Surprisingly many companies lock down their next year’s budgets already in Q3. While many of our attendees have negotiated conference and training costs to be part of their annual non-negotiable compensation package, there are also those who rely on the good graces of financial overlords to okay their attendance. This post is to remind that it’s yet again time to have the discussion about t2’18 – after all, it’s the 15th anniversary.

Why do we pester our readers with this? As Thomas Lim finely stated it in his keynote at Infiltrate 2012:

“[..] Conferences don’t really make a lot of money, unless you’re Black Hat [..]”

In many years, the question of making a small profit to guarantee enough liquidity for organizing the next event comes down to having the right sponsors. No sane person would enter a business with this kind of a risk/reward ratio. The talk is filled with other gems as well, and it’s definitely worth watching.

The reasons for organizing are elsewhere, namely you want to give back to the community, love the atmosphere of a small event and want to see world class security presentations in your home country. The volunteer work behind the scenes only works when you focus on high quality and networking – it also helps getting repeat guests who value the effort put into curating the program, and setting the stage for making new friends. A considerable part of the audience comes from outside Finland, and it’s certainly not thanks to the weather.

To summarize some of our core values:

• Networking is an integral part of the event
• We focus on new research and technical aspects of information security
• We never sell or give out the attendance list
• Sponsorship does not give you a speaking slot or influence on the agenda, only CFP does

If you are interested in sponsoring t2, we are glad to discuss your exact needs. Please get in contact with us.