Chaos Communication Congress


The Chaos Communication Congress is an annual conference organized by the Chaos Computer Club. The congress features a variety of lectures and workshops on technical and political issues related to security, cryptography, privacy and online freedom of speech. The event takes place regularly at the end of the year since 1984, with the current date and duration established in 2005. It is considered one of the largest events of this kind, alongside the DEF CON in Las Vegas.

History

The congress started out in 1984 in Hamburg, moved to Berlin in 1998, and back to Hamburg in 2012, having exceeded the capacity of the Berlin venue with more than attendees. Since then, the congress continues to attract an increasing number of people, around attendees in 2012, over in 2015 and more than in 2017. Since 2017 the congress takes place at the Trade Fair Grounds in Leipzig, since the Hamburg venue had been closed due to renovation in 2017 and the existing space was not enough for the growing congress.
A large range of speakers are part of the scene. Organizational work is done by volunteers called Chaos Angels. The non-members entry fee for four days was 100 euro in 2016, which was raised to 120 euro in 2018 in order to include a public transport ticket for the Leipzig area in the price.
An important part of the congress are the assemblies, semi-open spaces with clusters of tables and internet connections for groups and individuals to collaborate and socialize in projects, workshops and hands-on talks. These assembly spaces, introduced at the 2012 meeting, combine the hack center project space and distributed group spaces of former years.
From 1997 to 2004 the congress also hosted the annual German Lockpicking Championships. 2005 was the first year the Congress lasted four days instead of three and lacked the German Lockpicking Championships.

Congresses from 1984 to today

Gallery