Dear all, First of all, I do enjoy the RIPE meeting socials very much, and as a regular attendee I’m also coming prepared as I know what I can expect. However, that might not be true for everyone. Especially newcomers who might have expected a location outside the conference hotel where they could have a chat in a more informal setting. The Tuesday social had no silent space (?), and besides the loud music there was also the use of stroboscopic/flashing effects (can trigger epilepsy). I feel that people should be warned upfront (e.g. meeting plan) that this might happen, whether there is a silent space, and even better to hand out earplugs aside to the welcome drinks. The same for the Thursday night dinner, which also overlaps with some issues I observed on the Monday evening welcome reception. Again, the noise was quite loud again (earbuds with ANC really take the sting out of that, I’m using that all the time) but I also saw the use of smoke effects. Feeling a bit under the weather due to a cold I contracted earlier that week I feared for coughing fits. Luckily that didn’t happen, but I can imagine that this is quite worrisome for people with permanent respiratory issues. The quiet space was available, however it was outside where the cold/humidity was addressed by outdoor heating but also where all the smokers were, which lets me circle back to the smoke effects mentioned earlier on. I also noticed the indoor smoking during the Monday evening reception. Probably still legal in Bulgaria but dividing the place up into smoking/non-smoking areas would have been appreciated. I hope this feedback, of course with previous recommendations, can be used to both set expectations as well as keeping it accessible for everyone. And again, I do enjoy these socials very much and I’m not asking for a change of the existing formula. Warm regards, Ruben
Dear Ruben, Many thanks for the feedback. We will definitely take this on board and will discuss what changes we can make to improve the experience. I am glad to hear though that you are still enjoying the RIPE Meeting socials. Kind Regards, Mirjam (RIPE Chair) On 02/11/2026 13:29, Ruben van Staveren via diversity wrote:
Dear all,
First of all, I do enjoy the RIPE meeting socials very much, and as a regular attendee I’m also coming prepared as I know what I can expect.
However, that might not be true for everyone. Especially newcomers who might have expected a location outside the conference hotel where they could have a chat in a more informal setting.
The Tuesday social had no silent space (?), and besides the loud music there was also the use of stroboscopic/flashing effects (can trigger epilepsy). I feel that people should be warned upfront (e.g. meeting plan) that this might happen, whether there is a silent space, and even better to hand out earplugs aside to the welcome drinks.
The same for the Thursday night dinner, which also overlaps with some issues I observed on the Monday evening welcome reception. Again, the noise was quite loud again (earbuds with ANC really take the sting out of that, I’m using that all the time) but I also saw the use of smoke effects. Feeling a bit under the weather due to a cold I contracted earlier that week I feared for coughing fits.
Luckily that didn’t happen, but I can imagine that this is quite worrisome for people with permanent respiratory issues. The quiet space was available, however it was outside where the cold/humidity was addressed by outdoor heating but also where all the smokers were, which lets me circle back to the smoke effects mentioned earlier on. I also noticed the indoor smoking during the Monday evening reception. Probably still legal in Bulgaria but dividing the place up into smoking/non-smoking areas would have been appreciated.
I hope this feedback, of course with previous recommendations, can be used to both set expectations as well as keeping it accessible for everyone.
And again, I do enjoy these socials very much and I’m not asking for a change of the existing formula.
Warm regards, Ruben
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participants (2)
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Mirjam Kuehne -
Ruben van Staveren