[georgemcbay]

Unless I was specifically informed that it would be safe to leave my belongings in any area, I would assume that it is not safe to do so, and if I left my laptop unattended and it were stolen under these circumstances I'd be pissed off, but I wouldn't expect the event organizers to take any responsibility for it at all.

The idea being kicked around to take a collection from attendees is okay in theory but I'm not convinced having to file a police report is a sufficient barrier to future attendees claiming lost laptops in the hopes of getting $1000 from random strangers. Also you'd have to be really careful to make sure it was well understood the collection is totally optional, and not set it up in such a way that people who didn't want to participate for whatever reason weren't made to look like asses in public. Put in that situation I'd have no problem dropping $1 or $20 into a collection hat, but expecting everyone (especially students) to have such disposable income isn't fair.

[ranman]

you could build a venmo collection jar!

[cel]

hackathon idea there. pivot!