How would you make Defcon 21 better?

[Gadsden]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

Def. Number 3. that would be great.

Perhaps Goon Band can do this?

[Dallas]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

Def. Number 3. that would be great.

1) No wednesday reg because then security goons would have to volunteer for *another* unpaid day.
2) Make CTF smaller, make Track 4 bigger
3) Roving mariachi bands

Kallahar

[Nikita]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

- Consider using SurveyMonkey or some other method to better gauge session interest and better match meeting room size to projected attendance. The survey could be taken once the schedule is published online. Some fuzzy logic would be needed to extrapolate the results of survey participants into meeting room assignments. There were plenty of times when the smallest room was at max capacity standing room only while larger rooms had plenty of extra room; some where people were denied access or granted access on a "1 out, 1 in" basis.

Not possible, due to fire marshall needing our floor plan early and it's hard to group like content together after the fact based on one or two talks which *may* fill the room. I do the schedule and I can say, it's not as easy as you might think, there are a lot of intricacies. I do try very hard to work the rooms well with the people who may be considered whales and put them in as big a room as possible, even at times building an entire track around them. But that will ALWAYS be a def con thing, you never know truly which talk will end up exceeding expectations.

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- Consider opening the line to get DC21 badges early with a skeleton crew during the afternoon/evening before the con officially starts to get some people through the line early; maybe even have someone distributing badges in the hotel check-in line the afternoon/evening before?

Not possible, we don't want to "leak" the badges any earlier than we already do, and we don't want to over work the already tired staff, most of which have already been in vegas a week already by the time Thursday registration rolls around. We have a DC reg line at Black Hat, and that helps. If you don't want to wait in line, stop lining up at the butt crack of dawn and waiting for hours. It moves fast once we open, hopefully not selling out will no longer be an issue.

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- DefconTV: Consider getting the hotel to air recorded session repeats after regular hours so people staying at the hotel can catch sessions they had to miss that evening/night. Alternatively, allocate more channels for repeats in the evenings. Also, it would be really nice if these could be piped into the overflow hotel(s) - tall order but may be doable since the Rio & Bally's are owned by the same company (provided DC21 is at the same place).

idea proposed, I see Lockheed commented, but I must say, it's not easy peasy to do this either because we ( DEF CON) do not own the a/v streamed in to the rooms, since it's another company who does all the recording for us, they are the ones who we are piping the a/v in from. It's live, and those guys are also busting tail, to ask them to edit, render and format a file for us to throw up in a few hours later that day is not only more work, but would probably be a pain in the wallet.

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- One really super picky item: I like Coca-cola products to mix with my Jack i.e. Diet Coke. Pepsi just doesn't have the same appeal. Is there any way to persuade the hotel to sell some? I know, probably not - but I said my piece. I can always drink beer to chase shots instead (again)... I was just thinking at $4+ per 20 oz at chill out, they should be able to stock some C-c products.

that's a contract issue, and is not going to change.

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These are just some thoughts for consideration .... DC20 was great fun and was really just fine & dandy - A gigantic Thank You to those responsible for planning & execution of another great event. Looking forward to DC21!

Thanks for the feedback :-)

[elkentaro]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

- DefconTV: Consider getting the hotel to air recorded session repeats after regular hours so people staying at the hotel can catch sessions they had to miss that evening/night. Alternatively, allocate more channels for repeats in the evenings. Also, it would be really nice if these could be piped into the overflow hotel(s) - tall order but may be doable since the Rio & Bally's are owned by the same company (provided DC21 is at the same place).

Second this one. 24/7 DCTV!

[mstc]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

I had an amazing time at Defcon 20, having been to Decon 10 it's great to see the community growing in such a positive way.

My only suggestion would be: Better and less expensive food! I would love to see the Defcon community taking control of the food vending area. I'm sure we can come up with some good alternatives.

[student_T]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

I noticed several comments about how the Hardware Hacker or the lock pick villages needed to be bigger or that This section or that section needed to be re-sized.

For me it was the lock pick village that was to small for my biased tastes. I wish that the villages were open later.
I realize that the rooms are supported by volunteers and that all the spaces through out Defcon seemed to run at capacity so I started to think of other ways to accommodate my own interest in lock picking.

Next year I'm going to bring another sack-o-locks with more 2-4 pin cylinders and then after the village closes I'm just going to relocate to the chill lounge. I hope I'll be able to invite some new picker friends to join me.

I thought it was very convenient to have toools in that space with their products. I wondered if the other pick vendors complained about special treatment? If they did I would say toools earned the privilege with all the equipment and people they provided.
I also liked the round tables, they allowed for a great deal of sharing. Although a few more tables might have been nice if they could have fit.

[azpyroguy]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

This is my 6th con that I have attended, starting back with DC13 at Alexis Park, only missed DC19.

A few things that I noticed that could be addressed: These ARE NOT COMPLAINTS.

Just constructive criticism. Take them for what you feel they are worth and with some potential solutions. When I started the con was only $80 to go... now with it being $200, I have a little higher expectations.


1. Lockpick Village - NO Seat Saving. While I understand if you gotta pee, that's fine. Say like a 5-10 minute policy. But I watched a number of seats being saved for folks that either did not show up, or left and never returned, and was still being saved after 30 minutes.

