ShmooCon: You’re a Jerk
We said we would do this blog post on Twitter if we saw certain behaviors, we weren’t kidding. ShmooCon, an annual security gathering in Washington D.C., is a great conference, we’ve gone for the past few years and have always enjoyed ourselves. The things that make it great: a lack of consumerism, technical presentations, and a good repeat crowd year after year. One thing that isn’t so great is the ticket reservation system, and this year it has been even more of a mess (but getting better). Tickets sell outs for this event, one which will only allow 1,250 attendees, have occurred in seconds each time registration is opened. Where there is this kind of demand, there is bound to be chicanery.
In their own words: “ShmooCon is an annual east coast hacker convention hell-bent on offering three days of an interesting atmosphere for demonstrating technology exploitation, inventive software and hardware solutions, and open discussions of critical infosec issues.”
Into this feel good environment of pure information security for the sake of information security have stepped the charlatans, cheap bastards looking to make a quick buck off their fellow industry peers: people who buy tickets only to resell them at a huge markup on eBay.
Without further ado, a list of people, now immortalized, who should be ashamed of themselves:
| Name | Sale Price | Desired Profit for Doing Nothing |
|---|---|---|
| jonkhrome | $1000 | $850 |
| ilovetechnology | $550 | $400 |
| ptsu7986 | $499.99 | $349.99 |
| msulphie | $499.99 | 349.99 |
| seth711 | $300 | $150 |
| seth711 | $325.02 | $175.02 |
| ncpcgirl | $225 | $75 |
There is always someone who needs to be the best, and in this case it is user jonkhrome, who has placed his bar code up at a Buy it Now Price of $1000, an $850 markup.
Yup, he wants $1,000, and I hope that's not the actual bar code...
Rob Fuller, aka mubix, summarized it best:
Courtesy, Rob Fuller.
In Closing
The thought that keeping this a small conference will preserve it’s charm is a good one, but at this point the conference is in danger of losing it’s loyal “year after year” crowd (you know, the repeat customers that make any initiative worth doing). At some point there have to be changes, because the small crowd idea only works if it is the right small crowd, hard core information security enthusiasts. This scalping nonsense above, which has happened in previous years a little but seems to be taking on a life of it’s own, has to stop. Bruce Potter and his team have made incredible strides tackling the ticket registration technology problems, what’s the right way to kill the “for profit” ShmooCon ticket resale market?
What’s that you say? This is only capitalism at it’s finest, a scarce resource for which demand is driving up price? If ShmooCon wants to become the equivalent of a Madonna concert, where scalpers buy up all the face value tickets and only glitterati sit in the front row, then that’s fine. But for me, when it becomes that, it becomes an event I’m a hell of a lot less enthusiastic about.
Do we put our money where our mouth is? Last year we had an additional ticket and we sold it to an enthusiastic security person via Twitter at face value. Now we’re stuck hoping the January 1 sales go better, or that someone will pay it forward and sell us a ticket. One thing we’re not doing is buying any ticket on eBay, whether we can afford it (we can) or not.
Filed Under: Industrial Complex
eBaying a ticket for $1000 and posting the barcode: winner of the facepalm of the year award.
Thankfully, the fact that the listing ended without any bids has left me with a shred of hope for humanity.
shmoocon, infosec cons, and the infosec “industry” has always favored “who you know” over “what you know”. going to shmoocon especially has always been about “who do you know that has tickets”.
there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, of course. if it’s an elite event, then getting in should be appropriately difficult.
What does that have to do with people scalping tickets?
I think we would favor a “who you know” approach more.
it isn’t “information security for the sake of information security”, it’s hanging out with your clique.
Disagree, if there is a clique, I’m not a part of it. I go each year because there are few other conferences that haven’t gone completely marketing/commercial, where I sit through security presentations that pretend to be about something and they’re about a product strategy.
A couple days of technology presentations with no sales pitch has an appeal.
i think im gonna skip shmoocon this year. this is ridiculous. it’s cold and DC sucks already. now i have one less reason to go to the east coast.
I say previous attendees should get first options on buying tickets before the general public
ps. I’ve never been and it’s unlikely I ever will
After having gone every year but the first it’s looking like I won’t be attending this years. After dealing with the crap during the two rounds I’d rather have a great time NYE and not have to set an alarm for just before noon for what I’m sure will be a disappointment.
While I’m happy it’s generated such interest it’s ridiculous that you have a better chance of getting a ticket by getting a paper accepted than you do by using their registration system.
This will be my first Shmoocon; and yes, I sat through November’s false starts, hitting F5 like some kind of spastic secretary…
I’ve had the opportunity to meet Bruce, and find him to be very level-headed and fair minded. His group have fallen on their swords over the ticketing system, and have busted ass to get the system working.
Mubix is absolutely correct to call these people out for what they are. I’m sure that Bruce and Heidi are also aware of these issues.
As for the asshat who was genius enough to post the barcode on the eBay add, good luck.. The community is large enough to create demand, but small enough to effectively blacklist these slugs from all future premiere events.
Make it a lottery. Everyone puts in their names just like when you want a hunting license. They lottery it up and if you get called you get a ticket.
As to the resales, you need to find a way to associate barcodes to identities and still allow the attendee to remain anonymous, otherwise it will be difficult to stop.
ShmooCon bar codes can only be used once and the website repeatedly states that first come is first in. If that’s the actual picture, the purchaser probably wont get in with it.
[...] Tickets sell outs for this event, one which will only allow 1,250 attendees, have occurred in seconds each time registration is opened. Where there is this kind of demand, there is bound to be chicanery. Praetorian Prefect [...]
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