Opening Remarks (Sunday)

Hello everybody and welcome back to Bides SF 2026 the musical. So yesterday was a big day. We had more than 2,000 people come through the doors. Um that's participants, volunteers sponsors villagers and staff. Um that doesn't include a lot of other uh people behind the scenes as well. Uh we also had four ac capella singers last night and a yeti of course. Um, so this is our our biggest year yet. Um, so far we were actually really surprised. Um, you know, especially as I mentioned yesterday, how world events have really kind of caused us problems. We've had a lot of of changes to work through this year. Um, so uh we're actually surprised we this is our our

biggest year ever. So like awesome for that. Um, so we ran 58 uh talks yesterday across 16 different theaters. Uh a a huge thanks to Anna uh for kicking things off with an incredible incredible keynote yesterday. Um so outside of the talks, everything else was very busy as well. Uh we had nine villages uh going on and again today uh seven community organizations, five meetups, especially I hope that you were able to meet up at the the EFF table for some D&D. um or uh stopped by Script Kitty's pseudo Tower uh thing that they built right at their at their um their uh tables. Um we have more than a thousand teams competing in the CTF

this year, both in person and online. And as of last night, it was an eight-way tie. So, I you know, I haven't checked it stats today, but that's that's great to see. Looking forward to see who uh who wins that. And we'll be announcing that at closing ceremonies later today. But if you miss any of the things that I talk about, don't worry. There's so much more to come um today. So Bides is what you make it. Uh there are no attendees here at Bsides. Everyone is a participant. So don't just sit back, you know, take part in things, jump in, ask questions, share ideas, start conversations, participate. That's what makes this work. So BSSF is 100%

volunteer run. Um I was actually just talking like I've been doing this now for 11 years myself. Uh and you know it's built by the community for the community. It is a labor of love. Um but you know but if you've been thinking enjoying this and thinking like hey I love labor of love projects that are lots of work to do and you know don't get paid anything for this stuff. Yes, we want you. We need help. Uh so there's about 20 of us that work year round on the event to put it on and then supported by a bunch of other folks that that hop in and out over the course of the year and especially over the course

of the event itself. Um each supporting different areas running different different departments and such. Um it really does take a village haha um to to put this on and we're always looking for more people to join. So if you're interested in joining our staff um please go to bsidesf.org/job org/job um and you can apply there and we will get in touch with you after the event. So besides as BSSF is a community experience it needs to be harassment free. We have a zero tolerance for harassment abuse or intimidation of any kind. Uh these rules applies to both participants in the physical world and the digital spaces. We have our CTF is on discord as well. Um, so no matter

where if if it is officially official besides SF thing, um, all of our code of conduct rules apply. Uh, but speaking of physical spaces, uh, you can hack the challenges but not the venue, please. Uh, just please don't make us take any action. If we need, if we have to, we will. Uh so if anytime you uh you find yourself in need, you can also always find a uh uniform member of our safety ops team wearing the orange shirts or one of the uh the staff members like myself with our staff shirts and and we'll be happy to assist you. You can also reach out to incident atbsidesf.org and we will get back to you as quickly

as possible. Uh that literally goes to page your duty um and we'll page me and several other folks. So uh one different thing kind of about our conference than a lot of other conferences, we do have kind of a video and photo policy. It basically boils down to just please uh you know ask before you take a photo or video that that has somebody in it. Um we we kind of balance the need to document the the community history and everything else going on with the critical need for privacy first. uh many of our attendees work in kind of sensitive fields um or some just value their anonymity so we want to be respectful of that. Now we do

have designated photographers that are wearing vendor badges. We have here um Kelsey in the front here um but there are others as well. If you see uh you know one of the these official photographers wearing the vendor badges taking a photo and you don't want to be in it um just let them know. They are happy to make sure you're not in it. And if you see something posted on like our official social media or something and it has you in it and you don't want it, feel free to reach out to info@besidesf.org and we'll be happy to take that down for you. So if you have attended besides SFF last year, the layout is still very

similar. Uh we have three floors over the course over the over this building. Um so all of our our talks are here on AMC. We have our community organizations on the mezzanine and then we have in city view uh we have the participant hall which is all of our sponsors villages uh and food and other things as well upstairs uh and we're putting all of AMC to use again it's 16 different theaters we have five different tracks uh going on today uh theater 9 is infrasc and hpsec overflow for that is in eight 10 is pride and appsec Um, overflow is in um 11. Uh, theater 12 today is our leadership track. So, this is a new

thing from yesterday. Um, so if you're at all interested in leadership related talks, uh, that's could be a good one to go to. Theater 13 is our DNR track. And then theater 14 is AI and LLM with overflow seating in 15. Uh and then our smaller theaters one through four have a wide variety of different talks going on um including GRC, privacy, cryptography and a birds of the feather session. Um and then there's also a special kind of villages uh workshop going on today too. Uh if you were able to get tickets uh I think scriptkitty is giving a a village today um there. So uh there are many many many opportunities for conversation today. So make sure you check the the

full online schedule on SCED. um it'd be sens.org/scched um or on the hacker tracker app. Our annual CTF has already been ongoing since Friday. They start even actually before the the event begins. Um but there's still plenty of time to join. Uh so no matter if you're a pro at doing CTFs and are like have won the Defcon CTF or if you're brand new to CTFs, definitely recommend checking them out. Uh they are really nice uh folks that are happy to to get you started. Uh you can go uh join in uh in person upstairs in uh in City View if you just take a a right as soon as you get to the doors

