Getting my Company to foot the bill

[bassic_dsm]

I'm interested in attending DefCon this year and I'm trying to get my company to pay for some of it. The least I'd like them to do is to count the first day (Fri. Aug 1st) as one of my regular work days - (pay me without me having to take a vacation day).

Has anyone done this before? If so, how did you convince your employer that DefCon would be beneficial?

I'm working with embedded systems, and there are certainly security concerns I have to account for when making any design decisions. Certainly, there will be something at DefCon that will be relevant to my job duties.

Is there a generic description of what DefCon is? If I simply state that it's a hacker convention, I doubt my company will pay for me to go to that. Obviously DefCon is about computer security, not hacking! ;)


-BASSic

[lucifex]

Re: Getting my Company to foot the bill

Originally posted by bassic_dsm
Obviously DefCon is about computer security, not hacking!

I think that'll be a pretty tough sell to this crowd. Defcon isn't just about computers. Last time I got my work to spring for the trip (defcon 8), I couldn't make it to the black hat briefings[LINK], but I told my work that the black hat folks were doing a shorter security conference afterwards called Defcon, and I'd only miss a day of work.

[blackwave]

Re: Getting my Company to foot the bill

Originally posted by bassic_dsm
Certainly, there will be something at DefCon that will be relevant to my job duties.

Ok, who is getting sneak peeks of the CFP submissions?

[blackbeetle]

BW is on the right track. If you submit and get selected to speak, then your company ought to foot the ENTIRE bill (hotel, travel, work days missed). I am sure DT will write you a nice, official looking "you are invited to speak" letter if you're selected.

OR Get them to foot the bill to go to Black Hat and then tell them that paid BH delegates get into DC for free and to make the most of the dollars they just spent sending you to BH, they should also make DC a paid work day as well.

[noid]

years ago we used to do an official 'corporate' defcon announcement. We'd take the standard announcement and clean it up and make it boss approvable. However, with the size of the con and the name we have, doing that would be fairly pointless these days. Honestly, I would couch it with your boss as 'its like Blackhat, but MUCH cheaper' when compared to the price of blackhat, they may be more willing to work with you. Thats how I had to do it when I worked for a big corporation.