It’s been a while since I attended the mrmcds. In 2011 the event did not take place and I couldn’t make it the year after. Fortunately, 2013 allowed me to participate and I was heavily surprised by the quality of everything. The (newish) location, the people, the provided catering, the atmosphere, …
The event itself is relatively small. I don’t have numbers but I felt like being surrounded by 100 people. Although the stats about connected devices suggests there were at least twice or thrice as many people present.
The talks were good, a refreshing mix of technical and non-technical content. With an audience generally inclined to discuss things. That allowed for more lively sessions which create new insights, also for the speakers. My favourite was Akiko talking about her job as air traffic controller. I learned a lot about how the aviation industry is organised how various pieces fit together.
Fukami keynoted the conference and tried to make us aware of our ethics. Surveillance was made by hackers, he said. People like you and me. The exercise for the audience was to further think and conclude that if we didn’t help implementing and deploying surveillance infrastructure, it wouldn’t have gotten that bad. While the talk itself wasn’t too bad, I wonder who the target audience was. If it meant to wake up young hackers who have not yet adjusted their moral compass, it was too weak. The talk didn’t really give advice as to how to handle dubious situations. If it was not meant for those hackers, then why talk about it in a very basic way and not ask hard questions? Anyway, I enjoyed seeing the issue of people’s responsibility coming up and creating a discussion among the hackers.
Mine and Stef’s talk went well, although it was the in the very last slot of the conference. After two long party nights. I barely made it to the talk myself 😀 We presented new ideas to guide the user when it comes to security critical questions. If you have been to GUADEC, then you haven’t missed much. The talk got a slight new angle though. In case you are interested in the slides, you can find them here.
The design of the conference was very impressive. The theme was aviation and not only did we have an impressive talk monitor as seen above, we also had trolleys with drinks and food as well as the time for various interesting locations. We also received amazing gadgets like the laser engraved belt made from the typical air plane seatbelt.
As always, parties were had with own DJs, light show, beer straight from the tap, cool people and music. To summarize: I’m glad to have visited a very enjoyable event. It’s a pleasure to be around all those smart hackers and to have inspiring discussions. I’m looking forward to next year.
