

Ask HN: What do you think of the Defcon Convention? - zeantsoi

An employer has offered to send me to Defcon... I've never been and am wondering whether it's worth the time out of my schedule to hoof it to Vegas for the event. Any thoughts from past experience?
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ephermata
Worth it for meeting people. The talks are uneven. Sometimes wildly uneven.
The main point of DEF CON is for people to get in touch face to face, maybe
pick up some new interesting contacts. If you want "training" then this is not
really the right place.

So if you like meeting new people, if you have a few people you know already
who are going to hang out with, and if you can tolerate the occasional talk
that just doesn't do it for you, it's worth it. If you're going alone and you
don't feel like trying to meet some interesting strangers, it probably is not
worth it. (Either way is fine!)

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HalcyonMuse
Go. There's great talks during the day - usually at least one of the talks per
time slot will look interesting - and there's pretty wild parties at night.
The first time I went, I didn't meet anyone - I went with a few friends and we
kept to ourselves - but despite that it was still a blast.

You'll learn quite a bit one way or another.

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dantheman
It's a blast, a bunch of hackers getting together to have fun. It really
depends on what you want to get out of it.

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rdl
Go, but don't use the wifi, or swim in the pools unless you've had ALL your
shots.

~~~
ephermata
Right. I don't even take my laptop to DEF CON any more. Besides no longer
needing to worry about the wifi, it means I spend more time talking with
people.

These days, though, you also need to keep an eye on your phone...

