BSides Buffalo

Happy 2024, all! We’re going to be opening up our Call For Presenters (CFP) for our June 1 event in one week, on January 15. The CFP will be open through the end of March. There are a couple of changes this year, so I wanted to post those ahead of time.

First of all, we’re using Sessionize this year for our CFP process — this gives us some new tools for handling submissions, as well as the ability to make an electronic program for the event itself, which is something that attendees have been asking for.

Also, there are going to be four distinct tracks accepting submissions, as outlined below:

General – This is the track for typical technical or security-related talks. Sessions are fifty minutes long, including Q&A at the end. If your talk doesn’t fit in any of the other categories it should go in General.

Lightning Talk – These are shorter talks on technical or security topics. Twenty minutes, including Q&A. If you’re interested in presenting on a niche or specific topic, or if you’re a first-time speaker getting your feet wet, this might be a good fit for your submission.

Hacking is Art – This track is for people working at the intersection of technology and art, making cool stuff with free, open source, or repurposed resources. Past topics have included 3d printing, open source graphics software, and using technology to aid in academic research. Sessions are fifty minutes long, including Q&A at the end.

Introsec – This track is new this year; we get a lot of attendees who are new to the field or considering making a career change, and they could use some instruction in the fundamentals. If you have a talk on how to get started in CTFs, or how to build a home lab, or how to get started with learning cloud security, this would be the place to put it. Sessions are fifty minutes long, including Q&A at the end.

So there you have it — we’re looking for talks from a variety of speakers, aimed at a variety of audiences. We want to hear what you have to say, and hope that you submit something to present in June.

As always, speakers receive our undying gratitude, a free ticket to the conference, and some awesome speaker-only swag.

Excited to announce our first Gold Sponsor for the 2024 event – returning sponsor Optiv! Optiv works alongside clients to manage cyber risk and equip them with perspectives and programs to accelerate business progress.

We couldn’t run this event without the support of our sponsors, so thanks so much for making it possible and helping us build up the local technology community. See you in June!

We’ve updated the sponsorship packet for next year’s event – you can download a copy at the link at the bottom of this post.

A few changes since the 2023 event:

• In order to drive more traffic to the Gold Sponsor tables, we’ll be issuing “stamp cards” to all attendees – if they get the card stamped by every sponsor, they can use it to enter a prize raffle at the end of the day.
• We’re organizing a soldering workshop for attendees who would like to put together a simple electronic project under the tutelage of an experienced hardware hacker. This will be a free option for all attendees who are interested.
• Instead of a full printed program, we’ll be shifting to a printed schedule in the swag bags along with an online program with more details about the speakers and their talk content.
• This year we’re starting a cybersecurity fundamentals track called “IntroSec” – we get so many attendees who are new to the field and would really benefit from a day of learning about the basics that are necessary table stakes for success.

Like 2023, we will have multiple talk tracks (including our “hacking is art” track on creative uses for free and open software), t-shirts, stickers, swag, lunch, and general shenanigans. It’s going to be a great day!

Click here for the sponsorship packet, and feel free to email info@bsidesbuffalo.org with any questions.

Sponsorship Packet Download Link

For Saturday, there is ample parking available — the event is in Science Hall (“N” on the map), convenient to lots 14, 15, and 16, as well as street parking on Main or the athletic center lots 17 and 19. Attendees can park in any lot, permit not required.

If you prefer public transit, there are Metro Rail stops at Main-Humboldt and Delevan-Canisius that are also a short walk from Science Hall, as well as bicycle racks outside of the building.

Also, just a note, I know that lot 16 is a parking garage on the map, it’s been replaced with a surface lot and the map hasn’t been updated yet.

We are pleased to announce the talk schedule for our event in June – once again, the morning of Track 2 will be our “Hacking is Art” track, focusing on creative work with free and open tools. Stay tuned, we’ll post abstracts for the talks here as we get closer to the event.

There will also be a third Sponsor Track with speakers from our Gold Sponsors — we’ll have more information on that coming soon!

Excited to announce our third Silver Sponsor for our 2023 event, first-time sponsor Tanium. Tanium provides Converged Endpoint Management, which helps to converge tools, workflows and teams across the entire endpoint management cycle.

We couldn’t run this event without the support of our sponsors, so thanks so much for making it possible and helping us to build up the local technology community. See you in June!

Like all BSides events, BSides Buffalo depends upon volunteers from the community to help make the event happen. If you’re interested in volunteering, let us know when you’re available and add your email address. We need people to help with setup and bag stuffing the night before and with all of the conference ops (registration, keeping speakers on track, etc.) the day of. As a volunteer, you’ll get free admission to the conference as well as a special tshirt and badge.

Click here to sign up as a volunteer!

Excited to announce our second Silver Sponsor for our 2023 event, first time sponsors MetaCTF. MetaCTF creates hands-on, interactive, and educational capture-the-flag (CTF) events that make it easy to learn new cybersecurity skills by breaking down complex cybersecurity concepts into engaging challenges that simulate real world scenarios. And not only that, they’ll be bringing one of their CTFs to BSides Buffalo for attendees to compete in!

We couldn’t run this event without the support of our sponsors, so thanks so much for making it possible and helping us to build up the local technology community. See you in June!

Excited to announce our eighth Gold Sponsor for our 2023 event – it’s first-time sponsor Corellium! Corellium’s revolutionary Arm virtualization platform combines high-fidelity virtual devices with powerful security tools for mobile testing and research.

We couldn’t run this event without the support of our sponsors, so thanks so much for making it possible and helping us to build up the local technology community. See you in June!

Excited to announce the seventh Gold Sponsor for our 2023 event – it’s returning sponsor Palo Alto Networks! Palo Alto enables cyber transformation, with best-of-breed platforms, world-class threat intelligence and expert services that deliver what’s next in cybersecurity.

We couldn’t run this event without the support of our sponsors, so thanks so much for making it possible and helping us to build up the local technology community. See you in June!