We’re back for another year of amazing talks, great company and exciting hands-on hacking labs

It will be hard to top our amazing inaugural year, but we’ve taken your feedback and plan to make this event even better! As with last year, this IT Security conference promises to be the most hands-on, activity-driven con you can attend! 

Why You Should Come to Wild West Hackin’ Fest 18

We want this conference to be the most hands-on, activity-driven con you’ve been to yet! Never worked with a JTAG? You will. Never done a single thing with Software Defined Radio? You will. We will be having an SDR village and a hardware hacking village, among some other great events. The skills you learn here will be directly applicable to your job immediately when you get back to work… or home. We listened to your feedback and this year we’re adding even more lab time, so you can go to as many talks as you can fit AND also do all the activities.

This Year’s Theme: Mining

Lead (the town just above Deadwood) was home to the largest and most productive gold mine in North America until 2003 when the price of gold forced it to shut down. Over its 126 years of operation there were 41 million ounces of gold and 9 million ounces of silver mined. The mine is more than 8,000 feet deep with 370 miles of tunnels. Today it is home to the Sanford Laboratory where they study the mysteries of the universe.

The Grand Hotel (this year’s home for WWHF18) was the slime plant for the mine where ore was processed until 1976. In 2003 it was gutted, remodeled and turned into a hotel, casino and events center in a 43 million dollar remodel. See more about the remodel here: https://youtu.be/Cpf-A0HrqsY

Happily much of the original structure was restored and maintained to keep the feel of the old mining facility.

Mining is a lot like Information Security

There’s ALWAYS more to learn and discover, and sometimes obtaining that knowledge can be a lot of work, but it’s well worth the effort.

Potato Creek Johnny (this year’s mascot) was a prospector in Deadwood. At just 4’3” he became a legend around town when he discovered a huge gold nugget in Spearfish Canyon Creek. Wild West Hackin’ Fest is THE place to find the biggest nugget of hands-on skills and learning. You never know what you might unearth!

We’re still planning and coming up with great ideas – we’ll add them as we get everything nailed down.

Have other ideas? Questions? Comments? Write us, deputy at wild west hackin fest dot com. Or sign up for our emails at the link on the top!