SnykCon 2021 excitement is starting, but the CFP is ending (soon)

As a Snyk DevRel, I attend a lot of conferences — more since conferences have moved to virtual platforms. And even though I attend dozens of conferences a year, I still get most excited for SnykCon. It’s an event that puts developers and security folks in the same (virtual) room, which is the only way we’re going to be able to achieve developer-first security. This year’s theme is Build Securely, which encapsulates two things that are near and dear to my heart.

Aside from the theme and the audience, here are some other things I’m really looking forward to at SnykCon this year...

1. Viva variety!

While most people are getting tired of virtual conferences, I’d like to think I’m getting better at them. At an in-person conference, I always end up having to choose one session over another. Sometimes with the flip of a coin. Sometimes just based on a session’s proximity to snacks.

This year at SnykCon, the afternoon has five concurrent tracks running: Build & Code, Govern & Empower, Snyk Products, Demos, and Workshops. But since this is virtual, I can hop in and out of whichever session I want without having to sneak out of the back of the room. And since it’s all recorded, I can always skip out on a talk early because I know I can watch the full thing later. And the snacks are always next to me. Mmm… Bissli.

2. Questions encouraged

I’ve given a lot of talks over the years, and questions are always a tricky matter. Do you stop your talk to answer them? Do you make people hold them to the end and then lose the situational context? Do you just say no to questions because you’ve grossly underestimated the amount of time it’s going to take to cover all of your slides?

Nearly all of the sessions at SnykCon will be pre-recorded — and all of the session presenters will be in the live chat during the session. That means you can ask the speaker questions while they’re speaking, and they’ll be able to answer without pausing the talk. Maybe even better is that you can discuss the session with other attendees without interrupting the session. No more texting your coworker sitting across the room!

3. PechaKucha fun

I always enjoy Lightning Talks. They’re usually fun, off-topic (or tangentially related), and do a good job of breaking up any conference ruts. These sessions are generally more casual and don’t have to be about anything technical. They can be about anything interesting, really.

So those are some of the things I’m most excited about. But maybe the thing I’m most most excited about is the response to our (still open) CFP. We’ve received a lot of great submissions, and we still have a week to go. If you’ve been thinking about submitting, but haven’t, submit your session now before you forget and it’s too late (CFP closes on July 16th!). And if you’re not sure what to do a session on, here’s a list of topics that I’d be interested to hear more on:

1. Live coding in vulnerable applications: I run this sort of session all the time at conferences and in Stranger Danger sessions, and I’m very interested to see how other people do it. There’s always room for improvement and I’d love to see some fresh perspectives.

2. Security training stories involving live experiments: Hackathons and CTFs are too involved for some people, and presentations can be too boring. So what’s the middle ground for training developers to build securely? I’d love to hear your success stories around novel security training methods.

3. Focused, practical, applicable security recommendations: Tell me the story of secure coding practices that have worked. What is your proven method for preventing a security bug from reaching production? I’m guessing it’s not just code reviews and cheat sheets. Bonus points if your solution is ecosystem-specific.

4. Practical examples of sustainable technology: Summers are hot, and they’re only getting hotter (yes, I live in Israel, so summer here is always hot), and the massive power and water consumption of tech companies isn’t helping. Is your company doing something to off-set ecological impact? Would you tell us so we can all start doing it? This could even be a Lightning Talk.

5. Software supply chain security: This is a topic that’s been in the headlines lately, and one that I am very passionate about. I’ve written blog posts about supply chain security, given talks about supply chain security, and will discuss it at length with anyone that wants to Tweet at me. As such, I would attend any session that dove deep into software supply chain security. That live chat will be non-stop!

A great session from SnykCon 2021

Register and/or submit a session

While SnykCon is still a few months away (October 5–7), the CFP ends this Friday, July 16. So submit your session now, before the CFP closes. If you have developer-first security secrets to share, SnykCon is the perfect place to do it. Security is a community effort, and communities only thrive when there is strong collaboration.

• Where is it? Virtual

• When is it? October 5–7, 2021

• How much does it cost? Free

• How do I register? snykcon.io

• How do I submit a session? snyk.io/snykcon/cfp/