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My fist DEFCON, a post-mortem and hopefully a roadmap for future n00bs
Ok, so DC23 was my first time in Las Vegas and my first DEFCON. I found out in February that I was going to get to go and got hotel reservations, etc. and started doing my recon. I got a good bit of information from the website and, after begrudgingly joining Twitter, got more intel there. I was able to get a LOT of info from this forum from folks like TheCotMan, astcell, Pwncess and many others. I made some notes on my trip on the questions that I asked as well as the ones that, for whatever reason, I didn't ask, and wanted to post my notes here in case someone else may benefit from them. I've been working to try to find some way to categorize | format | organize my thoughts for a couple of hours and each time I do I jack something up so, here in no real order is what I came up with:
- All times noted below are local time in Las Vegas.
- We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. There is a huge poster in the airport at the taxi stand showing what a taxi ride from the airport to local destinations *should* be. Note, this is before the additional fees that get tagged on, so be careful. The taxi driver from the airport to the hotel was a little shady (initially, the bill was almost $30). We called him on it and it was just over $20, he advised that he 'made a mistake' and adjusted the price. The ride from the hotel to the airport was $13 (plus fees, which made it almost $20).
- We arrived at the hotel around 9:30pm on Wednesday evening. That gave us time to get settled in and wander around the venue a bit and then get some sleep for Thursday. This seemed to be a good plan. I had considered waiting and flying in on Thursday and am glad that I didn't. We finally got checked in and settled and headed downstairs for some recon. There were a few folks already lining up in the registration line that seemed to be having a good time. I opted to get some sleep and stand in line the following morning. I was concerned (based on posts from previous DEFCONs) that the line may be several hours but figured that I could wait in line all night (several hours) or get some sleep and wait in line well rested and opted for the latter.
- We got in line to get badges at around 7:50am. There were already a couple of hundred people in front of us. The mood in the line was *very* cool and we had a lot of fun meeting folks and playing an informal game of 'spot the fed'. There was also a beachball being tossed around above our heads and several failed attempts at 'the wave'. All in all, I had a LOT of fun in the lines. We got through the line shortly before 10:00am and, at that time, the line was even longer than it was when we got in it but it was moving. They had large breaks in the lines (we decided that they were 'fire breaks' to make sure that there was a clear exit in case of emergency). The goons were guarding the breaks and letting large groups pass at a time. This gave the illusion that the line was moving faster than it was and seemed to contribute to the good mood of the folks in line. You can meet *A LOT* of people in line. I'm generally not a people person but had a really good time talking to random strangers in this case.
- I heard a lot of people talking about registration running out of 'real' badges too early and paper badges being printed (i.e. not puzzles or hackable moment opportunities in the badge) at previous DEFCONs. Although they did run out of 'real' badges sometime on, I believe, Friday, the replacement badges were pretty cool too. I didn't get up close enough to one to see if they had the same puzzles as the 'real' badges but they were definitely cool.
- We stayed in the Paris and walked between the Paris and Bally's a lot. I chose Paris (vs Bally's) basically because of a coin toss. I can't think of any logistical reason to choose one over the other but I may stay at Bally's next time just to see what the differences are. If memory serves, the Bally's rooms were slightly cheaper. There were some issues with crowded elevators at Bally's but I suspect that that will be resolved by DC24 (there's a lot of chatter about it).
- There was a lot of talk on the forums about a refrigerator in the room. We had a small one (easily held a six pack and munchies) and didn't have to ask for it.
- There was nowhere that I could find in the hotel to buy beer except in huge bottles (i.e., no quantity packs). We did walk around a bit though and found a couple of drugstores and ABC stores that had them. The refrigerator in the room happily stored a six pack of beer and munchables in the room.
- A bio-break would be appropriate before you get in line. Any line.
- Several folks brought cheap inflatable beach balls to toss around in the lines. The goons didn't seem to mind and this seemed like a cool idea.
- Write your handle / name somewhere visible. I wrote mine on the clear protective cover for my badge (it was a vinyl record, pretty awesome imho). You'll be surprised at the number of folks that'll just walk up and say hi.
- Was advised to introduce myself to at least 4 new people per day. I'm a bit of an introvert and one of my biggest concerns was meeting people. When I arrived though, I found it hard to meet *only* 4 people per day. In the registration line alone, I met more than that.
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