BSides Detroit Meeting Notes 2011-10/27

[J Wolfgang Goerlich]

Team,

Here are some notes that I took from the meeting. Please amend or add as you see fit. I am sure that I missed more than a few things.

Wolfgang


BSides Detroit Meeting Notes 2011-10/27
Kyle Creyts, Steven Fox, Wolf Goerlich, Ryan Harp


Topics:

Date

BSides Detroit will be a two day conference on the first Friday and Saturday in June. That is June 1-2, 2012.

Size and Scope

Attendees: 300 with a comparable mix as to last year’s conference in terms of aptitude, interest, and job description.

Speakers: 16 sessions. As with last year’s conference, the majority of the speakers will be local.

Tracks: 1 track. If the CFP turns up 32 or more quality talks, we will consider adding a second track.

Location

The location will remain in the Detroit area. We require seating capability for 300 people with three rooms (sessions, break-out, common), ample parking, and local restaurants.

The location should exemplify our brand and create a memorable experience. 

Speakers

We agree that the BSides event is an opportunity to show case local talent, and to give voice to presenters who are not on the con circuit.

One theme is remaining true to the BSides culture and ideals. “We do not have members, but rather participants.” There is a balance between fostering the idea of participants presenting, and providing an enjoyable experience for the speakers.

Ongoing discussions in this area. What form of gift bag or speaker package is appropriate? Should speakers have separate and distinctive shirts? Badges?

Branding

We will work thru the White Haired Man Design’s branding process. The objective is to build a high quality brand that participants can rally behind, that sponsors will want to be associated with, and that works in a variety of formats and media.

Several themes were discussed. Leveraging Detroit’s edgy and tough reputation, while avoiding negative connotations. Leveraging Detroit’s past as the Paris of the Midwest. Leveraging Detroit’s past as a port city, connecting people and information.

Marketing

We will go as far as we can with grass roots marketing. This includes social media efforts (Twitter | Facebook | Google+), creating a BSides podcast, being guests on the major podcasts, being guests on major blogs (including McAffee), and other mainstays. If funding allows and if we are falling short of our goal of 300 participants, we may engage a professional marketing or PR firm. One option may be to have such a firm as a sponsor.

CTF

The #MiSec group will develop and host a CTF for BSides Detroit. Kyle mentioned that his organization may have an interest in donating time, materials, or equipment.

Organization

For communications, we will use the Google Groups email distribution. For document sharing, we will use Google Docs. For task and milestone management, we will use Redmine. (Unfortunately, Google Docs doesn’t include a Google version of Microsoft Project.)


Action items:

Wolfgang: Organize branding calls with Michael Galligan.
Wolfgang: Provide a hosted Redmine solution.
Kyle: Configure Redmine and create a BSides project.


Topics for the next meeting:

Sponsorship packs
Location scouting

BSides CFP

[Kyle Creyts]

About Redmine: I realized, after suggesting it, that there is a free, hosted alternative called BaseCamp.

If it is still around, it would cut a fair bit of overhead for each of us.

[Kyle Creyts]

Nevermind, apparently it is no longer free.

[Keith]

http://blog.webdistortion.com/2009/12/18/8-free-web-based-project-management-systems-reviewed/

Zoho I've toyed around with and it's free for one project. Along with that, there are a slew of other tools tied to the same Zoho account included an online "OneNote wannabe". 

I'd suggest Zoho. 

[J Wolfgang Goerlich]

Open to all suggestions. The benefits of Redmine are that a few of us are familiar with the interface -- dthom, Kyle, nullspace, me -- and I have the Redmine server ready. 

[Keith]

If there is a server in place, I'd say Redmine. 

I only offered those ideas up not knowing if a server was already in place. 

[Kyle Creyts]

I'll play with redmine project visibility and securing it today. I decide whether I feel comfortable with my ability to protect the existing projects, and we'll go from there.