SEOktoberfest really blew me away this year… and that is saying something considering I spoke there last year as well.
Maybe it was because the sessions were a little more organized and we were all able to really learn some interesting new things, maybe it was that I had so many of my closest friends around, maybe it was the spa relax day thrown in between the two days learning, speaking, and drinking, or maybe it was the tents filled with beer, food, friends, and singing German playmates who hung around us day and night…
Whatever it was… it was amazing.
I was especially impressed by Robert ‘Rsnake’ Hansen, founder of SecTheory and probably one of the nicest, yet scariest, hackers I have ever met.
Owner of Ha.ckers.org and author of the infamous Slowloris, Rsnake gave a presentation that blew everyone in attendance away… and made most people really nervous of what he was capable of.
Here is a little snippet of his Bio:
Mr. Hansen authors content on O’Reilly and co-authored “XSS Exploits” by Syngress publishing. He sits on the NIST.gov Software Assurance Metrics and Tool Evaluation group focusing on web application security scanners and the Web Application Security Scanners Evaluation Criteria (WASC-WASSEC) group. He also has briefed the DoD at the Pentagon and speaks at SourceBoston, Secure360, GFIRST/US-CERT, CSI, Toorcon, APWG, ISSA, TRISC, World OWASP/WASC conferences, SANS, Microsoft’s Bluehat, Blackhat, DefCon, SecTor, Networld+Interop, and has been the keynote speaker at the New York Cyber Security Conference, NITES and OWASP Appsec Asia. Mr. Hansen is a member of Infragard, Austin Chamber of Commerce, West Austin Rotary, WASC, IACSP, APWG, he is the Industry Liaison for the Austin ISSA and contributed to the OWASP 2.0 guide.
The conference is always great for networking, learning, and experiencing Oktoberfest like a local VIP. So when the tickets go on sale for next years SEOktoberfest, I would highly recommend you snatch one up.
Thanks to Marcus and Philip, for putting on a flawless event as usual, thanks to Anna and the other girls for keeping everyone company, and thanks to all the experts and attendees for sharing tricks and making the conference a success.
Philip and Anna are also opening a new club, may have just opened, in the heart of Munich called Vice. I got to see the designs and it looks really amazing. So if your in Munich, make sure you go by club Vice.
Check out all the pictures from the event here – SEOktoberfest 2009 Photos