What is the BSides Montreal Conference?

BSides is the great equalizer conference. By keeping conferences affordable and local, and by encouraging talks that may not fit into the mainstream, BSides makes it easy for anyone – newcomers and veterans alike – to lend their voice to the collective conversation. All are welcome to come to learn, teach, and share their passions, and we are all better off for it. BSides Montreal is an intimate and safe conference where we can have private conversations and talks that will not be published or made accessible online. You just have to be there.


When and Where

BSides Montreal will be hosted on Saturday September 25th 2021 at the Centre PHI in the Old Montreal.


Topics we love

We eat, breathe and live cybersecurity. If you have anything new and interesting to discuss about threat intelligence, defensive hunting, reverse engineering, exploitation, network forensics, application and infrastructure security or cryptography and obfuscation, we want to hear about it!
BSides Montreal is not only a technical conference. If you have something to say about cybersecurity from an ethics, law or sociological point of view, we definitively want to hear about it! The human aspect in cybersecurity is too often neglected, and you can help us understand how human and technological factors contribute to protect - or open to attack - networks and systems.

Not sure if your talk fits? Drop us an email at speakers@bisdesmtl.ca and we’ll give you feedback!


Timeline

CFP Opens: April 12th, 2021
CFP Closes: August 6th, 2021
Decisions sent: August 17th, 2021


Event Format

BSides Montreal will feature two types of talks: regular talks and posters.
Regular talks

BSides Montreal has a single track of speakers. Talks can be in French or English, and will all be 30 minutes long. The talks will not be recorded, or streamed online. Only the attendees and other speakers will be able to witness the amazing talks from our speakers!
Speakers will be organized in blocks, with questions from the audience at the end. Speakers will know in advance who will be part of their block, and will be connected to the moderator and other speakers in their block in advance of their presentation. The moderator will be a subject matter expert who will be able to guide the conversation with the audience.
Posters

If your topic is not suitable for a 30 minutes talk, or you feel more comfortable in a more intimate conversation, we invite you to submit a poster session instead. Speakers in the poster session can either present their research on a printed poster as in academic conferences, or in a recorded/live demonstration with a screen and a laptop. Each speaker will be provided with a table during the cocktail session, and participants will move freely from poster speaker to poster speaker to learn about their research. Poster speakers can engage with participants as they see fit, and have more information discussions about their research.

Talks that are not selected for the single track may be invited to present in the poster session instead. Speakers are also free to apply to both the talks and the poster session. If you are a first time speaker, don't be shy of submitting a talk or a poster! We will support you in every way we can to make sure you deliver the best possible talk.


Speaker perks

We can't make any promise at this point, beyond promising that BSides will be the most fun, creative and stimulating conference you will attend all year!