HackerCons.org - About This

HackerCons.org

The whole idea behind the HackerCon Calendar Project is that it has become increasingly difficult to schedule events in the tech and security and hacker community without stomping on to the time lines of other happenings.

This project was born out of a desire to see fewer of our friends, co-workers, parole officers, and significant others checking an email and attempting to input something into the calendar only to go...

... and exclaim in frustration over the fact that they will be forced to choose, thus missing (or potentially snubbing) an event very dear to them.

While we are not foolish enough to think that this project will TOTALLY eliminate the problem of con calendar overlap, we do at least hope that this calendar will serve as a resource to end the question of "who called it first" and thus allow us to point the finger at any events who knowingly (or at least flagrantly) have scheduled themselves when another con was already slated to happen.

Of particular interest to us is the issue of trying to prevent overlap of events that cater to hackers and cool folk in the same geographic area. It's one thing if HackIntheBox Malaysia is taking place at the same time as a BSides event in Berlin... it's quite another if DerbyCon and NotACon were to accidentally attempt to happen the same weekend.

Since not all events appeal to the same groups of people, we have arranged our calendar into three broad categories, which are linked by two "in between" sort of classifications that can be used occasionally, too...

Crafty, Maker Events - This calendar is primarily for events that may involve many aspects of the hacker ethos, yet are primarily focused on hands-on activities, many of which do not involve electronics or computers in any way. Often, events in this category are particularly family-friendly or are outright focused on kids. Classic examples would be Maker Faires, Beam Camp, and the like.

MackerCons - This is a category for events that straddle between Maker/Crafting type events and all-out HackerCons. Some examples of this category would be NotACon and perhaps QuahogCon.

HackerCons - This calendar displays HackerCons around the country and the world. We realize this is the most broad category, encompassing very security-focused events like BSides and DerbyCon along with wild and crazy happenings such as ekoparty and DEFCON... and some events, like ShmooCon, drive right up the middle and weigh in on all fronts.

Hackers in Suits - Some events have lots of hackers, both as attendees as well as speakers, yet they are intermixed with (and sometimes even wearing) suits and ties. Many from the business world attend to rub shoulders with the smartest figures of the underground scene. I suppose this category could technically be known as either "Hackers in Suits" or "Hackers and Suits" depending on your view. Black Hat, DeepSec, and Secure360 would fall into this category, depending on your view.

Professionals and Governments - This category is for your quintessential SuitCons... Often invite-only or oppressively-priced, these events tend to focus heavily on trainings and/or vendor expos. RSA, SecureWorld, and other such events would fit here. I know that not many in the hacker community attend these, but some deserve mention when they impact a number of our schedules.

Have we forgotten or overlooked something of critical importance? Shoot us an email.