and it's the first door on the left in Twin Peaks. Uh that's the CTF room and and participants of all skill levels are welcome. So in addition to that there's also nine different villages upstairs. Uh we have adversary, AI, bug bounty, the recruiter village, uh cloud, crypto and privacy, IoT, lockpick, and again something new this year, the script kitty village, which is really cool. Um in my personal opinion, um we know a lot of people are experiencing some life changes this year. Uh I it's just it's it things are a lot of stuff is going on that's crazy. Uh people have again as I was saying earlier, world events have been going on. uh lots of layoffs and

such or just people having problems uh with jobs or anything else going on. So, we did bring back Dr. Sarah who is our on-site emotional support therapist. So, if you would want to connect to Dr. Sarah, you can stop by the info desk and they can get you in touch with her. Um you can also email her uh at the email address on the screen as well. Now again, one uh change that we did make this year uh is that we did put the community organizations all on the mezzanine. So make sure to stop by and check them out. Uh there's a lot of cool organizations. These are nonprofits that are represented there. And that's EFF,

ISC2, not formerly IRC squared. Um ISSA, Pacific Hackers Association, Secure Diversity Day of Security, uh Women in Cyber Security, and Women's Society of Cyber Jutsu. At registration, you should have received uh two prepaid drink tickets, so make sure you uh grab a drink at the bar and chill out space. We also have extras as well, so if you could probably stop by infoes, no promises, but whatever is left. We have prepaid for them, so I'd rather they go for use. And that's good for both uh non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages at the bar. Um so you even if you don't drink, you can still find something there. If you need a pickme up, we also have three

different espresso and coffee stations upstairs in City View. U so make sure to check those out. Uh lunch is going to be from 12:00 to 1:30 upstairs and out in the Embaradero and out on the tent. And you know, as I mentioned yesterday, we have we've brought back our graphic recordings again. As you see, we have Silent James over here that is drawing Yes indeed. drawing all the talks that are happening here at IMAX and we'll be putting all the graphic recordings on display up in City View in the lobby and then they will go online um in the coming weeks as well. Uh head shot are freely available out by registration um on the third

floor here in AMC concessions. So, if you're looking to get like a new headsh shot for your LinkedIn profile or or other kinds of professional things, um or if you're a speaker somewhere, need a speaker photo of something, um that's a great place to go get a free headsh shot. So, it's first come, first serve. Um just get in line and you can get one. Uh and then also on up uh well, I guess yes, up one floor from here on the mezzanine, we have both our prayer room and mother's room available u if you have need of those things. Uh, if you pre- purchased a t-shirt, you should have been a picked it up at

registration. If for some reason that didn't happen, stop by registration and they'll be happy to help you. Um, I think we still do have some shirts remaining. So, if you if you're interested in getting one, um, stop by code check and you can purchase one. Um, there the proceeds from, uh, the the sales of the shirts are we we donate to three different charities. The Diana Initiative, EFF, and Bard Theater are this year's t-shirt charity choices. if you're so willing. We love your feedback. We we thrive on feedback. This is how we kind of, you know, make changes every year. Every year something changes. And so, and we do this based off of y'all's feedback, the feedback

that we see ourselves. I mean, this is like we are always wanting to change things just our nature. And so, we have kind of two different ways to provide feedback this year. Um, so if you just want to give quick feedback about a presentation, uh, you can use the QR code on the left. it is on all the the presentation signs as well and then we actually uh display it I think on the screens at the end as well. Um so that's super quick way if you just have some quick feedback about a particular presentation um you know we we have a lot of new presenters this year and welcome any feedback there then we can

also pass on to them and then the QR code on the right which is also reachable at bsites.org/feedback /feedback is a great place for just general feedback about the the conference. Um, and again, we go through line by line of of every submission to all of our feedback and take that to heart as I was mentioned yesterday and I've mentioned a couple of times in the past, but it's like I I think we went through five different coffee vendors over the years in my 11 years of doing this and so finally found one that people actually like. Um, and so and that was because of y'all's feedback of like, okay, you didn't like it, let's

try something else. And so we finally found one I think that people generally like there. But that's again because of feedback. So please provide feedback. Uh it is really meaningful and important to us. But this year would not be possible without the support of our generous sponsors. Uh while we are technically the third largest bides in the world. Um it is it we are the most expensive to put on bides. Uh just because this is San Francisco and things are very expensive here in San Francisco. um especially when we have technically two venues um that we have to pay for here. Uh and so it's really meaningful for all the sponsors that actually contribute to

this. We try to keep our ticket sales costs as low as we can um and so we can you know make sure that everybody has the opportunity to present. But again, this is only possible because of our sponsors. So let's let's give a round of applause to all of our sponsors. Please make sure to check out their tables on the participant hall upstairs. Uh there's this uh sponsor passport that you should have received uh when you uh came in at registration. If for some reason you didn't get one, stop by the booth, the the besides booth upstairs and you can grab one. Uh get your passport stamped by all the participating sponsors and you can enter

to win some really cool raffle prizes. Uh and so we gave out a bunch yesterday and we're going to be giving back out a lot today. So, make sure you have it uh turned back in uh by 2:15 at the um at the Bides booth because that's that's we'll be doing the the drawing at 2:15 at in the Embaradero at the stage. I do want to say a special very special thank you to all of our six gold sponsors, Aikido, ArcJet, Clover, Data Dog, Socket, and Sublime Security. And last, but certainly not least, I want to say give a huge thanks to the 235 volunteers that are supporting us this weekend. So, let's give a major

round of applause. It would not be possible without all the volunteers helping us. It takes a village to run an event of this size and we're just so grateful for all the people that took time to volunteer because we know, hey, it's a weekend u and I know some people came in earlier during our setup days as well um taking off time from work. So, really do appreciate that. So thank you again.