"This con sucks. In fact, every con sucks. Every con was better last year, and that con sucked too."
While this sort of discussion takes place at hundreds of bars, hotel rooms and meeting spaces every year, it would be a good thing to have a solid body of knowledge about the history of hacker conferences, their roots and pre-roots, and trends they show as both a cultural event and context in the world.
Inspired by Beetle's speech on Shmoocon held while at Shmoocon, discussing the not-yet-completed convention, Jason Scott has researched the history of the hacker conference and will present it to an in-progress hacker conference, joining the history of hacker conferences in doing so.
The fast-paced talk will go through the decades-long history of hacker conferences, the major players, some of the heights and depths, and a heavy dollop of gossip along the way. Along the way, we will mention Coney Island.
