DEFCON Furs Announcements

If you brought your fursuit / partial to DEF CON this year, please meet up at the Queercon room (W325) on the third floor of the LVCC at 2:30 pm to take a group picture at 3 pm and stage for the mini parade to closing ceremonies (Track 1) :3 noid said it was cool map: https://defcon.org/images/defcon-34/34-maps.pdf

Come PARTY with us at the Piranha Nightclub as our DJs kick it off! Schedule: https://2026.dcfurs.com/parties

Take advantage of the free shuttles running between LVCC, Tuscany Suites, and the Piranha Nightclub! BSides Bus running LVCC <-> Tuscany Suites DCFurs Bus running Tuscany Suites <-> Piranha Time and location of stops on website for both here: https://2026.dcfurs.com/shuttle

DEFCON Furs has kicked off its programming at the Piranha Nightclub. Come check out our Hacking Stuff Track and Hacking Yourself Track! Sched: https://2026.dcfurs.com/talks

DEFCON Furs Talks, DJs, and Shuttle map are live on our website https://2026.dcfurs.com/talks https://2026.dcfurs.com/parties https://2026.dcfurs.com/shuttle

Come cool off at the DEFCON Furs Pool Meetup at the Tuscany Suites Las Vegas main pool! 8pm to 10pm - no badge required You can use the BSidesLV shuttle to get here from LVCC for free. (If you are bringing a fursuit head please only wear it within the gated pool area)

🐺🌈 Kicking off hacker week tonight! Join DEFCON Furs & QueerCon for our BSides Las Vegas community mixer at The Copa Room @ Tuscany Suites Las Vegas (21+) Tonight | 10:00 PM - 2:00 AM No badge required - just come hang out, meet fellow hackers, furries, and friends!

DEFCON Furs 2026 badges are now available for pre-order! Also our event website has been updated with basic schedule information. Check out https://2026.dcfurs.com/register for badge details and donation store links. Thank you <3

An update on DEFCON Furs show this year, and some is good and some ain’t. If you caught our last post, you saw we're teaming up with BSidesLV & QueerCon (QC) for room blocks at Tuscany Suites and QC will be hosting DCF on the DEF CON convention floor. That's all still happening. A few months ago we put out a note about where DEFCON Furs has been as an organization. We talked about having real difficulty continuing to provide the opportunity to share our love for the fandom and the hacker communities ; how when a tiny group carries all the weight, the organization gets fragile. We said that when something goes wrong, there aren't enough people around to absorb the hit. This week, that's exactly what happened. And we owe you honesty about what changed. Running events at DEF CON doesn't look like it used to. When we were able to partner with DEF CON on hotels we used to run events out of suites at the DEF CON host hotels for four nights with an open bar. Since the change to the LVCC, We’ve tried hosting at one of the new partner hotels (any of you remember the FB shutting us down in 2024). Now we are hosting at a nightclub in the Fruit Loop. The current setup costs us more in one night than the four night ever did.. On top of that, many of us have been adversely affected by the near doubliing in price of the DEF CON badge over the past couple years. Not to mention that the new venues are openly hostile toward attendees. We want to win back that audience but we don’t see a path.. It's become a reality we have to adapt to. When you're a small org with a small group, a hit like that doesn't just hurt, it compounds. And we've run out of the padding that used to catch us. Outside of DEF CON, some of our important revenue has dried up too. Amazon Smile was a huge source of income for us, and that program is gone. Corporate charity matching programs have been slashed for a variety of reasons, including cuts tied to DEI rollbacks and less favorable tax treatment of donations. The avenues that used to help fund small orgs like ours are closing. We're asking for two things. If you can donate, every bit helps keep the lights on. https://donate.hackyourlives.org We also need people who understand how to build a sustainable org. Fundraising, grant writing, nonprofit financial planning, sponsorship outreach. We've been running on goodwill and savings, and neither of those is a sustainable strategy. If you have experience in this area or want to help us figure it out, get in touch. board@hackyourlives.org Not to bury the lede, but all of this has caused us to cancel the Friday night mixer at the Gypsy and will only run at the Piranha on Saturday. Our hardware badge will not be populated in time for the show. We'll have shirts and some limited edition swag available and of course our PCB boards available in the Queercon space on Friday, at Pirhana on Saturday, and online. Preorders for fully populated badges will ship after the con. We have held the PCB price at last year’s price and expect that our fully populated badge will be roughly the same price as last year. We are proud to have increased our schedule well beyond the Saturday main event. This includes a bunch of activities that do not require our credentials. In fact, the only thing you’ll need a DCF badge for is our Saturday main event. So even if you just get a room at Tuscany, there's a full week of stuff you can be part of. https://2026.dcfurs.com/hotel For a more complete schedule please see below. Schedule (No fursuit heads through the casino at Tuscany events) Monday 10pm–2am — Copa @ Tuscany — DEFCON Furs / QueerCon Mixer (no badge required) Thursday 9pm–midnight — Pool @ Tuscany — DEFCON Furs Meetup (no badge required) Friday 3–4pm — TBD @ DEF CON — DEFCON Furs Meetup (DEF CON badge required) Friday 4–6pm — QueerCon Space @ DEF CON — Badge Pickup/Mixer (DEF CON badge required) Friday 9pm–midnight — Pool @ Tuscany — DEFCON Furs Meetup (no badge required) Saturday 3:30–9pm — Piranha ↔️ DEF CON — Shuttle (Tuscany and route timing TBD) Saturday 3–9pm — Piranha — Talks + Party (DCFurs badge required) Saturday 4–6pm — QueerCon Space @ DEF CON — Badge Pickup/Mixer (DEF CON badge required) Sunday ~3pm — Closing Ceremonies @ DEF CON — Fursuit Parade (DEF CON badge required) Our Call for Papers is live and we're bringing back the Wetware track. Submissions deadline has been extended until July 24. We need volunteer staff to help run the show and organize events year-round. We're especially looking for folks who want to grow into leading critical areas of the org (Programming, Hotel/Venue logistics, Social Media). If you have ideas for what you want to see or want a hand in shaping what DEFCON Furs becomes, message @kaworu_knottyfox or @Junaos on Telegram. All the links to book your room, submit a talk, and volunteer are live right now. See you in Vegas. https://2026.dcfurs.com TL;DR: Event Changes: The Friday night mixer is canceled due to severe financial constraints, but the Saturday party at Piranha is still happening. Badge Delays: Fully populated hardware badges won't be ready in time for the con and will ship afterward. (PCBs and swag will be available on-site). We Need Help: Rising costs and lost funding have hit us hard. We urgently need donations and volunteers (especially with non-profit/fundraising experience) to keep the org alive. The Good News: Our room blocks at Tuscany, our QueerCon partnership, and a full week of meetups (most of which don't require a badge) are all still on!

