My first ever DEFCON!

My DEFCON31 trip started off a bit rocky with my first flight being delayed twice, causing me to miss my connection, which was the last flight to Vegas that night in the entire airport. I literally ran as fast as I could from one gate to the next, in a desperate attempt to make it, only to realize just how out of shape I have become these past few months, ugh! United Airlines did nothing to help the situation, so I was stuck overnight in the Houston airport. Yeah, that sucked as badly as it sounds. I won’t let myself fall asleep in situations where I feel unsafe like that, so I just tried to pass the time in the massage chairs listening to the Calm app.

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I finally made it, but I missed the whole first day of the con, including the Simply Cyber meetup with ???? Gerald Auger, Ph.D. which I was looking forward to so much. Bummer!! So day two was my day one and I was so overwhelmed by the amount of people there! I felt super lost and just a bit “off” but also excited to be there too. Mixed emotions for sure! It’s so cool to see over 30,000 people who are all super passionate about the same things that you are! But it can still feel very lonely in a sea of people you don’t know.

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I wasn’t sure what the vibe would be like at DEFCON for me as a woman either… I’d heard some bad stories… but, I have to say, fortunately, my experience in that way was great. I felt respected and welcomed there, like I belonged even though I didn’t look like everyone else. There were very few women there. I wish there were more, but I also didn’t make it to The Diana Initiative or SquadCon which were separate events that week specifically for women in the industry. Next year!

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Networking, learning, and fun basically summed up my hopes or goals I had for the conference.

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Because there were so many people there, the networking opportunity was off the charts! It was difficult to find people sometimes though, so you had to be patient about that, and I definitely missed some key people I wanted to meet. But, I got to talk to some really awesome friends I had recently become acquainted with here on LinkedIn, like Brady M and Luke H. . They are career switchers like me, and are just as cool and nice IRL as they seemed online. Through them, I also got to meet Caroline Lombard , and she’s super awesome too!

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I also met SSG Joshua S. , Tony F. , and Angela ?? B. . Another great group of people supporting the community in many ways. Definitely check out the discords they run! Red Society Club & F0xhunt. So much value there. And that jellyfish badge? Wow, just beautiful…best one of the con, imho.

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Much love to all the red shirts, the hard-working Goons who make DEFCON possible! So impressed and grateful for everything they did to make it such an entertaining, engaging, enlightening, and safe event for everyone. Shout-out to Henry Flefel and his wife Fiore (my friends from Miami), Jack Kaiser , and Tasha Holloway (love her main character energy!). Greatest Goons ever!!

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Visiting the TCM Security booth in the IOT Village was another major highlight of DEFCON. Even though I missed Joe Hudson (darn!), I got to catch up with Zach Hill & Heath Adams who continue to be incredible mentors for not just me but for thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people in this community. They are the definition of making an impact. And are just very caring, humble guys. Seriously. The kind of famous guys who you can easily approach and will become your friends, genuinely. It’s completely surreal. I have watched so many of their videos on YouTube that when I talk to them in person it’s like I’m in a YouTube video, but personalized to me, lol, such a funny feeling! But so awesome.

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Later, Zach even introduced me to Jason Haddix whose work in the industry I've also followed and admired when I was feeling too shy to go up to him. And I got to meet the VIP ladies of TCM – Adriana Boulos and Amber, Heath’s wife! They are both so nice too! I mean, Adriana kinda shocked me when she recognized me and immediately said “I love your content!” I’m like… “What… MY content??” thinking in my head - but you work with Heath and Zach, lol, like the GOATs of IT & Hacking content. Wow. Another nice surprise.

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At DEFCON, it was like one more mind-blowing moment around every corner. I visited most of the villages and was just mesmerized by the cool stuff happening there. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I wanted to play with everything but again felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of it all in one place. I just absorbed it like a sponge, checking out the whole lay of the land. Next year, I want to pick one or two to dive in deeper though. It would be super fun to participate in a CTF!! Just need to decide which one…

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Back to my con goals. Networking, yup, couldn’t be beat. I mean, I even got to meet Jen Easterly !! Talk about a fan girl moment. Wow. She’s doing fantastic work as the Director of CISA and is such a great role model for women in the industry. It was nice to be able to tell her that and grab a quick photo with her too. She is as cool as everyone says!

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Learning was my second con goal, and I definitely learned some really cool stuff, but it’s just kinda all jumbled in my head right now though. A lot of it was from side conversations. Some of it was from talks. I took notes in my phone to dig into some things a bit more later. The talks were recorded, so I’m looking forward to watching them later too. And I think I’ll learn even more next year when I’m less overwhelmed and can jump into more of the village activities.

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Fun. Yesss…. The whole event was SO MUCH FUN. The networking and the learning parts are also fun for me… but it was so nice to just socialize with the community. I spend too many hours alone in front of my computer screen (who can relate??). Trying now to add more fun back into my life to make it more balanced. I missed out on a lot of the DC parties unfortunately because of my flight issues (next year I will go a day early for sure!) and because on Saturday night we all had to evacuate the building due to a bomb threat. It turned out to be a false alarm, phew! But enough of a buzzkill that I just went back to my hotel room and was in bed by 10 pm, lol, oh well. Better in bed than dead, lol.

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The extra sleep felt good, and I know there will be many more opportunities to socialize with cool people in this industry. We have so many challenges to help each other overcome, but we also have so many accomplishments to celebrate together. I’m here for it.

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Absolutely cannot wait for the next conference I get to attend, and I especially can’t wait for DEFCON32 next year! The conference of conferences.

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#defcon #defcon31 #cybersecurity #conference #hackercommunity

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