Step up HacKid, a conference geared towards �providing an interactive, hands-on experience for kids and their parents which includes things like staying safe online, how the internet works, manipulating hardware / software for fun, meeting law enforcement, low impact martial arts, podcast creation, Makerbot building� and an awful lot more to boot.
I�ll be honest, I wasn�t sure if it would go without a hitch or end up like a scene from 28 Days Later. However, I�ve seen adult conferences that haven�t run as smoothly as this one. Turns out you CAN fill a Microsoft Research Center with small children and watch them learn about security basics, technology, programming languages like KODU, building things and the many, many definitions of what a �hacker� can be and what those same hackers can do in a positive manner.
Plus, we had a Hoverdrone that you could control with an iPhone.
My talk was a shorter, retooled and updated version of the gaming security preso I wheeled out at SecTor. Of particular note to the parents was the �Five top scams to avoid�, which seemed to cause a few �Oh, so THAT�S what it was� type glances around the room. Besides the parents, there were kids of all ages present (from about five up into the teens range) and I was surprised to see most young children were quite happy to sit and listen about security stuff, although I made sure my ramblings were restricted to about 30 minutes tops with time for questions if needed. My only suggestion here would be to maybe have a dedicated �Teens� track session � while the parents of the younger children present are now swimming in �things to avoid�, I�m not 100% certain the very young kids can handle a 30+ minute talk.
There were also security presentations from Microsoft themselves courtesy of Jeff Williams, and a number of other security themed chats throughout both days.
Additionally, you could feast your eyes upon robots that make stuff:
Makerbots are pretty amazing bits of kit � the one below was given away in a raffle on the second day:
That�s a �before� shot, by the way. It looked more like this by Day 2:
I also helped to plug three wires in, and it didn�t explode or anything so that�s a bonus.
Lockpick village:
He has amazing Star Wars tattoos on every square inch of his arms, by the way.
I particularly liked the �anything goes� atmosphere � I found myself getting involved in a talk regarding the many meanings of the word �Hacker� in populare culture across both days.
What particularly blew me away was on Day 2, we all had to wear protective eye goggles.
The reason? A row of kids at the front were shooting us in the face with DIY marshmallow guns.
I tell you what, I never got shot in the face at RSA or InfoSec Europe. Tough crowd!
Now the event is over and people have hopefully arrived home in one piece, I�m starting to see some blog posts go up. I�ll add more as I see them, and you can see my photos here. Hackid was a definite success, and with any luck you�ll be seeing more Hackid events popping up both in America and elsewhere � I believe there�s an upcoming event scheduled for DC to kick things off, and we�ll see how it goes.
Kudos to Microsoft for hosting the event, all of the sponsors and everyone that took part. I had an excellent time, parents and their children picked up lots of useful skills & information and the organisers should be very proud of their efforts.
More please!
Christopher Boyd
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