2. Wireless Access - Not enough IP's available, jammers being used. Someone occasionally sending a jamming signal may be funny to knock everyone off and all... but to send out a continuous signal just to jam to be a A$$, we don't need this. Some folks (like myself) are there to actually learn. It made doing the contests onsite next to impossible. The issue was not just isolated to one machine, 2 laptop and 2 androids had the issues. Even wi-fi tethering to our phones was being jammed. As well as on the secured and unsecured networks. Several times we just gave up and went back to our hotel room in Bally's to see what we could get done. I don't think it would be hard to find the offending con-goer doing the constant jamming, and then once found... confiscate their equipment doing the jamming, they can have it back at the end of the con.

3. Over sold - As usual the con was over sold and overcrowded again. Solution: Sell X number of badges should be sold (I think it was 16,500 I read this year), after they are gone, that's it. No more. If you don't show up in time to get a badge, tough better luck next year... its Vegas.. take a gamble.

4. Disrespectful goons: While I understand that the goons have to deal with a lot of D1cks, and drunks... they choose to be a goon after all. If you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen. Personally I did nothing wrong, and was minding my own business in line, and here comes a goon yelling and screaming for no apparent reason other than he saw a camera from someone. Instead of trying to find who it was, he decides to come after the whole group, and I looked at him like WTF are you talking about dude?

5. Overfilled rooms. Figure out a way to identify the capacity of a room, and if there is a large line, estimate the number of folks in the line that can fit, and then break off the line from that point so those waiting know they may or may not get in the room, so they can make a choice to stay and take the gamble, or go find another track to see.

6. Stagger the release of the tracks so the halls are not so crowded. Not sure how feasible this is, but thought I would toss it out for thought.

[O.M.Ref.G.]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

Since the Riv days, DefCon Security Goons would let RollerCon attendees pass through the badge check points to get to the onsite DefCon parties.

I didn't have a problem getting in with my RC pass. Someone from DC left a stack of invites on our reg desk for us to come over. I invited some DC guys to our B&B Ball but I admit if we had had any sizable percentage of DC people show up we would have run out of space. Next year - lets organize the mixing a bit better! Let me know if I can help.

-Andrea (O.M.Ref.G.)

[OM5]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

Some of the Panel discussions that I went to had a ton of panelists with exceptionally interesting and useful (for questions) backgrounds. A prime example of this was the Meet the Fed: Policy panel with 10 panelists. However, by the time the copious introductions were done, there was little time for actual questions. I was at one Panel where a friend of mine was about fifth in line when the first question was asked and they ran out of time before they got to him. Perhaps fewer panelists or much, much shorter intros (even 2 minutes is too long if you have 10 of them, especially if their background info is also in the program) would help.

[bombnav]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

The expanded Hhv was amazing. More people than ever learning to solder, mostly thanks to lost's badge design.

I did miss having an Hhv contest though. I'm totally up for being an organizer for that for 21. I have a lot of contacts and might be able to get some kickass hardware donations from sponsors.

Smitty tweeted a great contest idea: electronic rube Goldberg machines.

So if bombnav and a are down for it this is something I'd want to make happen.

Gigs you gave great talks btw so thanks to you. People were asking for a encore of your soldering 101. Send me a private Message as we were just talking about this. Love the idea.

[wick2o]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

Lockpick could always trade with the Wireless Village...they had plenty of extra room...

as a member of the wireless village staff this year, lets not nag about this. It has been noted and made it to the people who need to talk about it for next year. I'd rather not have people nag on and on about it and have wireless village canceled completely (which most likely wouldn't happen, but who knows) due to it.

[panadero]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

I had an an amazing time at my first DefCon. I met so many awesome people through out.

I think the Lockpicking Villiage could have been in a bigger venue. Having the TOOOL vendor and talks in the area was great, but it seemed to become very crowded very quickly. If it is not possible to find a bigger room, then possibly a different layout of village to allow for more seating.

Lockpick could always trade with the Wireless Village...they had plenty of extra room...

[zephyr]

Re: Rollercon

We should trade contact info.

Okay, TV audience! Something definitely may or may not happen next year, so stay tuned!

[greatscott]

Re: Rollercon

Rollercon 2102 attendee checking in. I'm the guy who had the derby girls present the award at closing ceremonies for our contest: Project 2. I'm also very active in Roller Derby in my area and have made a number of good friends in the Rollercon community.

I like the idea of a joint party, and Defcon is in a much better position to set this up than Rollercon is. I don't like the idea of Defcon nerds crashing Rollercon parties. We are ten times the size they are, for starters. I can pretty much guarantee that even a dozen roller girls at a Defcon party will make things a lot more fun.

We should trade contact info.

[Quiet]

Re: How would you make Defcon 21 better?

A group party with defcon attendees and the rollercon attendees. All of the rollercon attendees I hungout with at their black and blue party thought their music/dj's sucked and would have hung out at our parties...however their crowd are much better party goers (putting it mildly)

WiK

I like the idea of a joint party, and Defcon is in a much better position to set this up than Rollercon is. I don't like the idea of Defcon nerds crashing Rollercon parties. We are ten times the size they are, for starters. I can pretty much guarantee that even a dozen roller girls at a Defcon party will make things a lot more fun.

Since the Riv days, DefCon Security Goons would let RollerCon attendees pass through the badge check points to get to the onsite DefCon parties.