The Cons I'm Actually Trying To Get To

1 day ago
4 min read

I haven't been to a hacker con yet. So I built the shortlist — where I'm trying to be, in what order, and why. Consider this me saying it out loud so I actually go.

Eight years ago I stood in front of a Caesar cipher disk at the National Cryptologic Museum, reading a wall that asked "what is… Cryptology?" — not knowing that room was a preview of where I was headed.

I still haven't walked into DEF CON. This is the year I stop watching from the outside, so I did the thing I always do first: I researched it to death and made a plan.

Quick history, because the origin story is half the fun. DEF CON started in 1993 — Jeff Moss threw what was meant to be a one-time party for a hacker friend group. The feedback was so good he ran it again the next year, and attendance nearly doubled. The name comes from the movie WarGames (Las Vegas was the nuclear target) with a nod to the "3" on a phone keypad — a wink at the phone phreakers who came before. Three decades later, it's the longest-running hacker con in the world.

Here's the thing I had to talk myself into, and maybe you need to hear it too:

You don't have to start at DEF CON. In fact, I'm not going to.

The big con is loud, expensive, and a lot for a first timer. So my plan starts small and local and builds toward Vegas. Here's the shortlist — the cons I'm saving up calendar space for, then the year-round stuff I can start on right now.

On my shortlist

Where I'm starting

BSides

Local · year-round · usually under $100

This is my on-ramp. Born in 2009 when strong speakers got rejected from a bigger con for lack of space — so they threw their own. That's the name: a "B-side," like the flip of a record. Grassroots, community-run, beginner-friendly, and very budget-conscious. Chapters run in cities everywhere — BSidesNYC, BSidesCT, BSidesNEPA and 30+ more in 2026 across six continents. I'm hunting for the closest one to me at allbsides.com — find yours there too.

Most likely my first

WiCyS — Women in Cybersecurity

Mar 11–13, 2026 · Gaylord National Harbor, DC area

This is the one I think I actually hit first — because it's in my corridor: National Harbor, right outside DC, no plane ticket required. WiCyS runs one of the best mentorship pipelines in the field: a Career Village with mock interviews, resume reviews, speed-mentoring, and a career fair where companies actually follow up. For someone mid-pivot, that's the whole game. (2027 heads to Aurora, CO.)

The stretch goal

Wild West Hackin' Fest — Deadwood

Oct 7–9, 2026 · Deadwood, SD · pre-con training Oct 6–7

This one's the "if the year goes well" reward. Built on purpose for beginners and seasoned pros — reasonably priced training, hands-on labs and workshops designed to lower the barrier to entry, plus the occasional mechanical bull. If BSides is the on-ramp, this is the road trip I want to earn.

The destination

DEF CON 35

Aug 5–8, 2027 · Las Vegas Convention Center

The big one — and the endpoint of the whole plan. Villages for everything from lockpicking to car hacking to AI, contests, and the legendary Capture The Flag. I'm not starting here. I'm building to here.

What I can start on right now

The cons are months out. These I can do this week, for free, without leaving Maryland — so they're where I'm actually beginning.

No excuse, it's local

DEF CON Groups (DCGs)

Local city meetups · monthly · free

The village energy runs year-round in local monthly meetups all over the world. No badge, no flight, just people who do this showing up to talk shop. This is the lowest-stakes way for me to walk into the room — and honestly the one I have zero excuse to skip.

Already in my pocket

ISC2 Chapter Meetups

Local chapters · regular meetings · member-included

Here's the one I have no excuse for: I'm already an ISC2 member and haven't used it. Local chapters run regular meetings, talks, and networking nights — and the events count toward CPE credits, so showing up doubles as keeping my certs current. Membership card's already in my wallet. Time to actually swipe it.

From my desk tonight

SANS Community Summits

Virtual / hybrid · frequently free

Frequent free virtual summits on exactly the stuff my detection lane cares about — threat hunting, blue teaming, cloud security. Zero travel, zero cost, watchable on a lunch break. There's no reason I'm not already in these, so that changes now.

So why bother going, when the talks end up on YouTube?

That's the question I kept asking myself — and the answer is why I finally made this list. The talks aren't the point. The hallway is the point. The village where someone hands you a tool and says "try it." The person standing in line who becomes the referral six months later. You cannot download that.

The villages are the part I'm most drawn to, because they're anomaly detection in physical form — find the signal, pull the thread, see what doesn't belong. Same instinct I've been running since I was forecasting air quality. The tool changes, the question doesn't.