WHO SUBMITTED?

Total of 211 submissions.  Down 9% from last year.

266 unique names on submissions (some submissions had more than one author, some authors made more than one submission)

Using dubious best guess methods (based on indication by name, google, and/or personal knowledge):

  • 219 male
  • 46 female
  • 1 bird

WHAT WAS SUBMITTED?

Talks submitted per track (most submissions submit to more than one track):

  • OTM: 70
  • Belay It: 56
  • Belay It Twenty: 27
  • Bring It On: 80
  • Bring It On Twenty: 56
  • Build It: 56
  • Build It Twenty: 45

Word Trends (shows how many times each word appeared in the submissions.  There are many more obviously, but here are some that stood out):

284 – security
130 – data
79 – tools
62 – attacks
52 – malware
44 – attack
43 – tool
41 – detection
41 – code
40 – threat
38 – different
37 – cyber
37 – software
32 – community
29 – red
25 – phishing
22 – wireless
22- cloud
15 – open-source
13 – soc
10 – privacy
3 – shenanigans

WHO WAS ACCEPTED?

Submissions:

  • 41 of the 211 submissions were accepted for normal speaking slots (does not include keynote or closing plenary) for an acceptance rate of 19.4%.
  • 2 Alternates were also chosen.

Speakers:

  • 63 Speakers in total (again not including keynote or closing plenary)
  • 5 are first time speakers any major conference/event
  • 40 are first time speakers at ShmooCon
  • 18 have spoken at ShmooCon at least once before

HOW DO SPEAKERS GET CHOSEN?

Our selection committee this year was comprised of 17 people.  We use an open source system called OpenConf to collect, read and review the CFP proposals.  There are no hard rules for our reviewers, we  prefer that they read each paper with their own unique point of view and skill sets. However, the committee keeps in mind ShmooCon’s emphasis on new and upcoming speakers – both to ShmooCon and to the industry in general.  There is also a strong emphasis on never before presented material as well as talks that include the release of open source code.  Talks that have been given repeatedly or have been submitted to multiple cons in the future tend to get rated down by our reviewers.  Talks that have been given before but promise new/updated material are given more leeway.

After the committee has finished doing their reviews the Program Chairs along with Bruce and Heidi take that information and start to build a program.  This is a game of score, topic, and track balancing and can take several days as we work across time zones.

This year’s selection committee consisted of the following people:

Ben Laurie* – Program Chair
Jon Callas* – Program Chair
Heidi Potter* – Conference Organizer
Bruce Potter*- Conference Organizer
Iftach Iam Amit
Wade Benson*
Tamzen Cannoy*
Frank Clowes
GM1*
Toby Kohlenberg*
Logan Lodge*
Todd Nagengast*
Cat Okita
Chris John Riley
and then those who shall not be named

*members of The Shmoo Group

TO EVERYONE WHO SUBMITTED:

Thank you.  We say this every year but it’s worth repeating:  We very much appreciate your submission and we encourage you to submit again next year or to some alternate venue.