An employer has offered to send me to Defcon... I've never been and am wondering whether it's worth the time out of my schedule to hoof it to Vegas for the event. Any thoughts from past experience?
Worth it for meeting people. The talks are uneven. Sometimes wildly uneven. The main point of DEF CON is for people to get in touch face to face, maybe pick up some new interesting contacts. If you want "training" then this is not really the right place.
So if you like meeting new people, if you have a few people you know already who are going to hang out with, and if you can tolerate the occasional talk that just doesn't do it for you, it's worth it. If you're going alone and you don't feel like trying to meet some interesting strangers, it probably is not worth it. (Either way is fine!)
Go. There's great talks during the day - usually at least one of the talks per time slot will look interesting - and there's pretty wild parties at night. The first time I went, I didn't meet anyone - I went with a few friends and we kept to ourselves - but despite that it was still a blast.
Right. I don't even take my laptop to DEF CON any more. Besides no longer needing to worry about the wifi, it means I spend more time talking with people.
These days, though, you also need to keep an eye on your phone...
So if you like meeting new people, if you have a few people you know already who are going to hang out with, and if you can tolerate the occasional talk that just doesn't do it for you, it's worth it. If you're going alone and you don't feel like trying to meet some interesting strangers, it probably is not worth it. (Either way is fine!)