Code of Conduct

This policy is a living document and subject to refinement and updates in the future. Last update on 7 June 2019.

The Lead Developer is a friendly community where everyone should feel welcome, safe and comfortable to share ideas and engage in open discussion. It’s really important for us to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone at the conference inclusive of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, nationality or religion.

All delegates, speakers, sponsors and staff are required to abide by our code of conduct in-person at White October Events conferences and meetups, and online. Any violations will be dealt with seriously and may include being expelled and banned from events or online spaces without a refund. This is to protect the safety of our community.

Definitions

What do we mean by “harassment”? Harassment includes but isn’t limited to:

Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurotype, physical appearance, body size, race, age, nationality, religion or belief, marital and civil partnership status, pregnancy or carer or parental status, familial status, veteran status, citizenship
Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment
Homophobic, biphobic, transphobic, racist, or misogynist slurs or comments
Deliberate misgendering
Physical contact without consent or after a request to cease
Threats or acts of violence or intimidation
Unwelcome sexual attention
Sharing/displaying sexual or sexualised images
Deliberate “outing” of any aspect of a person’s identity without their consent
Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes
Sustained disruption of discussion
Advocating for or encouraging any of the above behaviours

We prioritise the safety of marginalised people over privileged people’s comfort. This means we reserve the right not to act on complaints regarding:

Reverse-isms, including ‘reverse racism’, ‘reverse sexism’, and ‘cisphobia’
Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone”, “go away”, “I’m not discussing this with you”
Criticising racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behaviour

Consequences

Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to stop immediately.

Participants engaging in harassing behaviour may be asked to leave an event or online space and may be banned temporarily or indefinitely. If a ticket was purchased for an in-person or online event, we reserve the right not to issue a refund.

If harassment occurs outside an event or online space organised by White October Events that may impact the safety of our community, we reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action, for instance banning from future events.

Reporting

If you are being harassed or made to feel unsafe or unwelcome, please report it as soon as possible. You can help us by reporting any behaviour you think might go against the Code of Conduct.

Email: Megan Kingdom-Davies, Event Manager: [email protected]
Call/text: +44 7753 334 342
In-person at events: speak to a staff member wearing a t-shirt with ‘staff’ or ‘organiser’ on the back.

Reporting & enforcement process

Incident report is taken in a safe, private space
Incident responders investigate with the reported person
Incident response team reconvene to discuss an appropriate response
Appropriate action is taken
Incident responders follow up with the reporter and the reported person
Inform community if necessary
Debrief and document internally

Important local contacts to be updated closer to the conference.

Emergency services: 111
Non-emergency police: TBC
Non-emergency medical: TBC
Local hospital: St. Hedwig-Krankenhausm, Grobe Hamburger Strabe 5-11, 10115, Berlin, Germany
A 6-minute drive away (1.2 miles) or a 14-minute walk (0.6 miles)
Local taxi: we’d recommend using a ride-sharing app for reliable, affordable local transport. Feel free to connect to the conference wifi to book your ride.