Subject: Skrytemail
From: Vegard Skjefstad <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 12:21:58 +0200

One picture says more than a thousand words.
Back from when we were only 3300.
http://www.gathering.org/~perk/gallery/IMG0042B.jpg 
<http://www.gathering.org/%7Eperk/gallery/IMG0042B.jpg>

Article in Wired:
http://www.gathering.org/presse/tg95/wired/democoders.html

Article in Fast Company
Write Code. Do Demos. Party On. The Gathering - the world's largest (and 
loudest ) computer party. by Rekha Balu illustrations ...
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/37/rftf.html

The Gathering 2003 - Hamar, Norway, Easter 2002.

Wednesday 16th of April, 09:00 thru Sunday 20st of March, 16:00.

This is a presentation of a unique opportunity to be involved with one 
of the largest cyberfestivals of the future. Unlike other events, it's 
created from the roots of the computeryouth and already has a track 
record to show for it. Go for the real thing and accept no fakes. This 
is where the technoid youth is!

There is a new world out there, consisting of whizzing electrons and 
glowing, electrifying photons that whirl in a dazzling, almost hypnotic 
dance of the mind. The world extends through cables in all sorts of 
colours taken from the rainbow, speeding thru switches at the speed of 
light, sometimes being only light. The people and beings inhabiting this 
realm is the young and unafraid.

Young at heart or age, where their desire to beyond what has been done 
before is the proof of their courage. They will be caretakers and rulers 
of the electronic world we're entering where information is the highest 
currency and knowledge is both the key and the lock. Every once in a 
while these people and the ones that aspire to be like them, come 
together in the physical realm.

One of these places of haven for the ones that live the future is 
computer festivals (demo parties), being the largest playground to meet, 
play with and even discuss serious matters at hand with your fellow 
travellers on the path to the future of bits and bytes. Here exists no 
skin colour, no nationalities, none political or religious bias. The way 
you live, say and think is the way others judge you, not only by the 
knowledge you possess, but what knowledge you seek and how you seek to 
gain it. At the top of these festivals ranks the Nordic party which 
caters for all ways of electronic and cyber indulgence

Welcome to The Gathering

Background: The Gathering (TG) is the result of a challenge. As a 
response to various more or less well justified complaints of other 
parties, the founders behind TG was asked the always brilliant question 
: "Well, if you think it's that easy, host a party yourself!".
We though about it....and did.

After spending about a year in preparation, expecting 600 people to 
arrive at the party in 1992, the turnout was around 1100, setting the 
pace for others to follow.
1993 - approx 1400 people attended
1994 - approx 1800 people attended
1995 - approx 1500 people attended (this year it was held in 
Stavanger,making travel distances larger and attendance lower)
1996 - approx 2500 (first year in The Vikingship Olympic Arena at Hamar, 
famous from the Olympics in 1994)
1997 - approx 3300 SOLD OUT!
1998 - 4300 people SOLD OUT! 1000-1500 people turned away
1999 - 5300 people SOLD OUT! 2000-2500 people turned away
2000 - 5300 people SOLD OUT! 3500-4000 people turned away
2002 - 5300 people SOLD OUT! 4000-5000 people expected to be turned away
2003 - 5300 people SOLD OUT! 2000 people on waiting list for tickets as 
of current.

Being one the four big parties in the world (Assembly/Finland - fall, 
The Party/Denmark - Christmas, Dreamhack/Sweden - Halloween being the 
others), TG is both a national and international event which has grown 
exponentially with the Internet.

One of the landmark records set at The Gathering is a result of 
providing the worlds largest temporary network (in 1996 around 1500 
connections with an average of 700-900 users at any given time), to 2000 
with more than 4800 connections and a peak of 2800 users a second, A 
world record we're quite proud of. The network handles immensen amount 
of data, and we expect to break the petabyte barrier this year. The 
website peaks several millions of hits during the event itself.

The interest for these event can easily be derived from the number of 
downloads from ftp.hornet.org <ftp://ftp.hornet.org/> (part of 
ftp.cdrom.com), which surpasses 200.000 in any given week. The interest 
for demos, gaming, IRC and the events around them are immense in the 
computer-savvy youth cultures. Quote from a trend researcher from 
Coca-Cola International printed in Dagens Naeringsliv (Norway's largest 
business newspaper): "There will be seven dominating youth cultures in 
the future... Number one of these will be the technoid youth culture, an 
early sign of this is for example The Gathering held in Hamar, Norway 
every year."

Structure
The structure of the organisation behind the party has developed from 
being held by a computer group called The Crusaders, to developing into 
a non-profit organisation called KANDU (loosely translated Creative, 
Active, Norwegian Computer Youth). The goals of this organisation is to 
promote the joy of creativity with the computer universe at your 
fingertips both at TG, in Norway at other events supporting smaller and 
local events (with help and infrastructure) and in other countries. 
KANDU has helped parties in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Taiwan, UK and US 
as well, backed by a drive to doing what no party, organization, event 
or company can do. We're making solutions to problems that seems almost 
impossible to the outside world!

