Ok, from the post I quoted it sounded like you were saying that having things going on at the same time wasn't an option and that's why 7-days was a choice.

I see what you're saying. My vote still stays for 5 days

OK... here's how the planning is going...

Looks like a 5 day event in mid Sept or late Oct 2007. I'm partial to the week of Sept 17th (PM me if you know of other events at that time). I know, I know... very fast to put together such a vast event. But for those of you who know me, this is nothing new. I'm prone to take risks. So to put your mind at ease, here's what we have already:

We have a venue that includes a 180 seat auditorium and plenty of individual classrooms with computers, projectors and white boards. We also have a highly regarded partner to provide most of the 6 - 8 boot camp style courses for the most widely known security certs in the industry. We'll start each day with a cont. breakfast and 30 minute keynote by one of our columnists, then class, then lunch, then back to class, then evening presentations (we'll have an open call for papers) in rapid fire style at 30 minutes each for 2 hours. First hour (2 presentations) will be Soft Core topics. Second hour (2 more) will feature Hard Core topics. We will also host root wars on 2 nights (hopefully by our friends at LSO with Chris Gates) and other misc fun activities during the week. On Fri afternoon, exams for your chosen boot camp, and then we wrap it all up with a party Fri evening to celebrate your successes.

In Chicago, we're known for our blue collar, hard working attitude. So, we'll work hard and play hard for an amazing week of learning, career advancement and networking with peers... all in the city of broad shoulders.

How about this for boot camp offerings at ChicagoCon (In no particular order):

CISSP - For those looking to get into Management
CISA - For Auditors
CEH - For pen testers
CHFI - For forensics
Security+ - For newbies
Linux+ and/or LPIC-1

Under consideration:
2 SANS Courses - Thinking GCIH and GCFA
ECSA/LPT
CWNA - Wireless
CEPT - Expert Pen Testing
CCE - Forensics
CPTS - Pen Testing
CPTE - Pen Testing Expert

Should we try to include any Cisco courses? Any others you may want us to consider?

The CISSP class will have an option for a 7 day course, although the main conference and training will be only 5 days. We will also proctor a CISSP exam on the Sunday immediately after the training. Not many training events can boast that. Not bad, huh?

We can only fit 180 in the auditorium, and students get first shot. Depending on registrations, we may not be able to offer seats to the general public. We'll see how this pans out.

Thanks in advance for your feedback,
Don

Thanks. All feedback helps.

In fact, Chris Gates recommended that I talk to Immunity about the exact course you suggested. I haven't been able to contact them directly yet, and I didn't want them looking at the list saying, "What the..."

So there's actually more I have in mind, but I've actually talked to everyone that is listed above.

Either way... keep the suggestions coming!

Don

PS - I'm going to PM you about an idea I have for you.

Sorry, I'm late to the party...this is a great idea, and will really help us to position ourselves as one of THE sources for the infosec community. 

Nice work, Don!

Where would this take place in Chicago and is it going to be expensive?

So far it's looking great. ChicagoCon is on!

Final details are being squared away, but most of the major components are already in place. Here's where we stand:

It's looking more and more like the week of Sept 17 (about 95% sure). We have the venue with the 180-seat auditorium and 10 classrooms for a total offering of 11 courses. The Training Camp is on board, and we are still negotiating with the likes of SANS, the InfoSec Institute and Offensive Security.

ChicagoCon will be a 7-day event. Most of the activites will be during the first 5 days. In fact, all of the presentations and contests will be completed within 5 days. The closing remarks and party will be on Fri late afternoon - early evening. We are only bleeding into the weekend to accomodate the 7-Day CISSP course, 6-Day CHFI, 6-Day GCIH, etc.

As for pricing, we are looking to have our partners offer the same exact training as they would for any other class. We are also looking at NOT charging a premium for all of the extra events like the keynotes, presentations, hacking contests, etc. So you will actually get much more for your money if you choose to attend ChicagoCon.

We want this to be a first-class event through and through, so we are putting together all-inclusive packages that will include a ride from the airport, hotel, breakfast-lunch-maybe dinner, course materials (books) and the exam voucher. Of course t-shirts and giveaways will also be part of the fun. It wouldn't be an EH-Net event without free stuff, now would it?

So for example, the Training Camp currently offers the all-inclusive deal for CEH for approx. $3800. Although we could be justified in asking for more, we are looking to go the other way and actually cut $100 of the price. For other courses from SANS and the InfoSec Institute, we'll have to work out a similar deal to offer the first-class treatment. Stay tuned.

Something of Note: The 7-day CISSP course will have not 1 but 2 instructors in the class. Best of all is that we will be proctoring the exam on-site for attendees of ChicagoCon only. Along those same lines, this conference portion will NOT be open to the public. I'd love to, but the venue has strict rules on the amount of people we can cram into the auditorium, and we feel it is only fair to allow those who pay for training to be the allowed to attend the conf.

As for course offerings, we're almost set with our lineup. I'll hold off on any official announcement, but rest assured that we will have a cross-section of security courses covering all walks of the industry including newbies, management, compliance, forensics and of course ethical hacking.

The evening presentations will be broken into 2 categories - softcore and hardcore. Softcore will consist of topics like policies and procedures, advancing your security career, etc. Hard core topics will include hacking demos, programming for the security professional, forensic investigations, etc. Presentations will be given by the instructors, our columnists and friends of EH-Net. So although I was considering an open call for papers, we already have plenty of participants. Guess we got lucky.

Hopefully that's enough to get everyone excited. I know I'm about jumping out of my skin. 

Please offer feedback and suggestions for course offerings as final decision time is upon us.

Thanks again,
Don

We may need a few volunteers. So thanks for the offer. I'll PM you.

Any others more interested in this project, please PM me.

Thanks for everything. I'm so excited about this event, I'm about to crawl out of my skin.

Don

Awesome!