cackalackycon 2026 · United States · 2026
Student-admission paper identity artifact; explicitly not electronic
Cackalackycon 2026's official event and Cackalackycon 101 pages say students with a valid student ID can attend for free with a paper badge, no electronic badge, and no preregistration. This record models that explicitly disclosed student identity artifact only; related speaker electronic-badge evidence is kept in a separate, scoped record rather than becoming a student hardware claim.
People
No public individual author, designer, firmware, or team credits have been seeded for this badge yet. Add named credits only when a primary badge-team page, repository, talk, or other source identifies the people or team behind the work.
It makes an explicit 2026 North Carolina student-admission artifact discoverable while preserving the line between a paper credential and an electronic conference badge. The separate speaker record captures the organizer-provided electronic-badge allocation, while this one avoids inventing a student PCB, firmware, or attendee-wide distribution story.
The two official student-admission pages identify a paper badge that is explicitly not electronic. They do not document visual design, dimensions, material beyond the word paper, barcode or RFID/NFC behavior, serial numbering, circuit board, components, electrical behavior, or manufacturing. The separate Eventzilla electronic-badge marketing statement is not a technical specification and is not attributed to this student artifact.
No software is attributed to the student paper badge. Cackalackycon 101 separately lists an optional FTDI programmer for hardware hacking an Arduino badge, but does not provide a 2026 badge model, source archive, firmware, general-attendee allocation, or proof that the phrase describes an issued 2026 electronic badge. It remains a follow-up lead rather than a basis for firmware claims.
cackalackycon ran May 15-17, 2026 at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Durham, North Carolina. Its organizer-linked Eventzilla listing later marked the event ended and calls the student item a paper ticket, while the official event and first-timer pages call it a paper badge; this record follows the two direct badge statements and preserves that terminology difference. The organizer-provided 2026 CFP separately promises accepted speakers a speaker-colored electronic badge, provides a paper-badge admission for one guest, and says a guest who wants an electronic badge must buy a ticket. Those sources establish a separately scoped electronic artifact, not a technical specification or a student-badge change.
Lifecycle
The official first-timer guide says students should bring valid student ID to registration and do not need to preregister.
SourceThe official event and first-timer pages say students with a valid student ID attend free with a paper badge and no electronic badge.
SourceOperational history
The paper record remains bounded to students, while the separately seeded speaker electronic-badge record captures only the allocation actually established by public sources rather than treating ticket marketing as a universal technical claim.
The record remains source-backed and image-free rather than copying event graphics, ticket artwork, or social-media imagery without complete provenance.
The dossier models a real disclosed identity artifact without upgrading it into an electronic badge or inventing attributes of a paper credential.