DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

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After a great 25 year relationship Caesars abruptly terminated their contract with DEF CON, leaving us with no venue for DC 32, and just about seven months to Con!

We don’t know why Caesars canceled us, they won’t say beyond it being a strategy change and it is not related to anything that DEF CON or our community has done. This kind of no-notice cancellation of a contract is unheard of in the conference business. The parting is confusing, but amicable.

TL;DR - DEF CON 32 will still be August 8-11 2024, but now held at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) with workshops and training at the Sahara.

I suspect Caesar's dropped DEF CON because the DEF CON attendees likely have a fairly low "avg revenue per attendee" yield because fewer of them gamble compared to the avg Vegas conference attendee. They also probably spend less on high-end restaurant dining and bar drinking inside the hotel.

Since the pandemic Vegas has had a pretty strong resurgence in general and this may be a sign that Caesar's is doing well enough they've decided there are higher-revenue guests they can put in those rooms — even in the doldrums of August (a traditionally slow month for Vegas tourism).

I happen to regularly attend an unrelated, non-tech conference that's always right around the same week as DEF CON. That conference also happens to attract attendees who don't gamble or spend much at the hotel other than room costs. The reason the conference organizer chooses August is they get better discounts on their costs from the hotel in exchange for filling up rooms that would otherwise be empty (except this hotel is lower-end and cheaper than Caesar's). This works out because unlike Caesar's this hotel is far off the strip and doesn't have nearly as much dining or gambling revenue potential anyway.

Also DEF CON was canceled, but we uncanceled it : https://www.reddit.com/r/Defcon/comments/1aj6ixn/def_con_was...

I find this strange but not surprising. I've heard of speed bumps in the past related to 'hackers in town' and I wouldn't be surprised if it comes out later that it had something to do with it, even if unfounded. I think overall, having that many 'hackers' in town makes people overly paranoid.

I wonder if the ransomware incident last year played a role in this decision? [0] I'm guessing they wouldn't announce it for fear of boycott, but who knows.

[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/14/caesars-paid-millions-in-ran...

If you already have a reservation at a Caesars property, from what I saw you can keep it, you'll just have to find transportation to LVCC via the monorail or other means.

Not sure on transfers. They have negotiated with Sahara on a rate and are looking to add more.