Time for #AskFedi: what should I about the CCC congress before going?

Update: nevermind, this year's in-person event was cancelled. But the discussion that this thread has generated contains some interesting information for future reference. Hoping that 2023 can be in person!

Ok Fediverse, here's the thing: as the 37C3 seems to be confirmed at this time, I'm thinking about attending it for the first time ever. After all, it's my first time living in Europe, and even if not in Germany, I've never been as close to it as right now. And seeing that this is also their first in-person edition since the pandemic, time seems right.

Naturally, I have a lot of questions as of how the event is structured that I couldn't exactly find in the CCC website. The best page I could find on the subject is this wiki from the 2016 edition (33C3), which seems to be the latest (or maybe later editions didn't bother with doing a Wiki over again). So, if you've attended a previous CCC event, or are a regular in the business, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following points:

• How much do the tickets for the event cost? The wiki states they started at 100 EUR, but that was for 2016. Their ticketing system also hasn't been updated to this years' event as of this writing. I guess they can't settle for free due to having to rent that (seemingly huge) venue.
• Do the tickets allow entrance for all 3 days of the event?
• Is there a list of booths or spaces for the Free Software projects that participate in the event? I'd love to know who's there beforehand.
• How "isolated" is the congress center from the greater city of Hamburg? I'm asking this because I plan to travel with my partner who isn't a big fan of computers or hacking, and probably would prefer to sightsee around the area instead. Anybody familiar with the city knows if there's interesting things to do out of CCH?
• Should I bring my laptop with a "clean install" (i.e. a throwaway hard drive) so that if I "catch" anything in the convention wiping it out will be no problem? I mean, I heard stories of people bringing malware home from DEFCON or Black Hat.
• Does a lot of social interaction in person goes on in the congress? Can you get a few contacts to add in your jabber roster afterwards? Or is it more of a "us and our computers" kind of convention?

Luckily the Wiki has lots of other relatively immutable information (like restaurants, hotels, etc) that I believe should still be the same. But truth is, I have questions about events of this sort in general, since I almost never been to any. So I guess there is a last, but the biggest question of all for you guys:

• Are you going to attend the 37C3 and can I meet you there? ;)

Let me know on Mastodon! Thank you for any reply and answers regarding these questions. I hope the event goes forward as planned and I can meet you there!

This post is number #38 of my #100DaysToOffload project. Follow my progress through Mastodon!

Last updated on 10/17/22