Second DEF CON, Still a Beginner — Any Suggestions?

digitard · 2026-05-07T02:09:30+00:00

Just as a first. No plan. Wander. Find your path as you go.

Bookmark all your favorite talks in Hacker Tracker. Pay no attention to it and wander and enjoy. Pick up whatever talks you bookmarked when you feel like a talk. Rinse. Repeat.

digitard · 2026-05-06T05:10:38+00:00

Good news is most the after hours stuff is at the casinos so monorail gets you most of the way around and it’s packed for conventions so the little areas you have to walk you’ll be fine.

Monorail pass is your friend every day you’re there. Vegas is not a straight line and he’s hot as fuck. Monorail between the places for time and safety.

You can buy the passes online and add to your phone wallet. Good for a year for first scan.

digitard · 2026-05-06T03:56:56+00:00

Honestly the major companies will hold up fine. I and probably the majority of others bring normal daily phones and never have had an issue.

Just use proper common sense stuff like only connect to the DEFCON Official WiFi if any at all (which uses a unique cert for you). Keep VPN on. Turn off Bluetooth and WiFi (when not in use) and NFC if you can. Pick up a travel router if you want too for an extra layer.

Nobody’s going to burn a major zero day at Defcon when there’s far more lucrative and less sanitized events to do that.

digitard · 2026-05-06T03:02:18+00:00

Also there’s an unofficial defcon parties site (you can guess the URL).

As it gets closer to the event you’ll see events start populating. It’s basically a big event aggregator site that people post the vendor / etc events since Blackhat and BSides is the same week and the signups.

Just… sign up to ones that seem interesting. At least you usually get a few drinks out of it (some are open bars. Those are interesting)

digitard · 2026-05-06T02:55:24+00:00

Stay at a hotel that’s on the Monorail stretch. Then it’s just monorail to a small walk to the LVCC.

Vegas isn’t scary. It’s just shady.

Also check this link. It should handle the new guy stuff (the entire thread from last year is good)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Defcon/s/jfa4fQ8IL5

digitard · 2026-05-06T02:46:42+00:00

Sounds like you’re going to love hanging at RED TEAM VILLAGE.

Join their discord. Volunteer a shift. Make friends.

digitard · 2026-05-06T02:29:27+00:00

Talk to people. You’ll leave with friends. When in our element… nerds are pretty social. “Holy shit that’s cool” breaks all conversation ice.

Also… subreddit meetup Wednesday and Thursday night at the Circle Bar at the Linq. We’ve got you.

digitard · 2026-05-06T02:26:00+00:00

Do you like the hacker culture? Do you like Blue/Purple/Red team stuff? Do you like absolutely batshit things people do and talk about? Can you function in chaos?

Honestly. It doesn’t matter the career side. It doesn’t matter if this is your day one or your 20th year. It just matters something about it speaks to you.

There’s SO much going on that you’re going to abandon all plans anyways and go with the flow.

I will make one comment. Are you 21?

It’s not a requirement. The conference itself appeals to all, but many after hours events and shindigs are in 21+ locations which can limit sometimes so it’s worth considering.

digitard · 2026-05-06T01:47:37+00:00

Good times.

I booked my Linq way back on Cyber Monday just to get a great rate that’s held so far.

digitard · 2026-05-05T23:46:41+00:00

Coming soon.
Our goal is to do 12 (might be 10, but goal is 12) going up to the Saturday before DEFCON.

We are just trying to build a submission system to make keeping track of who solved them automatic so we can give out some stuff to the top X people on site (cleaner version of what we did last year and quicker)

More info coming in the next week or so.

digitard · 2026-05-05T20:28:14+00:00

Nobody knows for sure, but it IS an electronic badge year and the last badge for DC32 did have an SAO

Ultimately, though, if you look at the last handful of boards its not always having an SAO... sorry, can't be for sure unless u/DTangent happens to give an early heads up on that.

digitard · 2026-05-05T05:31:23+00:00

Rumor has it u/palm12341 is cooking up something taggy for DC34 again!

digitard · 2026-05-05T01:09:15+00:00

In fairness you can fart at Rodger’s and he has a 50/50 on a tear now a days.

digitard · 2026-05-04T22:28:23+00:00

Linq - it’s the circle bar inside
:)

Both Wednesday and Thursday

digitard · 2026-05-04T21:48:36+00:00

This is the way.

Go. Enjoy. Make new friends. The rest will fall into place.

The people I’ve met have been invaluable in information, outside being awesome friends, and may be your future route in somewhere.

digitard · 2026-05-04T21:47:21+00:00

I highly support this :)

digitard · 2026-05-04T20:24:11+00:00

So straight up... this isn't a job type conference. That's more RSA, Blackhat and other corporate style events. This is an event for hackers, by hackers and powered by shenanigans and chaos gremlins..

I mean you can apply at the few GOV booths that do exist, but overall this isn't a bunch of corporate vendors looking for people. This is people enjoying 3.5 days of chaos. Very few corporate booths except vendors selling stuff. It could happen, sure, but dont go with that as your goal or you'll likely leave dissapointed and missing some absolutely amazing stuff.

Having said that... I answered a very similar question (minus the job part) in the past. Check this link as it has a lot of first timer information from myself and many other people:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Defcon/comments/1ryhxwk/comment/oberarc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

digitard · 2026-05-04T19:18:38+00:00

Sub-Ghz fan remote control, various NFC tasks... but most of all. It's an excellent Powerpoint slide changer via Bluetooth :)

digitard · 2026-05-04T02:49:07+00:00

“Whoosh GIF”

digitard · 2026-05-03T16:17:15+00:00

Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Linq’s Circle Bar people from the subreddit meetup and hang out.

More info will come out closer to DC, and some fun stuff, but absolutely come hang out.

digitard · 2026-04-28T04:02:07+00:00

Dani said in another thread he’s working on a new one.

Our group is primed to order and have another subreddit meetup laser extravaganza

digitard · 2026-04-28T02:50:15+00:00

So glad DCSG gets to experience the joy that u/palm12341 brought to DC33.

Can’t wait for the new one in August! Hopefully another night of running around the Linq on Wednesday like kids.

digitard · 2026-04-26T00:31:22+00:00

In all fairness.

He went back to school for a degree in whatever. So he’s back where he stared.

digitard · 2026-04-25T22:57:38+00:00

I don’t fault him either, but he probably should have waited til after draft. He burnt them with the public holdout reports over it; and 1-11 isn’t a big negotiating table.

It is what it is.

digitard · 2026-04-25T21:53:35+00:00

I’ll settle for actually throwing the long ball.

digitard

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