Conferences

First line to write about cyber security conferences is..... use:

I do have a personal opinion about conferences, Murphy's Law always wants two of the best talks to be at the same slot, obviously in two different rooms.... second point, generally one month later, you could watch it on youtube, so what's the value of spending so much tme and money? The answer is networking, chat with people that does your same day to day and can suggest you something smart....but, go to the hands-on conferences like Bsides, 44con and you will notice that it happens more often to have intelligent conversations. Recently I appreciated the CONFidence conference format and quality, it was refreshing to see that not all organizers are money obsessed. Yes, the money, there are conferences that cost so much that if you can convince your manager to spend the same amount for training, you will be lucky. If you can, trade off the conference budget with the training course or at least give it a try.

OWASP monthly meet-up is really good value in terms of content and most of the time are hosted by companies, it's also a way to understand the company life of a different organization and the return of investment, in terms of local networking is excellent.

Meet-up groups are great if you have a developer background and there are group dedicated to your language, you will enjoy it, but sometimes depends also in which city you are, don't be shy....just go and see!

Best networking opportunity was always about CTF, capture the flags are great because playing in team and by the game challenge, you will speed up any conversation. Nowadays there are way less, because the most are on-line, but if your CERT is organizing one, just join, it's always a great lesson to see how much you score behind your pears and boost your results or your motivation to improve.

Which conference I would like to go..... HITB, never been there and I do seriously want to go.... one day!

Happy conference!