If you're planning on going to blackhat for the first time, take a moment and read my thoughts on my first experience at Blackhat. Each post was written that night, so you can get my honest opinionand thoughts on the conference. I will share what I did and what I think would be good advice to have so you have the best experience possible.
Day 0
Blackhat requires some planning to get the most out of the conference. If you are taking a course you will want to sign up early as classes will fill up as well as the price increases the closer you get to the conference. Once you book your class or buy your ticket you are going to want to get a hotel and travel booking. The hotels also fill up quickly, but I would recommend, if they are available, Mandalay Bay or Luxor as they are close and of good quality. Finally, when picking a flight, I went with something that was early in the day. I do this specifically so that if a flight gets canceled or delayed, I still have a good chance of getting there that day.
When picking a hotel you get many more options when you book early, I personally only got approval from work for travel about 2 weeks before the conference and only had the option of the Holiday Inn, the four seasons, or the MGM grand as my close options. And I wasn't going to be able to convince work to drop 600+ dollars a night on me staying at the four seasons, so I went with the MGM grand. Be sure to get a good night's sleep before your course as you want to be awake enough to process all the information coming at you.
Before your first day of class, be sure to have the email with the QR code for registration. If you registered with your work email, be sure to have some way to access that or forward it to your personal, so you have it the next morning. Some classes also have emails that contain credentials to connect to the VPN and download files. Be sure to search your emails and ensure you didn't miss that either. Pack your laptop as well as your charger as the course is all day and you'll miss something if you have to go back to get it.
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