ShmooCon 2020

Traditions

ShmooCon 2020 was a fun mix of business and pleasure for me. This was my 15th(!?!?!) ShmooCon, and the 16th in total. I don’t know that I’ve gone to any other event as often. It’s now been so many years that my group of friends has traditions: - Le Mirch for Indian at least one night - Krispie Kreme delivered on Saturday night around 1-2am for post party friend making - and staying up way later than normal, hacking on projects and chatting in the hotel lobby.

LobbyCon

Lobby Con (which is generally a different thing for security cons - not people skipping on paying, but just using the hotel facilities to “chill” instead of being in a talk track or vendor area) is my main focus for Shmoo (and most cons, honestly). I’m there to see people, talk, and learn about cool stuff. I can catch the good talks on YouTube at 2x speed later in the year.

Hax

Watching people do interesting, crazy stuff is always a great part of Shmoo. This year, I got to watch Chris solder a custom JTAG header board onto a Motorola radio, and use it to start dumping system memory. He did this by hand, under a microscope.

Future

ShmooCon 2021 is going to be held on January 15-17. I’ve already booked my room at the Hilton! Future update: so, uh the pandemic thing happened, and that room got refunded...