Sponsor Us

Sponsorship for ShmooCon 2025 is Sold Out. Thank you to EVERYONE who has sponsored us over the last 20 years. ShmooCon may be coming to an end, but as hinted Heidi still has some thoughts about future events – if you’d like to know if and when those plans become reality sign up here to be notified. It’s not a mailing list – just a one time notification at some point in the future letting you know that a fun thing might be happening.

ABOUT SHMOOCON 2025

ShmooCon is an annual East coast hacker convention that offers three days of demonstrating technology exploitation, inventive software and hardware solutions, and open discussions of critical InfoSec issues. Four tracks provide our attendees with a rich diversity of information complemented by lively conversation in hotel common spaces late into the night. The conference runs Friday evening through Sunday afternoon and will be held January 10-12, 2025, at the Washington Hilton in Washington D.C. This year will also mark the 20th ShmooCon and the final time this event will be held.

ShmooCon attendees are a mix of government employees, contractors, security professionals from major industries, information assurance students and faculty, security software and hardware manufacturers, and, of course, hackers. As a group they have high gadget density, a penchant for arguing the esoteric aspects of security problems, and generally like to wear black t-shirts.

The conference has sold out each of the nineteen previous years. We are still finalizing numbers for this year, but generally attendance is capped at 2200. This includes around 1800 general attendees, plus speakers, sponsors, members of the press, event representatives, and ShmooCon staff.

ShmooCon attendees expect a certain level of anonymity.

Therefore, we do not collect demographics on our attendees nor do we provide any specific data we might have to outside parties. We estimate that 45% percent of our attendees come from the greater metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, including Baltimore and Northern Virginia. Other participants hail primarily from across the United States, Canada, and Europe.

BEING A SPONSOR AT SHMOOCON

ShmooCon is a highly interactive and energetic conference and is not intended to be a vendor show.  To that end we ask that our sponsors be ready to contribute to the atmosphere of the event and not simply sit behind a table with some slick sheets.  Our attendees have high expectations and we want to ensure that all aspects of the conference meet those expectations as best we can.

Our ongoing challenge to our sponsors is to find a way to actively participate with and engage the attendee.  Be it contests, crazy giveaways, special events, or just super cool swag – let us know what you’re planning on doing that will set you apart from the other sponsors.  From previous years experience, we’ve seen that the sponsors who go above and beyond really are able to hook our attendees and get better returns on investment.

HEALTH POLICIES

ShmooCon 2025 will once again have a mask requirement. For more information on our Health and Covid policies please go here.

SPONSOR PACKAGES

We offer a variety of sponsorship opportunities to meet your needs and the expectations of our attendees.  There are limited numbers of each level available and sponsorship offers are subject to our discretion. We review all sponsorship requests to ensure there is mutual benefit to our attendees and the potential sponsor.

Bronze level sponsorships are only open to small/start-up companies operating in their first three (3) years of business and looking for exposure in the security community.

** Sponsors at the Platinum and Gold levels may purchase additional badges (4 and 2, respectively) at the going conference rate of $175 each, but must tell us this upon application.

Be Informed:

• Everyone working your booth will need a badge. Varying numbers of badges are included at each tier of sponsorship.
• Tables are approximately 6’x3′ and skirted.  Total exhibit space granted to each sponsor is not much larger than this. We are not a big booth venue.  Please plan accordingly so as not to impede upon your neighbors.
• Sponsors at the Bronze level and above are welcome to offer a single item for inclusion in attendee bags distributed at registration. ShmooCon Organizers must approve items before they are sent to our headquarters.
• We require that all sponsors stay away from any item resembling a ShmooBall (stress ball) for any of their conference handouts.

SPONSOR APPLICATION

If you are interested in sponsoring ShmooCon 2025, please be prepared with the following information and fill out the google form provided here.

• Name of company & company URL
• Contact person name, email & phone number
• Level of sponsorship requested
• If requesting Platinum or Gold, do you want to exercise the option to purchase 2 additional badges to ShmooCon?  This will be added to your invoice.
• Will you pay by check, ACH, or credit card? Payments by cc will incur extra fees.
• Why you feel your company is a good fit for ShmooCon
• Brief description of how you plan to use your booth during the conference (if applicable)

If selected as a ShmooCon sponsor please be aware that payment is due 45 days from issuing date of invoice unless we are within 30 days of the conference. In that case, payment is due immediately.  Payment via ACH/Check is greatly preferred. Again, payment by credit card will incur extra fees.

Responses to applications can take up to two weeks.  We ask for your patience as we review requests. Sponsorship is NOT first come, first served.

Questions can be directed to sponsors@shmoocon.org.