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DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

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Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#81

Post by [deleted] »

jrockway wrote: post #65
NanoYohaneTSU wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything is about money or the bottom line. Sometimes it's about politics. Vegas takes a loss on so many things. Nevada has grown more and more corporate over the years. This move doesn't surprise me at all.

What are the politics? One of the richest and most profitable industries on Earth wants to have a conference where they show slide shows to each other. Really not much different than any other conference, and probably more ethical than most of them.

[deleted]

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#82

Post by basil-rash »

cratermoon wrote: post #69
mrandish wrote: post #4

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 enou…

I heard a joke a tech conference people in Vegas many years ago. It goes something like "people who go to tech conferences in Vegas bring one shirt and a $20 bill and never change either." So yea, programmers generally aren't gamblers because they know enough math to know the house always wins.

Eh, I’m a programmer and I go to vegas with other programmers fairly regularly. We know enough math to know the expected cost per entertainment•hour is comparable to many other pass-times.

But even so we’re actually all net-positive on the city, thanks to a couple “lucky” craps runs.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#85

Post by pxeboot »

kortilla wrote: post #72
mrandish wrote: post #4

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 enou…

Gambling isn’t the big margin for the casino and hackers aren’t immune to gambling. Most people who gamble know the odds aren’t in their favor.

You can view their financial statements [1]. I am sure the 'casino' category includes things besides gambling, but it looks like the largest share of their revenue.

[1] https://investor.caesars.com/news-releases/news-release-deta...

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#86

Post by kstrauser »

Spodera wrote: post #10
kqr2 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens to all the previous Caesar hotel bookings? Have they negotiated with other hotels for a conference rate?

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.

That “just” is doing some heavy lifting. It was a minor hassle running back and forth from the Forum to Flamingo to pick stuff up and drop it off. Commuting from strip hotels to LVCC is going to be a pain in the ass.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#87

Post by basil-rash »

rpmisms wrote: post #76
cratermoon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard a joke a tech conference people in Vegas many years ago. It goes something like "people who go to tech conferences in Vegas bring one shirt and a $20 bill and never change either." So yea, programmers generally aren't gamblers because they know enough math to know the house always wins.

In my experience, programmers like poker, but not games of chance. This also describes me. Poker is a data-heavy game of skill and memory, Craps is about the opposite.

Craps is not the opposite. Quite the opposite, actually.

The magnitude of entropy casinos require you inject into the system each round is quite low in practice.

Profiting off of that is all skill.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#88

Post by bdcravens »

caymanjim wrote: post #14

I find it hilarious that defcon.org can't handle the traffic from being on HN.

The IP of the site reports as being a Comcast IP address. Surely this isn't hosted on some guy's home server? Even their business class service wouldn't seem like a good fit, especially for an org like Defcon.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#89

Post by busterarm »

rockskon wrote: post #30
tptacek wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are dozens of other conferences that do anything else you want a security conference to do. The point of Defcon at this point is to be the giant annual social event.

Well it's not going to do so well for that at the LVCC given the distance away from hotel parties.

Agreed, that's a pretty terrible location given what defcon is and at its current size.

Re: DEF CON 32 Was Canceled. We Un-Canceled it

#90

Post by busterarm »

tptacek wrote: post #77
rockskon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's not going to do so well for that at the LVCC given the distance away from hotel parties.

It was famously at Alexis Park for years, which might as well be the moon if you're at Caesar's.

And when it was at AP maybe 5000 people were attending? Today it's like 25k.

And AP was tolerant of people treating their property like garbage. Caesars' certainly doesn't.

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