For the last few years of Defcon (28,30,31) I would stop people in the hallways and ask them if "they were up to a challenge?". If a person got the question right, they won a challenge coin. I have posted on this site some of the coins I gave away.
This year (DC 32/2024) was no exception. I would walk up to various people and ask them if they were up to a challenge. If they said yes (about 1.5% said no), they would be asked a question based upon pulling an item out of my shoulder bag. All questions were random (based upon the item) and evolved continuously. I found that asked the same questions seemed to get different results, especially if someone overheard a question repeated. So I had to mix them up and get a little creative.
This year saw me with 5 lunch zip bags (one for each day) full of pins, coins and other items to give away as challenge prizes. There was about 20lbs of items, maybe a little more.
The idea is to spark conversations within the hallways. Spark the potential to start new friendships or aquaintences at DEFCON. I myself having attended DC for around 16 or 17 years, always seem to run into the same people and it's great to see my extended family there!
This year, I ran into some incredible people! With some, I received items in return. These could be stickers, challenge coins, passes to parties or other mind blowing things. The level of creativity was/is amazing! I would suggest to anyone who wants to participate in LineCon to make up 50 to 100 stickers to hand out. You never know who you'll interact with !
Speaking of interacting, I had the pleasure of challenging random people from all over the world. I met, challenged and gave out items to people from... Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan, Uraguay, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, France, England and various other countries. Of course many were from the good old US of A. Some say attendance was down. This can happen when DC is moved to a new venue/location. While moving DC to a new location/venue, it was still well represented!
The items given away are listed below. Many were pins this year. Next year (DC33/2025)? There are more items I want to add to the collection to hand out as gifts. So I will be starting my own GoFundMe. I want to create a CyberFreek Challenge Coin to be handed out for Networking and Security (plus hacking) questions. They will be tough questions (or trick questions). So brush up on everything Cyber Related. Oh and I will still have tough and softball questions for pins and other challenge coins.
Finally, the pins and coins given away are listed below. Did you get one ?
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It's possible that there were other items that I did not get a chance to take a photo of.
Next year, I'll take the photos first ;) lol
How do you get a challenge? Find me at DEFCON 33 in 2025. Ask me for a challenge!
Cheers!