Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) is a hacker conference in New York City, organized by many people involved with 2600: The Hacker Quarterly. The first HOPE took place in 1994 and it repeated triennially for a little while, then it went biennial for a long time, and recently made the jump to annual.
I have been attending and volunteering since HOPE 2000 (H2K) in 2000. Beginning with The Last HOPE in 2008 I joined HOPE’s core staff. I have contributed art and design work, been part of the speaker-selection committee, pulled shifts at the info desk, served as an on-stage coordinator and emcee, and presented at panels and talks. In recent years I’ve stepped back from an active role in event staff but I’ve kept enthusiastically attending, and I still like to help out behind the scenes where I can and put in the occasional (invited) appearance on stage.
More information about HOPEs past, present, and future can be found at the event’s Wikipedia entry and the official HOPE site.