What is DefendCon?

DefendCon was born from several inspirational men and women who wanted to offer a different type of conference experience. We wanted to create a conference that provided the same technical content as a more traditional security event while providing a safe, collaborative space for women and non-binary individuals.  At this conference you’ll be exposed to industry luminaries from top tech companies, participate in technical hacking challenges, and network with industry peers.

Why is DefendCon needed?

Diversity continues to provide proven business benefits such as increase in ROI, better products and more profitable businesses.  No where is this more necessary than in cyber security where women make up less than 11% of the cyber security workforce. However many ‘women-in-tech’ events offer less than 30% technical content, making them heavy on encouragement but light on deeply technical content. This leaves many women having to chose between attending a “women’s conference” or a “technical conference”. We wanted to create a conference that offered both. That’s why we host a conference that is devoted to technical content. Over 80% of our tracks focus on current, cutting edge technical content in the cyber security space.

Who Attends DefendCon?

If you’ve ever been to a security conference and felt unwelcome as a woman or non-binary individual we want to change that. If you’re a male ally who wants to be part of the solution but hasn’t been invited to the discussion we hope you’ll join us at this unique event. In order to provide an optimal experience, we keep an attendee ratio of 80% female identifying persons and 20% cis-male. This allows us to provide a safe space for women/non-binary, while also allowing our male coworkers to participate.

Last year we hosted one-hundred and fifty people from over fifty companies including Adobe, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Netflix,  Amazon, Facebook and more.