zlacker

It's interesting to differentiate between tech conferences and hacker conferences. When you compare tech conferences, as cited in the article and in this thread, to conferences like DefCon (at least in the AP days), HOPE, and CCC Congress, the differences are startling.

It seems that tech conferences are more about career, and focused on jobs. Hacker conferences, on the other hand, focus on ideas and Big Problems that exist in the world. As an example, look at the slides from a talk at CCC Congress, and compare them to a slide from a tech conference. Chances are the speaker is not using their legal name, and also most likely does not share their company, if they are working.