Hi Jim, There's always been an expectation that people will wear their meeting badge, and this is consistent with most similar meetings. When we talk about security, we're generally less concerned about terrorism - we're thinking more in terms of people who might wander in off the street and grab a laptop or cause trouble at the meeting. This is not that uncommon for events held in hotels. We have also had a couple of people in the past trying to attend the meeting without paying - which is unfair to those who have paid for their ticket. In practice nothing has changed - this wording was used in the email we sent ahead of RIPE 76 as well. Kind regards Martina de Mas Event Organiser RIPE NCC
On 11 Oct 2018, at 14:38, Jim Reid <jim@rfc1035.com> wrote:
Since there doesn’t appear to be a mailing list for RIPE77 attendees, this seems the most suitable place to raise the following.
The lovely and efficient NCC meeting staff have sent me (and presumably everyone else) email about practical matters for RIPE77. It contains the following:
"You are required to wear your badge during the meeting at ALL times for security purposes.”
EH?
What “security purposes”? I doubt this badge can protect me from terrorist attack or something dodgy from a nearby frikandel automat. Why are we required to wear badges at all times? When was this rule introduced and who took the decision? Is the next step to have badge goons policing who is allowed to get a coffee or go into the sessions?
If a meeting hotel has some silly rule about wearing badges at all times, I would hope we could just say it’s the hotel that’s imposing this nonsense, not RIPE.