Social And After Hours Activities

Attendees had a chance to unwind after sitting through a day of some very technical talks. Free beer flowed at the LayerOne reception on Saturday night. There was so much beer that it did not run out until the very last hours of the conference. Another party was sponsored by IrvineUnderground , which mixed LOTS of alcohol with the caffeinated drink called Bawls. In the last hours of the party, drunken hackers challenged each other with impromptu wresting matches. I am proud to report that except for some bloody elbows, no one was seriously hurt.

Conclusion

The first annual LayerOne conference was a success. The intimate atmosphere provided a laid back environment for learning and socializing. While only 100 people showed up, this compares favorably with the first Defcon conference attended by only 60 people.

The good crowd made security management easy. There were no major fights and no fires broke out. On Sunday, the loud hotel fire alarm continuously interrupted the talks. Perhaps this was the work of malicious hackers who broke into the fire suppression systems, but more likely it was a group of miscreant kids. We may never know.

Frazier Cunningham, also known as Nulltone to the hacker community, was one of the organizers of LayerOne. He says that there will definitely be a LayerOne 2005 and that he appreciated all the support from local hacker groups such as LA2600 , Toorcon and IrvineUnderground.

The next big hacker meeting will be the 12th annual Defcon convention held at the Alexis Park Hotel in Las Vegas. It will be held July 30 to August 1 and you can bet that THG will be there covering every minute of it.