Code Conduct

DevCon is taking place in Romania and is organized by Catalyst Solutions SRL. All further references to the event from this document will be done through the legal organizer of the event, Catalyst Solutions SRL.

Please take further notice that this is an Anti-Harassment Policy during our events.

All attendees, speakers, sponsors, and volunteers at our conference are required to agree with the following code of conduct for all our events under the umbrella of DevTalks Romania (DevTalks Romania, DevTalks Reimagined, DevCon, DevHacks, DevAfterWork). Organizers will enforce this code throughout the event. We are expecting cooperation from all participants to help ensuring a safe environment for everybody.

Our conference is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion (or lack thereof). We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants, speakers, or partners in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, parties, Twitter and other online media. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the conference organizers.

The same code of conduct applies for the virtual editions of all our events under the DevTalks Romania umbrella, meaning that any form of harassment of conference participants, speakers, partners, or organizers in any form will be sanctioned and will imply the expulsion from the online conference at any moment from the conference organizers.

In virtual editions, any form of aggression or offensive verbal comments is prohibited. The organizers reserve the right to block the participant in the chat area, if he has negative comments, insults to other participants, speakers, partners, or organizers.

Organizers may decide to block and remove participants from the virtual conference who use trivial language and references to gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race etc.

In physical editions, we do not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form, and we expect all participants to conduct themselves in a professional and appropriate manner. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference, without a refund, at the discretion of the conference organizers.

Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

The sponsors and partners are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, the sponsors and partners should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material. Booth staff (including volunteers) should not use sexualized clothing/uniforms/costumes, or otherwise create a sexualized environment.

In physical editions, exhibitors should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material in their booths and must refrain from the use of sexualized clothing, uniforms, costumes, or otherwise creating a sexualized environment. Speakers should not use sexual language, images, or any language or images that could constitute harassment as defined above in their talks. Speakers should also use inclusive language.

All forms of (online) harassment or (online) bullying are unacceptable at all the events under the umbrella of DevTalks Romania (DevCon) or any of our side events, including:

• Strong, vulgar, obscene or otherwise harmful language;
• Racially, ethnically or otherwise, objectionable language;
• Harassing, intimidating, stalking or threatening other participants, speakers, organizers and partners;
• Libelous, defamatory or otherwise tortuous language;
• Impersonation of another person;
• Posting, distributing, transmitting or promoting illegal content;
• Invasion of another’s privacy;
• Actions that are harmful to minors;
• Posting, providing, transmitting or otherwise making available any materials or information infringing on the rights of a third party;
• Posting, providing, transmitting or otherwise making available any junk mail or spam;
• Posting, uploading, emailing or otherwise transmitting any material that contains any malicious computer code, or reverse engineering or hacking any materials on the Event website.

Participants that are asked to stop any bad behavior are expected to do so immediately. If a fair warning doesn’t help, violation of this code will lead to expulsion from the event without a refund. This goes for everyone at DevTalks Romania Events, including participants, speakers, organizers, and partners.

Examples of values we follow:

• be friendly and welcoming with all the speakers, participants, partners and sponsors;
• listen with attention, create space for others’ communication preferences;
• be patient and try to use a clear communication: remember that people are different and have varying communication style and preferences;
• accept that not everyone is using their native language (meaning, tone, grammar);
• be thoughtful: maybe your ideas will be interpret in a certain/different way;
• be respectful and inclusive to others and respect differences of opinion;
• try not to be negative, not condemn or criticize;
• accept and make an effort to include people who are different from you;
• ask questions to understand, not denounce;
• try to focus on continuous learning - get better at the things you already know, try to learn completely new things, and ask others about their expertise to deepen yours;

To sum up:

• treat the other participants, speakers, sponsors and partners with respect and kindness;
• be polite and use welcoming messages and an inclusive language;
• take care about how you communicate in person, and in this case, ONLINE;
• listen with purpose, create space for others’ communication preferences; honor them by shifting yours to accommodate.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference with no refund.

If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact a member of conference staff immediately.

We expect participants to follow these rules at conference, workshop or online venues and conference-related social events.

Reach out to the organizers if you need anything at all!

Conference staff will be happy to help participants contact hotel/venue security (platform owners – for the virtual events) or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or event expulsion from the online platform or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference. We value the attendance of all our participants, speakers, partners, or sponsors.

We have our staff or volunteers on site and are clearly identifiable by their volunteer or staff badges. They have been briefed to immediately escalate incidents to their project coordinators who will then liaise with medical or security staff, or Police, where required.

Additionally, there are easily identifiable security staff, throughout the venue, who are professionally trained according to best practices for events of this size and nature.

For any urgent matters, please feel free to contact us immediately on one of the following contact details or on any Social Media channel, at +4 0770 581 744 or e-mail us at contact@dev-con.ro.