FAQ

This is a work in progress. Keep checking for updates.

General

Who are you?

This event is organised by a non-profit organisation and produced entirely by volunteers. We are members of well-known hackerspaces and other organisations. Get in touch if you want to join us in making this happen.

Who are you (officially)?

Electromagnetic Field Ltd. is a non-profit company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales with company number 07788466. Registered office: 2 Ockendon Mews, London N1 3JL

Why are you doing this?

There now are dozens of hackerspaces and makerspaces in the UK, and countless other communities of craftsmen, artists, designers, engineers who are interested in the same DIY ethic; but they have few opportunities to all meet up. Most events catering to these communities are small regional conferences and often focused on very specific themes.

We want to change that :)

Why Milton Keynes?

We looked at a fair number of candidate sites. The site we ended up with was the best candidate for a number of reasons:

• It comes at a comparably low price (some of the candidate sites we looked at asked for tens of thousands of £££.)
• It has great transport links to much of the UK (both roads and trains.)
• It is close(ish) to a few data centres and high speed Internet uplinks.
• We were there last time and it seemed to work well

Bonus: it is very close to Bletchley Park :)

Ticket Sales

How can I get a ticket?

Tickets will be on sale from our web site soon. This time there will be no day tickets and camp tickets are likely to sell out in advance.

How much does it cost?

Adult tickets last time were £95. We are aiming for a similar price this year. There are a limited number of tickets available for under-14s at a lower price (accompanied by an adult). Children under 5 can attend for free.

If you have a Camper van you will need a Camper van ticket.

Online payment is via Google Checkout (which charges a small fee).

Do volunteers pay for their ticket?

Everyone is expected to buy a ticket, including people in the organising team and all volunteers.

Is there an age limit?

We encourage children and young people to attend. However there are a number of things to bear in mind: - Everyone under 18 needs to be registered at the Infodesk when they enter the camp. This is a requirement of our event license. - Children under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult at all times. - There will be dangerous things on site, but they will be clearly marked. - Licensed alcohol sales are only for people of age 18 and over. Bar staff will ask for ID.

Planning your Attendance

Where is it? How can I get there?

Refer to Location. NOTE: We have moved! It's only a few miles down the road, but please don't go to the old site!

When can I arrive? When do I have to leave by?

The site will open to ticket holders at 08:00 Friday morning.

All ticket holders must leave the site by 12:00 Monday.

We will be there before and afterwards setting up and packing up, if you want to help with this please let us know and we can make arrangements. It's worth noting outside these times we can't guarantee availability of toilets/water/electricity/internet etc.

Have a look at our Timeline for an updated summary.

When do things kick off?

We talks and workshops will begin at (TBD after lunch) on Friday, although people will be setting up earlier in the day.

Talks and workshops run daily finish in the evening, although we expect villages will be doing things late into the night!

What should I bring?

Please take a look at our Packing List for information on what you should and shouldn't bring.

Will there be food?

We appreciate we didn't do well at this last time. This year we have lined up multiple food stalls, hopefully catering to all your needs. Details will be posted in due course.

Will there be a bar?

Yes, we'll be running a volunteer-staffed licensed bar selling beer and wine, as well as soft drinks and the hacker energy drink Club Mate. Far from the usual crap festival beer, we will be serving real ale from local breweries with all profits going towards making the next iteration of Electromagnetic Field more awesome.

The bar on site opening hours are subject to licensing which will be finalised soon.

Can I bring pets?

Sorry, animals (except guide dogs) are not allowed.

Can I bring X/Y/Z?

tl;dr Probably

Please let us know if it's going to be large/use a lot of power/be noisy or anything else you think we should know. We don't plan on stopping people bringing the latest cool laser helmet for shark 3d printer arduino powered UAV thing, but we need to plan for it. Note that access to the site is several hundred metres from the carpark and you will not be able to drive up to the site.

Camp Infrastructure

Can I see the camp layout?

We're working on this atm. Some initial information can be found at: [Location].

Is there parking available?

Yes. Parking tickets will be on sale with tickets. Please note the parking is not adjacent to the site. Expect a shuttle from the car park and no access to site for drop offs.

Can I bring my camper van?

We have limited parking for camper vans - you can buy a ticket for £30 through our tickets site.

Will there be Internet access?

Yes, we are provisioning onsite high speed wifi and wired access (direct to your tent!), see Internet.

Can I make a fire, or bring my own BBQ?

To be confirmed.

Getting Involved

What will I be able to do?

We're planning a full line up of speakers and workshops as well as awesome things around the site. We will also be supporting community organised 'villages' and looking for volunteers to help run the event.

What is a 'Village'?

Villages are camps organised around a theme, it could be anything, but is often a location or a topic (e.g. lock-picking). By organising villages ahead of time we can help provide better equipment (e.g. large tents to use) as well as making sure that they have an area ahead of time. If you want to find out more about villages, join one or see what villages have already been organised check the Villages page.

How do I give a talk/run a workshop?

We'll (very) soon be opening our Call for Participation (CfP) so if you want to give a talk or run a workshop keep an eye out for it. We really want a wide variety of topics from as diverse a group of people as we can so don't be shy! If you've missed the CfP then don't worry, there will be lightning talk sessions and villages are welcome to run their own talks and workshops.

Would people be interested in a talk on X?

Yes. There are obviously a few caveats on that but they're covered in the CfP

I want to bring/make something awesome, can you help?

Hopefully. We have a limited budget to put towards making the camp amazing and we want to share it with those of you who will bring awesome things. At EMF2012 we had a giant hammock, floating LEDs, a wooden dinosaur and 'EMF' written in 5m tall steel letters. If there's something amazing that you'd like to make and bring along but need some help buying materials we'll be opening our submissions process soon.

How do I volunteer?

The easiest way is to tick the 'interested in volunteering' box when you buy your ticket (sorry volunteers still need a ticket). If you missed it don't worry you can volunteer at any time by signing in and ticking the box. Once you've signed up to volunteer we'll get in contact with you closer to the time to organise shifts.