ShmooCon 2009 Guide – Up to this Point

With only two more weeks to go until the conference begins, here’s my first post in a series of four blog posts that will help prepare those of you attending the con.

It’s been an interesting month of events leading up to ShmooCon this February; we’ve had the CFPs, three and a half rounds of tickets sales, the keynote speaker announced, and the other presenters decided on. The ShmooCon organizers have been hard at work since the end of last year’s conference, and I—like the rest of you—am looking forward to meeting other attendees, learning a few new things, and just having a great time.

In standard NovaInfosecPortal.com fashion, the basic logistics of the conference are listed below.

• Who: The Shmoo Group
• What: ShmooCon
      ShmooCon is an annual East coast hacker convention hell-bent on offering three days of an 
      interesting atmosphere for demonstrating technology exploitation, inventive software & hardware
      solutions, and open discussions of critical infosec issues. The first day is a single track of speed
      talks, “One Track Mind.” The next two days, there are three tracks: “Break It!,” “Build It!,” and “Bring
      It On!.”
• When: 2/6 – 2/8/2009
• Where: Wardman Park Marriott Hotel (2660 Woodley Road, NW; Washington, DC 20008)

While the ShmooCon organizers have been putting in a lot of work to get this conference off the ground, it hasn’t come together without a few problems. Round 1 of the ticket sales seemed to go smoothly enough, but the load of tickets during Round 2 in December seemed to have some issues. Despite some of the problems in round 2 however, discussions around the interweb seem to imply that everyone who should have gotten tickets during the first two rounds did. Despite the success of Rounds 1 and 2 however, con organizers surprised everyone by creating a round 2.1, which seemed to go much more smoothly than either of the previous rounds due to some code tweaks.

After the surprise of round 2.1, Round 3 of tickets sales started on New Year’s Day. While you would’ve expected this round of sales to be a little slower given the morning after affect brought on by New Year’s Eve activities, the Round 3 tickets sold out in record times. That’s why if you don’t have your tickets yet, you better start hitting up Craigslist (only one ticket for sale as of today in DC’s) or E-Bay (6 people selling them there).

Oh, and for those of you who are interested, the first ShmooCon ad has popped up. You can also view some of the hilarious ads from prior years at the ShmooCon Ad page.

After getting your tickets, finding someplace to stay in DC (and then figuring out how to get there) should be the next priority on your list. As most of you already know, the rooms at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel have sold out. However the ShmooCon site did release a post about some overflow rooms at the Hilton Washington, and I hear that there may still be some rooms available. If you’re interested, give them a call at 202-483-3000 and reference the ShmooCon block.

Mubix also created a Google ShmooCon RoomShare Group, but it doesn’t seemed to have taken off just yet. But if you’re still in need of a room, I’d highly recommend posting there and seeing where you get. Besides being down in DC, I think that any hotel along the Red Line would be good because you won’t have to switch trains.

The Red Line starts in Maryland at Shady Grove, runs into DC past the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel’s metro stop (Woodly Park) and into DC, and then back out to Maryland to Glenmont. Although many of us live in and around DC, I guess some folks will have to travel here. Hopefully you booked your plane tickets if needed—or else I guess you’re driving here or paying huge last-minute airfare rates.

Just in case you didn’t know, you may still be able to find a cheap flight as the Metro DC area has three fairly close airports (Baltimore – BWI, Dulles – IAD, and Ronald Reagan Washington National – DCA). BWI in general seems to be cheaper to fly into. Another alternative is Jack Daniel’s ShmooBus if you are in the northeast along the I-95 corridor. He’s rented a 30’ RV and will be departing from Boston the morning of February 5th (Thursday, the day before con begins) and arriving at the hotel that evening. According to Jack Daniel’s 1/10 update post, there still may be a seat or two left.

Well, that about covers how ShmooCon is doing up to this point in time. In my next post I’ll be discussing Friday’s activities and recommending some of the must-see talks and events of the conference.

If I’ve missed anything or provided incorrect information, please feel free to let me know by leaving a comment below. And as always, if you have any information to share, I’m sure that other readers would be glad to hear it (especially if you can provide some tips on last minute travel or hotel recommendations).

No related posts.

Tags: conference, event, infosec, nova, reminder, room share, shmoobus, shmoocon, shmoocon-room-share, the shmoo group, update