About The Organization

At DEF CON 16, in 2008, a collective of hackers from Colorado known as “303” hosted a set of talks in the Riviera skyboxes. Thus the name Skytalks was born.

The talks had the goal of not allowing for employer censorship of topics (or speakers), and used a set of rules aligned with what is commonly known as “the Chatham House Rule” to help encourage free flowing information and conversations which are more intimate and collegial – things that would usually fall under “Friend-DA” and would not be appropriate or safe to discuss with attribution and possibly without context. 

303, with bluknight leading the charge for most of this time, continued to host and staff the event, as well as an after party year after year — long after it became a better known village.  The Skytalks organization is grateful to all the blood, sweat, tears, and booze that 303 has provided to start and grow such a long running and well loved event, and as a result allowed for Skytalks to level up in 2022 and become a more independent organization.

Most of you should not notice a change, it’s been a slow and gradual evolution as bluknight welcomed (and sometimes roped) in more volunteers over the years up until we reached this milestone.  As one person observed:  it takes a village to run a village.  We do now need to be clear that we are now a more formal organization, run by a diverse team of individuals from all over the country and are no longer a “303” event. We are proud to welcome into our ranks Directors, Staffers, and Volunteers of all affiliations.

However, we continue to hold ourselves on to simple creed:  “No recording.  No photographs.  No bullshit.”

Skytalks at DEF CON (pre 2024)

Skytalks was a ‘sub-conference’ within DEF CON. Our mission: to provide a platform for researchers to share their research, for angry hackers to rant about the issues of their industry, and for curious souls to probe interesting issues, all without the watchful eye of the rest of the world. With a strict, well-enforced “no recording” policy, research that is underway or critical of a vendor can be aired to your peers. You are talking to other people in the information and computer underground, and very few topics are taboo. We invite the best of DEF CON: the best of the underground, in all its forms. Esoterica is as welcome as 0-day here, and history, design, APTs (or as we used to call them, hackers who are better funded than you), and extruded intruders have all found a place on our stage.

Skytalks was old-school DEF CON. We welcome and encourage handles – we want your material to stand on its own, and not to rely on what company’s logo is on your slide deck. We encourage the audience to ask questions and challenge what does not seem to be right; speakers can and will be held accountable for their material by their peers, loudly and, quite possibly drunkenly. Feedback doesn’t always come from the sound system, buddy.

Skytalks at BSidesLV (2024)

We are thrilled to share that the Skytalks experience will be returning to Las Vegas for “hacker summer camp”, this time as part of BSides Las Vegas!

DEF CON has been our home for many years. We will always cherish our memories at DEF CON, and extend our best wishes to the entire DEF CON production team and community, and wish them a fantastic year in their new venue. Rest assured, you will continue to see many of our staff and supporters as attendees there.

Thanks to an invitation, and generous support and flexibility from the BSides Las Vegas team, we will once again be able to offer our special brand of off-the-record talks. We have always admired and respected what the team behind BSides Las Vegas has accomplished (fun fact, some of the original founders of BSides Las Vegas also helped to found Skytalks) and we are honored to be able to be a small part of their event.

The Skytalks XIV Call for Presentations will open on May 8th, and we need your submissions! Check [link removed] for details on how to submit before the June 16th deadline.

Note that due to event space constraints and logistical challenges, Skytalks will be implementing a physical-token based system to get into our sessions, so there will not be any “linecon” for getting into the room. More details will be provided on how this will work soon. Rest assured that our dedicated volunteer staff remains unchanged, but expect some shift in the vibes and experience to fit our new venue. We’re excited to see what opportunities this brings.

Please plan on joining us in August for an unforgettable Skytalks at BSides Las Vegas, and don’t forget to put your money in the bucket!

Skytalks Content

We’re looking for talks that contain cutting-edge material; your work can be in-progress, if you have results, or complete work is welcome, even (and perhaps especially) when it runs the the risk of offending a company. Talks that challenge industry or societal norms are great. Calling out those who harm our industry and community is excellent! Talks that are outside the realm of a PG rating have found a home here (whether it’s due to hacking sex toys or reading email from “the hacker named 4chan”), but making sex jokes that have nothing to do with your talk, or throwing gratuitous porn on your slides, will get you ejected out the nearest portal (and we’re happy to use windows, even if there isn’t a pool below). First-time speakers are welcome; we have had the privilege and honor of being the place for the first talks of hackers who went on to become some of the greatest names in our community. We have also been the test-bed for some very experimental talks. We’re inviting you to be part of that group.

What you must bring: A compelling topic, slides, and willingness to educate and/or face your peers.

We invite you to be: outgoing, willing to educate, wanting to learn (yes, as a presenter), and wanting to engage your peers. If you lack any of these skills, we can fix this. A good talk is about mutual learning; it is a conversation. We just provide a room of professionals that want to converse, sometimes over a bit of liquor (and sometimes over more than a bit).

Your submission must include a brief abstract that explains your talk, which we will post on the Skytalks website to help advertise your talk. It must also include a detailed outline of the major talking points (no more than two pages, no less than 3/4ths of a page). Optionally, you can give us additional information or arguments about why we should accept your talk. If you have a Twitter handle, let us know; we use Twitter to advertise talks during the con.

What we provide: a place to present, with projectors (VGA or HDMI inputs). While we may have adapters on-hand, please be prepared and bring your own for either VGA or HDMI inputs to our projectors. We’ll have a PA system with appropriate microphones, as well as audio input (3.5mm stereo jack or RCA plugs) from a device if you need it. Please let us know if you have any special requirements, such as a fire extinguisher for when you plan to set the table on fire, a bucket of sand for the lithium battery you plan to crush, or a safe place to store liquid nitrogen.

Remember, if any of your slides are caught or killed, we will disavow any knowledge of your talk.