Attending FORM

Code of
conduct

Short, plain and enforced. One standard for everyone in the building: attendees, speakers, partners, crew and the organisers who wrote it.

FORM exists so that two thousand people can argue about typography in good faith for three days. That only works when everyone here is free to speak, free to disagree and free to walk away from a conversation.

This page is the whole policy. There is no longer version, no annex and no clause written to protect the conference rather than the people at it. Two named organisers enforce it, and both of them are listed further down this page.

Report Something

The Standard

Three lists,
no small print

If you are unsure which side of this something falls on, it falls on the wrong side. Ask a duty organiser before you do it, not after.

One standard for everyone: attendees, speakers, partners, crew and organisers

What we expect

  • Treat everyone here as a colleague, whatever their title
  • Assume the person in front of you knows more than you
  • Criticise the work, never the person, and be specific
  • Ask before you photograph, record or post anyone
  • Leave room for the person who has not spoken yet
  • Take a no the first time that it is given

What ends a pass

  • Harassment, or sustained disruption of a session
  • Remarks about a body, an identity or an accent
  • Sexual imagery or language in talks or on stands
  • Photographing an attendee who has said no to it
  • Following or cornering someone who has walked away
  • Retaliation against anyone who reports, or supports one

Where this applies

  • Every hall, foyer, stand and workshop room
  • Opening Night, the Speaker Dinner, the party
  • The conference app and the platform chat
  • Side events and parties run under the FORM name
  • Anything posted from a FORM stage or hashtag

Reporting

Four ways
to tell us

Every route reaches the same two duty organisers, Ines Baumann and Nadia Krause. One of them is on site from 08:00 to 22:00 on all three days, and you can ask for either by name at any desk.

On Site Desk

Registration, Hall 1 foyer, or any crew member in a chartreuse lanyard

Duty Phone

+49 30 5557 0412

Anonymous Form

On the conference platform under Help, reaching the same two people

After A Report

What happens,
in order

You decide how far this goes. Nothing moves to the next step without you being told first, and nothing is closed in silence.

STEP 01

We listen and write it down

A duty organiser takes the report somewhere private, in your words, at your pace. Nothing is recorded and nothing goes back to the room.

STEP 02

We ask what you want to happen

Logged only, mediated, or acted on. You choose, you can change your mind later, and choosing the first does not close the door on the third.

STEP 03

We check the account

Both people are spoken to separately. You are never asked to be in the same room, repeat the account in front of anyone, or prove it twice.

STEP 04

Two organisers decide together

Never one person alone, and never a committee. A speaker, a partner or a member of crew is held to exactly the standard an attendee is.

STEP 05

We tell you the outcome

In person if you are still on site, by email within five working days if you are not. You are told what was decided and what happens next year.

Consequences

What a breach
costs

We start where the behaviour sits, not at the bottom of the ladder. Serious harm goes straight to the last rung, on the day, without a warning first.

Report Something

The Ladder

01

A word from a duty organiser

Logged, and the only warning given

02

Removal from a session, a stand or an event

Pass stays, access narrows

03

Pass revoked for the rest of the edition

No refund, badge surrendered

04

Barred from future editions, partners included

Contract cancelled, fee retained

A partner or a speaker who reaches the fourth rung loses the contract and the fee with it. That has happened once in four editions, and we would take the same decision again.