These don't necessarily apply to all cons, they are simply things that I believe could make cons better.

I think the biggest one is speakers. This one has to be considered by both the presenters and the con organizers. I've yet to attend a con where every presentation has rocked. There's always at least one case where the presenter has incredible information, but they don't know how to convey it to the audience. On the other side, I've seen presenters with mediocre information, who're amazing to watch simply because they knew how to convey information and speak to an audience. The other issue is people who don't really know what they are talking about. I don't know if people get nervous, or if they truly don't fully understand the material, but it's awful to sit in on a presentation where the speaker doesn't know their topic. There's always someone who's going to know more than you, that's a fact of life... but ensure that you aren't spouting inaccurate information. The worst case is obviously when you have someone who can't present and has inaccurate information.

Presenters: If you know you aren't a great public speaker and you won't be able to convey your point well, invite someone to speak with you. Someone who will be able to get the point across. You also have to determine which speaking style (story-telling, analytical, discussion or demonstration) is best suited to your material.

Organizers: Ensure you have the technical expertise to properly vet the talks. If you don't, bring in people that do. Of course, if you're working off abstracts with few details and relatively unknown speakers, this may be difficult. As a tie in to my next comment on the social aspects of a con, including presentations that are conversation starters, or that already have a buzz around them can be good as well, but they make good end of the day talks that can lead into social gatherings.

The next one is the social aspect... something I've been talking about through-out this series of posts. For this one I'm going con specific and pointing to SecTor as my example. Ensure you have a social aspect to your con, whether it's organized bar hopping, a coffee house night or you've rented a suite at a hotel. The value add is huge. I've essentially come to the conclusion that if a con doesn't have a social aspect, it probably isn't worth my time. SecTor, while they had a brief open bar, immediately following the talks and a speakers dinner, didn't really have much of a social aspect last year. There were no vendor parties, no con organized outings. Some new organizers have been brought in, so I expect that to change.

Organizers: Social events don't need to be costly. Even speaking to a bar and explaining you'll be bringing in a large group is sufficient. Then simply tell everyone where to go. Above I noted that including conversation starting presentations is a good idea... these types of presentations may have controversial data, or just be interesting to a large number of people. When you include talks like this, especially immediately before a break / end of day, you give attendees something to discuss... this increases the social interaction of the con and will end up improving the experience for everyone.

A lot of cons have their registration / badge pick-up just before the con starts. A lot of the time this overlaps and you miss the first few talks while you wait in line for your badge. There's no reason why you couldn't have received your badge beforehand. The day before works well, assuming that there's no overlap with another conference, otherwise... why not have a printable version of the badge, users can do online registration, print a badge that they can use initial and that they can trade-in later on. Sure people could duplicate it, but people could duplicate the badges I've seen at a number of the cons. At least this way, people can see the talks they want to see right at the start, and they can stop by when the lines have died down to swap their badges. Also, at RECON, registration has several lines. You go to the proper line to get your badge, this means you don't have everyone in one massive line. I believe SecTor also took this approach last year, and it works really well.

While I've never organized a infosec con before, I have been involved in organizing several large group functions. That being said these are my thoughts on what could be done to improve various cons, feel free to take them or leave them.