What is Security BSides and why we run it in Brisbane?

If you’ve landed here wondering what BSides actually is, you’re not alone. We get that question at every meetup and in every registration email thread.

The short version

Security BSides is a community-run information security conference movement. It started in 2009 when a bunch of talks didn’t fit a big commercial conference schedule, so people carved out their own room. Since then, cities all over the world have spun up local BSides: same spirit, local volunteers, local flavour.

BSides Brisbane is our chapter of that idea. We’re not a company selling tickets for margin. We’re a volunteer crew trying to put one solid Saturday on the calendar where builders, defenders, students, and curious outsiders can share a room without the expo-hall price tag or the sales pitch.

Giving back is the point

For us, “giving back” isn’t a slide in a deck. It’s how the day exists at all.

• Volunteers run registration, wrangle speakers, chase sponsors, test the badge, and sweep the floors. Nobody’s here for a pay cheque from BSides.
• Sponsors cover the boring expensive bits: venue, insurance, swag, t-shirts, sometimes travel for folks who’d never get here otherwise. We try to thank them properly without turning the event into a three-hour ad.
• Speakers, especially first-timers, donate their prep time and their nerves. We want students and career-changers on the same schedule as people who’ve been doing this for twenty years.
• You, if you show up, bring questions, mentor someone in the hallway, or help a teammate in the CTF: you’re part of that loop too.

That’s the culture we’re trying to protect: knowledge that moves sideways, not only top-down.

Keeping it affordable (especially right now)

We’re living through a rough economy for a lot of people: rent, groceries, training budgets, and “optional” conference spend don’t all fit in the same month. We get it, because we’re paying those bills too.

So when we set ticket prices, we’re not optimising for profit. We’re trying to hit a number that covers the event, pays the invoices, and keeps the door open for students, hobbyists, and folks paying their own way. Sponsorship helps a lot; without it, cheap tickets simply wouldn’t add up.

If cost is ever the reason you hesitate to come, reach out. We’d rather have you in the room than priced out. We’ll do what we can within the constraints we have each year (comp tickets, student tiers when we run them, and so on).

What you’ll actually find on the day

Think two tracks of talks (technical and not-so-technical), hallway conversations that matter as much as the slides, hands-on bits like CTFs or villages when we can resource them, and a crowd that skews curious over credential-flex.

If that sounds like your people: watch this site for dates, CFP, and tickets. If you want to help (speak, sponsor, volunteer), contact us. We’re always glad to hear from you.