of unpaid volunatary service to the community, neither from you nor anyone.
And punishment? If people cannot attend for obvious financial reasons you have more or less limited the audience to an elite. It's not about punishment, it's about not being able to attend. Some places are more easily attendable than others.