Conferences and events give IT pros an opportunity to network with their peers while also sharpening their skills and updating their knowledge on the latest industry trends. Many of the tech conferences in August 2024 bring together more than just IT pros. The USENIX symposium includes academic poster sessions and paper presentations, DEF CON features talks from current (and former) hackers, and Black Hat USA often features talks from government employees.
Check out Spiceworks News & Insights’ recommendations for the must-attend tech conferences in August 2024.
Microsoft has held the TechMentor @ Microsoft HQ conference for over two decades at its headquarters in Redmond, WA. The event spans an entire week, August 5 through August 9. Optional hands-on labs occur before the event on Monday, and post-conference workshops are available on the Friday after the conference. The conference itself runs Tuesday through Thursday and offers more than 40 sessions across more than 10 tracks.
Topics range from sessions on Microsoft products—including Office 365, Azure, and Windows—to soft skills for IT pros, cybersecurity, and DevOps, including PowerShell updates and tips. Ned Pyle, Microsoft’s Principal Program Manager, is expected to present a keynote on Windows Server 2025. Sami Laiho, Adminize’s Chief Research Officer, will examine the threat landscape of 2023-2024 in his keynote.
Location: Redmond, WA
Dates: August 5-9, 2024
Conference Details: https://techmentorevents.com/events/microsofthq-2024/home.aspx
Attendance: In-person; paid registration required; pricing ranges from $2,175 to $3,175
Now in its 12th year, the Techsauce Global Summit 2024 is considered the largest tech conference in Southeast Asia. The three-day event boasts more than 20,000 attendees, who can attend more than 130 sessions across ten different stages. This year’s conference theme is “The World of Tomorrow with AI.”
Each stage at the conference represents a different track that addresses almost every aspect of business, including digital transformation, corporate innovation, AI for growth, and venture capital. There are also stages for industry-specific topics like HealthTech, FinTech, and MarTech. Ameca, an advanced humanoid robot, is scheduled to deliver the welcoming remark on August 7.
Location: Queen Sirikit National Convention Center, Bangkok, Thailand
Dates: August 7-9, 2024
Conference Details: https://summit.techsauce.co/
Attendance: In-person; paid registration required; pricing ranges from ฿5,999 THB to ฿20,000 THB (~$175 to $575)
The annual Black Hat conference is world-renowned for bringing together the most respected minds in the information security industry. More than 15,000 attendees from academia, government, and the private sector swarm Las Vegas for six days of cybersecurity talks, training sessions, seminars, and briefings.
Experts from various sectors will present over 100 briefings on the latest security topics, research, trends, and recommendations. More than 24 tracks are available, but with 18 sessions, the Application Security: Offense track has the most briefings planned, followed by the AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science track, with 15 sessions. The first four days of the event are dedicated to training, which is not included in the conference price. Six day-long summits are planned for Wednesday, August 7, focusing on AI, information security, cyber insurance, industrial control systems, startups, and an Omdia analyst event.
Keynote speakers include Jen Easterly, Director of the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Moxie Marlinspike, founder of Signal, and Jeff Moss, founder of both the Black Hat and DEF CON conferences.
Location: Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV
Dates: August 3-8, 2024
Conference Details: https://blackhat.com/us-24/
Attendance: In-person and on-demand; paid registration required; pricing ranges from $749 to $3,299.
The on-demand business pass is free and includes limited, delayed virtual access to demos, sponsored sessions, and the Business Hall.
DEF CON was founded in 1983 as a networking event for computer underground enthusiasts and has grown to an annual conference that draws in around 30,000 attendees. Presentations are categorized into dedicated themed areas, called Villages, that host workshops, demos, contests, and talks related to their theme. There will be more than 30 villages in 2024, ranging from industry-specific (i.e. aerospace and Telecommunications), tactics (i.e. reconnaissance, packet hacking, social engineering), trends (i.e. AI, IoT, quantum computing), and even hobbies (i.e. biohacking, ham radio, and lock picking).
There are currently nearly 700 speakers set to give talks. They come from all walks of life, including academic security researchers, current and former employees of US government agencies like CISA, DARPA, and the NSA, security team employees from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, PhD students and university professors, and even hackers who prefer to only go by their online pseudonyms, or “handles.”
Location: Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV
Dates: August 8-11, 2024
Conference Details: https://defcon.org/
Attendance: In-person and on-demand; paid registration required; On-site registration is $460..
The USENIX Association, a nonprofit organization established in 1975, aims to unite engineers, researchers, and practitioners who are involved in advanced technologies. The 33rd USENIX Security Symposium brings together researchers, practitioners, and system programmers to discuss the latest developments in security and privacy in computer systems and networks.
The three-day event features academic presentations on system security, network security, security analysis, machine learning security and privacy, social issues and security, applications of cryptography, and more. The conference is co-located with the 20th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), where researchers and practitioners meet to discuss how to incorporate security and privacy into human-computer interaction. It is also co-located with the Workshop on Offensive Technologies (WOOT), which explores the industry of offensive strategies for cybersecurity.
Location: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Philadelphia, PA
Dates: August 14-16, 2024 (USENIX Security); August 11-13 (SOUPS); August 12-13; (WOOT)
Conference Details: https://www.usenix.net/conference/usenixsecurity24
Attendance: In-person; paid registration of $1400 required
