Wish I could be there. Maybe one of these years, I'll get out for a DefCon.
Same here - I always have the desire to attend these conferences, but my schedule rarely makes it work out.
Probably a good thing, because I'm always busy troubleshooting some weird cloud issue anyways
That said, I wouldn't recommend DefCon. I've been before, and it just wasn't my scene.
My completely unscientific breakdown:
--> 95% people cosplaying as hackers with tactical backpacks, blinky gadgets, stickers, patches, and enough conference swag to open a gift shop (all of which is carefully documented on social media through a bazillion self-promoting posts).
--> 5% salespeople trying to figure out whether you can approve a six-figure purchase order.
Buried somewhere in there are a handful of genuinely good (but not excellent) talks... mostly attended by people who are too busy taking selfies with lock picks to appreciate them.
A much better conference that attracts the professional crowd and focused on real-world cybersecurity is the SINET Innovation Summit in New York (October). (edited)
Everyone here is GingerHacker and I at the Noob Village at Def Con!
