BSides is a community-driven framework for organizing and holding information security conferences, a concept that began in the US in 2009. Because the call for papers that year for Black Hat Vegas was oversubscribed, a number of quality speakers were rejected—not because of lack of quality but of lack of space and time. Those unable to present decided to hold their own conference on the "b side."
Since then, many BSides events have been arranged in several countries throughout the world. BSides has come to be known as a conference by the community for the community. Events are generally inexpensive to attend and rely heavily on sponsorship to pay for the venue and other costs.
Because BSides events offer smaller, more intimate networking atmospheres and breakout discussions, they foster strong audience participation and overall group interaction. They create opportunities for individuals to both present and participate in an atmosphere that encourages collaboration.
The very first BSides in Austin was organized in 2010 by Jack Daniel and Ben Tomhave. This was the fourth BSides ever to be held, and it had about 30 attendees.
In 2011, Michael Gough stepped up and took over organization of our local event. Even as he continued to manage the BSides Austin events through 2015, Michael also helped kick off BSides Texas in 2012, and was heavily involved in BSides throughout Texas (including Dallas, San Antonio and Houston). Matt and Janice have been running BSides Austin since 2016.
BSides Austin has grown in that short time into a two-day event with around 750 participants. Our goal is to continue providing a fantastic event with great content and training for the information security community.
Organizers for 2024:
Matt Pardo @ultraslogger
Janice Daquila-Pardo @bsidesaustin