The COVID-19 crisis has changed life considerably for many of us over the year. In March, when the quarantines began, our organizing committee began discussing what actions we should take and whether we should consider postponing the conference. After some discussion, as well as revisions to our event contracts, we have elected to reschedule the event for:

• Saturday September 25th, 2021

It is estimated that there will not be widespread vaccinations available until early 2021. Additionally, it has always been our goal for this conference to foster a lot of one-on-one interaction among members of the local infosec community. We cannot, in good conscience, advocate for this in the current conditions. We want to hold a safe & inclusive conference for all. Since March, many other regional information security conferences have either canceled, or converted to an online format. Even DEF CON has been canceled this year. We will continue planning the same great conference, reviewing the CFP submissions thus far, keeping CFP submissions open into 2021, and continuing to advertise the conference.

We still plan on holding a CTF, and as well will be continuing discussions to offer other events during or adjacent to the conference. The volunteer registration form is still up, and we are still accepting volunteer registrations. Do not fear if you do not receive a response right away - many of us have become busier than normal due to the unprecedented events of this year. Rest assured that we will reach out.

We are excited to announce that the Call for Presentations (CFP) for our 2020 BSides Cincy conference is now open!
We are seeking knowledgeable, passionate speakers who are ready to share their expertise with a diverse crowd of
aspiring & established security professionals. If you or someone you know fits this criteria, we want your voice
to be heard at our conference at Union Terminal in Cincinnati 12 Sept. 2020.

Submissions can be made at:

• https://forms.gle/YGizJxEP9g9JAtA47

Please make your submission by 04-May-2020!

BSides Cincinnati is pleased to announce our 2020 conference. The next BSides Cincinnati will be held on Saturday, Sep 12th 2020, and we are excited that we will be returning to the Cincinnati Union Terminal Museum Center, which underwent a multi-year renovation shortly after the last time we held the conference at this venue. This iconic art-deco building is located in the heart of Cincinnati’s industrial basin, and today houses the region’s only Amtrak station as well as three museums and event spaces.

The planning committee is working hard to put together the best BSides Cincinnati yet. We are committed to bringing tougher CTF challenges, as well as another great list of speakers from the region and the InfoSec community. Keep checking back with us, and follow our Twitter account. We plan to open up CFP in early 2020, and will have more announcements as that time approaches.

Thank you everyone for being patient during our reorganization in 2019. Looking forward to 2020 to bring you a great conference, and many more after that!

Conference details:

• Date: Saturday, September 12 2020 - (2020-09-12) [times TBD]
• Location: Cincinnati Museum Center, 1301 Western Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45203 (map link)
• Parking: on-site
• iCal ICS

Photo credit: WVXU

The BSides Cincinnati board would like to extend a huge Thank You to everyone who came out to our event in April, and especially to those of you who volunteered to help us organize our 2020 conference. The board has spent much of the month of May combing through the submissions, identifying the organizing teams, and working with our to-be-announced conference director. We recognize many of you haven’t heard back from us, but rest assured that you will be hearing from us in the coming weeks. We will be planning another small event to bring us all together again, in order to kick off the 2020 conference planning.

We are still actively accepting volunteers, and have re-opened the volunteer submission form. We will keep this open for the duration of the planning process:

• BSides Cincinnati Volunteer Sign-Up

Thanks again for all you do!

Hello, Cincinnati-area InfoSec community!

The BSides organizers are looking for you to join the effort to host our next conference, and help lead the future of BSides Cincinnati. Planning for our awesome 2018 event revealed, among other things, that we need to open up the organization to more volunteers from the community - and that we need to better structure our organization.

We felt that hosting a “happy hour” event in the area would be a good opportunity to invite you to join us to discuss opportunities to contribute and learn from the community. So, we will be hosting a happy hour recruiting event at Fretboard Brewing Company, in Blue Ash (north of Cincinnati) on Tuesday April 30th, 2019, from 6:30pm - 9:30pm.

While this is a free event, capacity is limited, so please use the EventBrite link below.

Event details:

• Event Name: BSides Cincinnati Recruiting
• Date: Tuesday, April 30 2019
• Time: 6:30pm-9:30pm
• Location: Fretboard Brewing - 5800 Creek Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45242
• EventBrite Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bsides-cincinnati-recruiting-event-tickets-60421365932

Fretboard website: https://fretboardbrewing.com/

Stay tuned, the BSides organizing committee decided after 5 years to take a year-long hiatus to better organize planning efforts.

Every single year, we have experienced growth, with the 2018 BSides Cincinnati having been our biggest yet. Due to the participation of all of you, and the generous support of our sponsors, we were able to offer free valet parking to all attendees, a pre-conference day of training from EC Council, and an even better Capture the Flag tournament.

Putting on the 2018 event really stretched our resources, and with many of us having families & full-time jobs, we found ourselves dedicating significant time during the two months prior to the conference just to pull it all together for everyone. We received a considerable amount of feedback, both positive and negative, that we want to incorporate into making the next event even better. However, we’ve realized that our small rag-tag band of organizers is understaffed for delivering the conference you all deserve.

Because of this, we have decided to take a break from hosting an event in 2019, and instead are going to focus our efforts on formalizing the organization’s structure, build plans, and also coordinate smaller outreach efforts to help us build a bigger support staff for hosting the event, as well as improve CFP, activity, and content for the next event.

So, don’t fear, BSides Cincinnati isn’t going away! Bear with us as we make some much-needed improvements to the organization in order to provide a better future.

If you would like to help us in this effort, you can reach us via E-mail: bsidescincy@gmail.com.