I agree. In fact, I would argue that open source developer conferences actually have fewer drunken revels than more conventional industry trade shows (which, in my experience, also have more issues with exclusion and sexual harassment). However, that doesn't mean that we can't still try for a better balance.

I'm not sure why that's relevant. Should we not try to improve things just because it's 'always been like this'?

It is relevant because of the assertion that it's partially due to 25 year olds and brogrammers. Neither are true.

Also it has not been established that changing things would be an improvement.

Combine the best of both worlds and host a giant rave with solder stations and lots of whiteboards.

Use an ambisonic rig and have tunable quiet spots for all the half-deaf rocket scientists.

I burned myself soldering drunkenly at DEFCON. Not recommended.

Could have an entire floor of danger that requires a breath test on the door to check that you are below, say, 35 µg of alcohol. Make the conference last a fortnight and there is then plenty of time for people to sober up for accessing certain areas containing heavy engineering.

I would pay lots of money to see this.

Would you pay lots of money to help set it up in the first place?

I'd certainly consider it.

I wonder if something like this could be organised through github and kickstarter as a sort of open source crowd funded festival for geeks.

Could even be completely ambitious and plan to have it internationalised from the start with video conferencing devices of various scales and other assorted comms stuff connecting different venues around the world, then it's a lot easier to raise money globally.

And then sync events by projecting live streaming video of the different locations that are running the event? That would be cool!

I'm too busy to actually organise anything, but should you (or anyone else) do anything with this, I'd love to hear about it, so feel free to email me (email in my profile).

> Excluding academic conferences, I don't think programmers drink and more or less than other professionals at conferences.

As an academic, I'm curious in which direction you're implying academic conferences deviate. :)

I have no idea, thats why I exclude them. I don't have experience in that circle or knowledge of friends experience that I can use as a basis to speculate.

yes and no. I attended OSCON[1] in 2005 and 2006 and, like the linked post, I remember a strong focus on BOF sessions and tech-related activities after the main day sessions were over, with a small amount of partying towards the end. Product specific conferences (Oracle, MS etc.) were always more party and less talk, but the audience was very different - I suspect that was the status quo wherever salespeople and corporate folks outnumbered technical people by any margin.

It may be a side effect of the increased popularity of the dev/OSS/startup industry as a whole over the last few years, but I've certainly seen (purely anecdotal, I know) a decrease in productivity and an increase in hangovers & 'remember when bob fell in the fountain' stories the next day...

[1] european. not US.

I think the award for that is probably jointly shared by doctors, journalists and sci-fi authors, with an honorary mention for stock market traders.

[edit] The team representing the traders were in an early lead, but they all got disqualified after testing positive for cocaine. The doctors and authors should have been disqualified as well, but the doctors all said they had a sore leg and none of the substances in the authors' blood showed up on any known test. As far as anybody can tell, the journalists were just drunk, but no-one really knows what happened to them in the end, although there are some unconfirmed reports of one being eaten by a leopard.