We've got some major updates for DEFCON Furs this year: we are officially teaming up with QueerCon for our room block at Tuscany Suites. Rooms are available as part of the BSidesLV room block, and are available throughout BSides and DEF CON! Even better, we'll be sharing QueerCon’s space on the DEF CON convention floor. This will be our main hub for badge and merch pickup. We'll be back at the Piranha/Gypsy complex in Vegas this year. We're throwing a joint mixer with QueerCon on Friday night, and our show will be on Saturday. Your badge gets you into both—exact times TBD. Our Call for Papers for DEFCON Furs is live, and we’re bringing back the Wetware track. Got a project, a deep dive, or a talk you want to bring to the stage? Submissions are open until July 10. Badges go up for preorder soon and should be around last year's pricing. You'll be able to pick yours up at the show or have it shipped after. We wanted to keep this accessible — we know times haven't been easy. We want DEFCON Furs to feel like home. Not just during DEF CON, but year-round. We want to organize events outside of DEF CON for the Infursec community: CTFs, movie nights in Discord, and other events to keep the community connected outside of the convention. But we need to hear from you, and we need volunteers to help run not just the show, but also organize community events. Our Call for Volunteers is open, and we are especially looking for folks who want to grow into leading critical areas of the org—Programming, Hotel/Venue logistics, and Social Media. If you have ideas for what you want to see or want to help steer the ship, message @kaworu_knottyfox or @Junaos on Telegram. All the links to book your room, submit a talk, and volunteer are live right now. See you in Vegas. https://2026.dcfurs.com

TL;DR: We urgently need a paid vector artist for this year’s DEFCON Furs badge. We had an artist lined up for this year’s badge, but they had to step away unexpectedly right as we got to the wire. Shit happens, and we hold no ill will — but it does mean we need to move quickly. We are looking for a vector artist who can help with badge artwork for PCB production (2–3 colors), with a preferred timeline of Friday, April 3. We are also open to connecting with artists for other event visuals and creative assets. All commissioned event artists are compensated. If you are interested, know someone who might be a fit, or can help boost this to the right people, please reach out at board@hackyourlives.org or DM @Junaos / @Tele_Steve on Telegram. We’ve also shared a longer note about community involvement and where we want to take DEFCON Furs from here: https://paaster.io/69c61841780fbd886b8671b6#q7EsiNfh9VQHYnb4dXb2gFIJMYYnM7DbQnZN3UzJ7fY

If you are at Further Confusion today join us this evening for our panel "HACKING THROUGH THE AGES" Room: Hilton: University 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM https://sched.furtherconfusion.org/detail/5741-0?convention=FC2026

Board Meeting has started https://youtube.com/live/Cr9SWwwBSMc

Hack Your Lives (the Parent Non-Profit Company of DEFCON Furs and Soaring Fitness) will hold its 2025 public Annual Board Meeting on December 16th at 7:30 PM PST. You can join the live stream on YouTube and chat with us! https://youtube.com/live/Cr9SWwwBSMc

Hey #badgelife we dropped a bunch of badges at Hacker Warehouse in the defcon vendor hall! Get them while they last. They come with drink tickets for our events today as well! #defcon33

Today's shuttle for DEFCON Furs is active now until 10pm. Tuscany hotel lobby, lvcc west shuttle stop, and Piranha night club. Event schedule https://2025.dcfurs.com

SHUTTLE UPDATE the lvcc forced our shuttle to pick up here Sorry for the confusion

FRIDAY UPDATE! DEFCON Furs will be at the Gipsy Nightclub 5pm-9pm today. Must be 21+ to enter Bags are OK - no weapons allowed. You can get your badges and shirts at the venue. There is a free shuttle that will have a sign that says DEFCON FURS SHUTTLE that goes from LVCC (the south main entrance of LVCC West), Tuscany Suites & Casino, and the Gypsy/Piranha Nightclub. The shuttle from 4pm to 10pm, and starts at the Tuscany. There will be food availabe for purchase at the Gipsy (bar food + fresh sushi) You are welcome to stay past 9pm at Gipsy for their events. schedule: https://2025.dcfurs.com