In February of 1998, TGTW (The Gathering Taiwan) was held with the 
presence of KANDU members to ensure the same creative, easygoing and 
informal environment prevails. Computer leaders of the future connects 
and networks for the first time!

One of the main events at TG is the demo events. Years ago, young people 
used the term _demo_ as shorthand for a political march or rally. Now, 
to thousands of computer-obsessed kids across Europe (and a growing 
number in the US), it's more likely to mean a short, self contained 
graphics-and-sound demonstration programming. But it isn't a 
demonstration of a game or business application, and it hasn't been 
commissioned for any ulterior commercial purpose. The only thing it 
demonstrates is the skills of its programmers or, more often, the skills 
of a group of programmers, graphic artists, and musicians who've grouped 
together. And the only reason it has been written is to show off and 
enjoy fame in the culture itself. We have prize money for these 
competitions but glory and international recognition is the key 
incentive. Being pieces of electronic art of exceptional quality, many 
of the participants also attract attention from game-, music-, and 
graphics companies in need of talent.

The idea behind TG is developing into creating a global event with 
physical presence in several places on the planet. 4000 people from 
mainly Norway, but also Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the rest of Europe in 
smaller numbers and even a few from the US (20 people flew in from US 
last year to participate) will strain the Norwegian arena's 
capabilities. To provide a 'localised' event, presumably in 
Central-Europe, Asia and US will provide the same unique feeling to each 
and every attendee wherever he or she is, with competitions and 
infrastructure at both a local level, and at a international level to 
give an extra, global dimension to the events.

Virtual presence thru the Internet will give cyberattendance a new 
meaning, where actually participate virtually, instead of passively 
consuming boring old noninteractive cybercasts. The youth makes and does 
everything at these parties themselves, as all functions are based on 
volunteer work, creating things never before seen with their own hands 
and minds. Creativity is important, whether demos, music, graphics, 
games or anything is their main interest. The demographic data on the 
attendee is a male student between 16-20 years (up from 14-18 years in 
1992). On special notes TG is the only party to involve the girls, with 
about 20% girls in 1999. The age span is also increasing to include 
everyone from 12 through 30 years. More university students and computer 
professionals keeps the ties to and even returns to the culture they 
came from. Especially game and internet companies have their people 
spending time at TG.

Sponsorship opportunities
Being a non-profit organization, KANDU is providing a breeding ground 
for all these creativeideas. The ways to make this come true are 
dependent upon normal sponsorship deals and co-operating partners from 
media and computer companies.

Cisco, the sponsor/partner of the local computer network, provided 
switches to make the network (and internet) available to every attendee. 
In this truly heterogeneous network with basically every platform 
physically possible to plug into an Ethernet network, situations not 
found during 2 months of lab testing developed within the hour. All 
these issues were solved quickly with valuable input from our tech-crew, 
giving Cisco testing and benchmarking on a real, live network bristling 
with life. More than 1100 workgroups and 49 network protocols in 
addition to the large throughput is quite a feat in a network put up in 
a little less than 24 hours of physical cabling time! Quite a few people 
on our networking crew have been hired into related jobs with TG as 
theirmain reference.

Being Easter (which is a holiday in Europe) , and developing out of an 
underground community we have long experience in helping 
sponsors/partners make their presence on The Gathering being as fruitful 
as possible. All we need is the material to be exposed or help to create 
it. Personal attendance is always a Good Thing (TM), but in no way 
necessary. The Gathering is a unique opportunity to reach potential 
customers. In terms of advertising, you have a 100% target-group. EVERY 
person who sees the advert is likely to buy either your product or a 
similar product. National offices or representatives from international 
companies like Microsoft, Novell, Silicon Graphics, Hewlett-Packard, 
IBM, BMG and Coca-Cola have seen the value of being represented at TG.

Our presence is felt in all forms of national media like news on radio, 
TV, WEB and newspapers. Special programs were made at TG last year, NRK 
(national broadcasting) had one hour special transmit from TG each day. 
National and Nordic computer publications were present and some even 
sponsored (like Tekno magazine). Telenor Internett and SOL made our 
presence felt on the web, and BBC Radio 1 of UK made a special note on 
the fact that BMG sponsored a record-deal for the winner of the 
music-competition. Wired Magazine (both UK and International editions) 
have made articles about this culture based on their impressions from 
The Gathering. The common way to the company visible is in form of 
banners, weblinks, TG-Vision (our new international, interactive web-tv 
service) and promotional items. Another way especially for our partners 
is providing the means for a better event in every way. Sponsoring the 
resources or competitions makes not only the attendees at the event, but 
world-wide attendees and browsers year long know who made it possible - 
YOUR COMPANY!