DEFCON has been one of the events I've grown to look forward to, from my first appearance at DEFCON30 and last years' DEFCON31 (respectively this post and this post).

This year proved to be a bit different, with a change of venue to the LVCC, and with my first time volunteering as an "official" volunteer which ended up being an overall positive experience.

I won't go so much in the travel logistics of it all, as this is already covered in my previous blogpost (see this post), nor am I going to make this blog post a day by day recounting of the events, because I feel that this somehow takes away from the general chaotic ambiance of the event, or rather, my attendance thereof.

Being a volunteer - or a "goon", as someone likely unfamiliar with British slang decided to call it - I had the immediate privilege of not being required to go through the so-called "human registration" (read: linecon, where you either line up at 04:00 in the morning, or wait for 4 hours to get a ticket), but rather went through the "inhuman registration". This is where I picked up my red shirts (basically a t-shirt volunteers carry when on shift), my red badge and badge pack.

DEFCON has many different kinds of volunteers, be they hidden in the shadows - such as in medical, network operations, logistics, etc. - or more front-facing like the security operations, village operations, merchandise, etc. departments.

Having been sponsored by Hazy, I joined the Merch department, which (big surprise) handles the sale of event merchandise to attendees. If you've attended DEFCON before, you will know that the line for Merch is effectively linecon 2 with *less* throughput, and experienced attendees bring camping stools, or chance it by going to get merch the next day, running the risk of some items or sizes being out of stock.

As a noon ("new goon"), I think I somehow managed to avoid a lot of hazing that I'd heard happen in other departments because the vibes were nice. A noon is basically also on a trial run for the department, to see if they are freeloading or if they can pull their weight.

It turns out that putting a person with specific process-related and topological brainspicyness in what is effectively a miniature warehouse and giving them a ticket with a list of items to pull is in fact a sensible choice, as it led to optimized pathing and quick order fulfilment. All of this was of course assisted by the sector leads - who were in charge of fluidifying the flow of orders/fulfilments, the tablets with receipt printers who were doing inventory monitoring and the generally well thought out layout of the "warehouse".

Off-shift Maya.

But I wasn't limiting myself to being a volunteer, and decided to link up with a number of people throughout the event. However, given our shift patterns aligned, and that - through labor - we had garnered camaraderie which would enrich our friendship, I would often hang out with Hazy and Endsu, especially at the parties.

The fact that DEFCON wasn't happening at Caesar's Forum but at the LVCC was a pretty big change for all of us, and even though there was more space, it ended up being a less familiar environment that all of us needed to rediscover and acclimate to. On the one hand, we didn't have to brave the halls of the Linq in order to go to a handful of villages a full 10 minutes of walking away, but on the other hand the LVCC is extremely isolated from literally anything else on the strip.

It being my third time attending DEFCON, I at least knew the ropes from an attendee perspective. There is a lot to do, and a lot of people to talk to, that it's quite easy for a day to slip by, especially if you have shifts and are trying to attend the various parties.

But I at least wasn't surrounded by unfamiliar faces. Of UK BSides events fame, I ran into familiar faces such as Rosie and barsteward, who were there for the first time and having a blast, as well as Sam (who as per usual was being a volunteer at the SOC), Jamie and other friends I usually run into at BSides events or other events in the EU sphere.

I ended up focusing on a few of the events that were more "social" in nature, and less "industry", such as the QueerCon mixers/party, the GothCon party and of course visiting the DC Furs suite in the Fontainebleau Hotel... which had drama surrounding it, caused primarily by the management of said hotel, who didn't seem to realize that they were going to have furries and other queer creatures roaming the halls for a few days. Ooops...

All in all, it ended up being a pretty solid event, overshadowed in part by the political climate of the upcoming US elections, which people were overtly attempting to not think about too hard, although it was quite evident to get a vibe for what some people were thinking.

A word from 2025 maya: Given the current state of the United States with regards to legislative attacks on minorities - including at least three that I am a part of - and the various travel advisories to that effect, I am unlikely to be found at DEFCON for the coming years - if ever - depending on the consequences of the current administration and whether DEFCON leadership decides to migrate the event to a less hostile locale to minorities than the United States.