Code of Conduct

All attendees of Multicore World 2023 agree to be bound by the Multicore World Code of Conduct.

Multicore World aims to provide welcoming and professional environments so that diverse groups of people – regardless of age, race, gender identity or expression, background, disability, appearance, sexuality, walk of life, or religion – can get together to learn from and be inspired by each other about all the topics presented and discussed in our conference.

Open Parallel Ltd -the organiser of Multicore World, is member of professional bodies such as ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), NZRise (New Zealand Rise), ITP (IT Professionals New Zealand), NZOSS (New Zealand Open Source Society), Canterbury Tech and Business South, and abides by their principles. We are committed to the ideals expressed in ACM’s Policy Against Harassment (acm.org/about-acm/policy-against-harassment) and ask all our speakers, volunteers, attendees and guests to adopt these principles. We are a diverse community. Sometimes this means we need to work harder to ensure we’re creating an environment of trust and respect where all who come to participate feel comfortable and included.

We value your participation and appreciate your help in realising this goal.

Be respectful

Respect yourself, and respect others. Be courteous to those around you. If someone indicates they don’t wish to be photographed, respect that wish. If someone indicates they would like to be left alone, let them be. Our event venues and online spaces may be shared with members of the public; please be considerate to all patrons of these locations.

Be inclusive

All presentation material should be suitable for people aged 12 and above.

Any public presentation which is part of any event, including but not limited to keynotes, presentations, lightning talks, addresses, mailing list posts, forums and any form of social media related to Multicore World, is subject to this code of conduct and thus may not contain:

sexual or violent imagery;
exclusionary language;
insults or ad-hominem attacks.

Presenters are asked to avoid language which is not appropriate for an all-ages audience as much as possible.

If the subject matter of the presentation cannot be presented adequately without including language that could be considered offensive, this should be pointed out in advance, at the beginning of the talk and in the schedule.

If presenters are unsure whether their material is suitable, they are encouraged to show it to the conference’s speaker liaison or mailing list/forum moderators before their session.

Be aware

We ask everyone to be aware that we will not tolerate intimidation, harassment, or any abusive, discriminatory or derogatory behaviour by anyone at any event or online.

Complaints can be made to the organiser by contacting the registration desk or by contacting the relevant email addresses. All complaints made to event organiser will remain confidential and be taken seriously. The complaint will be treated appropriately with discretion. Should event organisers or moderators consider it appropriate, measures they may take include:

the individuals may be told to apologise
the individuals may be told to stop/modify their behaviour appropriately
the individuals may be warned that enforcement action may be taken if the behaviour continues
the individuals may be asked to immediately leave the venue and/or will be prohibited from continuing to attend the event
the incident may be reported to the appropriate authorities

What does that mean for me?

All participants, including event attendees and speakers must not engage in any intimidation, harassment, or abusive or discriminatory behaviour.

Here are some examples of behaviours which are not appropriate:

offensive verbal or written remarks related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion;
sexual or violent images in public spaces (including presentation slides);
deliberate intimidation;
stalking or following;
unwanted photography or recording;
sustained disruption of talks or other events;
intoxication at an event venue;
inappropriate physical contact;
unwelcome sexual attention;
sexist, racist, or other exclusionary jokes;
unwarranted exclusion from conference or related events based on age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion;

We want everyone to have a good time at our events.

Questions?

If you’re not sure about anything you’ve just read please contact the organisers through info@multicoreworld.com

This Code of Conduct has been adapted from LCA (Linux Conference Australia) Code of Conduct which is available here.

This document is available to be re-used or modified under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia licence, available here from CreativeCommons.org

Why do we have an official anti-harassment policy for Multicore World?

First, it is necessary (unfortunately). Harassment at events can be incredibly common.
Second, it sets expectations for behaviour at the event. Simply having an anti-harassment policy can prevent harassment all by itself.
Third, it encourages people to attend who have had bad experiences at other events.
Finally, it gives event staff instructions on how to handle harassment quickly, with the minimum amount of disruption for the event.

Featured Image: Oriental Bay, Wellington.

Credit: Pivot Photography -through Wellington Resource Hub.