SAINTCON 2024 - Day 4 - Livestream

Over 1,800 attendees participated in SAINTCON 2024, with 1,393 badges registered and around 600 people on the waitlist

The badge team created badges with 57-59 components each, placing 178,200 total components and spending weeks on assembly and quality control

New contests included AppSec Jeopardy and a CTF Blue Team challenge, with 344 players registering for the Hackers Challenge (a new record)

Conference featured physical challenge “towers” that required team collaboration, including lockpicking, policy, and PBX challenges

Badge included a co-op game mechanic where players could trade mini-badges to gain XP, with over 340 different mini-badges tracked during the event

The planning committee is entirely volunteer-based and begins organizing the next year’s conference immediately after the current one ends

Hackers Challenge included 64 unique challenges, with 251 participants completing at least one puzzle and 96 people completing more than 10 puzzles

Conference emphasized community engagement and learning, with multiple teams winning black badges for their achievements

Badge firmware and hardware faced several challenges, including charging issues when powered off and assembly complications with the pick-and-place machine

Event organizers encourage attendee feedback through surveys and Discord participation to help improve future conferences