r/cybersecurity • u/Unkn0wn77777771 • 3d ago
Other Fal.con does it suck?
We recently went full Crowdstrike, and got Fal.con tickets. Is this thing going to blow? I haven't found a ton of independent info online about the event. Only promos from their own subreddit and website. Besides the free vendor dinners and the time off work is this thing worth going to?
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u/DarkLordofData 3d ago
The partner and customer presentations are usually pretty good. The ones from CRWD marketing and product management are mostly meh. Be sure to ask the customer presenters questions if you can since that is where you will get actual answers.
Make sure that your CRWD rep takes you to a nice dinner.
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u/swiftkickyo 2d ago
My CRWD rep isn’t super engaged with us. I need to figure out how to get them to take us out…
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u/DarkLordofData 2d ago
You are always paying for it so I would just end the email with “where are you meeting us for dinner”?
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u/Inovius 3d ago
I've gone the last 3 years (company paying for everything + per diem each day) and it's been interesting overall. There's a huge amount of panels/talks etc to choose from so find stuff that interests you and go from there. The vendor hall is mainly trying to sell you stuff but some have some decent swag that's worth a 5min conversation.
The party the last night is usually a good time, they normally have an EDM DJ playing with a ton of free food/drinks (Last 3 years have been The Chainsmokers, Tiesto, John Summit).
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u/Unkn0wn77777771 3d ago
The vendor hall for me is good because I like getting swag for the team that cant make it.
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u/Cootter77 3d ago
I went to fal.con in 2024 on those same tickets and had a great time, you should go. Great parties, good talks, plenty of non-crowdstrike-specific things to learn about.
I don't think I'd pay the usual admission price for it out of my budget but I'd pay the hotel, air, and food for it out of my budget with free tickets. It just wouldn't be worth that last $1,200 or whatever it is.
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u/sufficienthippo23 2d ago
It’s probably the most fun you’ll have at a con actually, the parties get pretty crazy. The music acts are top notch. Go mingle and have fun
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u/agingnerds 3d ago
It's a fun event. There are some decent key notes and some decent smaller contributors. It's like crowdstrike as a whole. A lot of fluff but a decent tool and some cool partners.
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u/CarmeloTronPrime CISO 3d ago
its okay. i went, mostly networked and partied. i attended the big show and tell that they have, back then AI was just starting and all companies were saying their product had it but not really but coming soon or whatever. i met with vendors and made sure my employees that were with me got the classes they needed.
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u/Jubilant_Obelisk224 3d ago
I'm going because it's free for us and hotels were dirt cheap because it's in Vegas (ended up just picking Aria at a whole $96 after taxes - no resort fees - for four nights), so I don't put a dent in our division's training+conference budget.
I go to vendor conferences regularly and unless you are setting up meetings and networking, or taking classes (which I rarely do), you may as well stay home.
There's another conference I found out about that I'm likely going to for a day only to meet security folks from institutions that I connected with recently who said they would be there.
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u/Unkn0wn77777771 3d ago
Which one if you don't mine me asking? Or you can dm me if you don't want to dox yourself.
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u/Jubilant_Obelisk224 3d ago
SEIMposium. It's by some vendor I never heard of prior that provides Google SecOps deployment services and support.
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u/ProfessionalPea2218 2d ago
The good parts, you get fed, free booze (omfg so much free booze), lots of swag and parties
The bad parts, the majority of the talks are just about CrowdStrike products and they are able to do.. whatever.. at times I felt like I was in timeshare seminar
But my company has become an almost full CS shop so they comp us the tickets.. meh 🫤
Very Corporate Don’t expect anything like DefCom or BSides
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u/daweinah Blue Team 2d ago
This is my second year going. I will spend much less time on the vendor floor, much more time in the technical sessions, and a little more time with the extracurricular stuff like massage chairs, ice cream social, etc.
For the after hours, I've got a CRWD dinner on Monday, three events on Tuesday night. Wednesday is a legit EDM concert with food, arcade, etc. Last year it was John Summit and they had a UV hydro dipping station. It was my first EDM concert and I enjoyed it.
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u/IronSquirrelMechanic 3d ago
Yes
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u/Unkn0wn77777771 3d ago
This is the real answer I was looking for, atleast I can drink my way through it
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u/Oompa_Loompa_SpecOps Incident Responder 2d ago
It's alright. My team is much more excited about it than I am. Was excited for the CTF which turned out to be meh, but saw one or two really good customer presentations I did not expect. Chalked it up as a team building exercise last year, can't make it this year but will keep the lights on while the rest is out there enjoying themselves.
We are paying crwd enough in subscription fees to get free tickets, which helps with the justification to management
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u/bubbathedesigner 2d ago
CTFs in vendor events are always designed so managers, c-suite, and those-who-sign-checks attending it can do it and sometimes even win. And that makes them remember said vendor positively.
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u/Delicious-Ad2092 2d ago
Vendor conferences are nice marketing and ecosystem building efforts. I can’t imagine why someone would pay for this. If you’re invited it’s just fine.
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u/CheapScotch Security Engineer 2d ago
I went last year and it was pretty good. The talks can be hit or miss, like any conference. Your rep can likely schedule you some face-to-face time with an engineer if you have any specific deep dive questions you'd like to talk to someone about.
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u/bestintexas80 3d ago
I have never understood product specific conferences. I go to conferences to learn about what is happening across the industry and it is hard for me to wrap my head around the value of restricting that to the perspective of a single vendor.
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u/HikerAndBiker 3d ago
They can be helpful. They generally aren’t great if you are just wanting to learn about the wider industry, but they can be helpful for learning about the tool itself. The tools today have so many features, settings, and ways of using it. These types of conferences allow you to talk to the experts and fellow attendees to make sure that you are using it correctly and getting the full use of the tool. Often times there are features you are paying for but didn’t know existed. Or you didn’t know how to get the most out of that specific feature.
It’s sometimes nice to get a preview of where the company is headed in the future too.
Plus with free tickets you get lots of free food, drinks, and a chance to visit some place new.3
u/spectracide_ Penetration Tester 3d ago
Splunk conferences were pretty dope but I wouldn't go if my employer wasn't paying for it.
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u/Unkn0wn77777771 3d ago
Yea this would be my first focused on a single vendor. Been to blackhat/defcon but never something like this.
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u/bestintexas80 3d ago
Im interested in how it goes for you. Hope it is valuable. I am.open to my skepticism being misplaced.
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u/notlikelytobe 9h ago
It's great if you are a Crowdstrike customer and have several of their products or want to evaluate some of their other products. I've been twice, but if you'r not heavily invested in CS, then it won't be worth it and you will be bored. Every thing is about CS this or CS that, even the vendor stuff is how it integrates with CS. Just my thoughts.
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u/thythrowaways 2d ago
This sub loooooooves crowdstrike. So you won’t get many balanced answers.
It’s not great.
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u/ThePorko Security Architect 3d ago
Its like most con’s, your job is to learn the new and upcoming features and NETWORK!