Speaking

I am always interested in speaking opportunities whether they are conferences, events, guest lectures in schools, or meetups. Send me an email at leigh at hypatia dot ca. I am also happy to refer you to other awesome speakers (including a large network of women) if I am unable to speak at your event. I also love facilitating unconferences.

Topics I like speaking about: Quantified Self (in particular sleep tracking and feminist perspectives on it), online harassment, information security (in particular security response, threat modeling, and secure development), diversity in tech, and hackerspaces.

If you want me to speak at your conference, please note that I try to only speak at and attend conferences which have anti-harassment policies in place; you can learn more about this and find example policies and extensive resources over on the geek feminism wiki. Anti-harassment policies are the brown M&Ms of conrunning.

  • March 2016:
  • January 2016:
  • October 2015:
  • April 2015:
  • January 2015:
  • November 2014:
  • October 2014:
  • September 2014:
    • Invited resident at Hacker School in New York, gave a talk similar to the Flowcon talk
    • Flowcon, San Francisco: “Building Secure Cultures“
  • October 2013:
  • June 2013:
    • AdaCamp San Francisco: lead the only all-attendee session of the unconference, a workshop on “Impostor Syndrome” using what later became the Virtuoso Project worksheet. Also lead an unconference session on feminist hackerspaces which eventually resulted in the founding of Double Union.
  • November 2012:
    • KiwiCon, Wellington NZ: Firehoses and Asbestos Pants: Security at Microsoft from Response to Lifecycle
  • February 2011:
    • SCALE9x, Los Angeles – “Upping the Bandwidth: Hackerspaces and Free Software Communities” – Invited keynote about the history of hackerspaces and what Free Software communities and hackerspaces can learn from eachother. Video here.
  • November 2010:
    • DIY Citizenship Conference, University of Toronto – Toronto Makers Panel – Spoke with folks from other hacker- and makerspaces around Toronto about the history and contexts of our various communities.
  • September 2010:
    • Maker Faire New York – “Sustainable Hacker and Maker Spaces” – panel discussion on sustainability strategies for hacker and maker spaces.
    • The Interactive Exchange, Toronto – “Bend It: Pushing Boundaries in Social Media” – panel discussion on innovation, social media, and community.
  • July 2010:
    • Defcon 18 – “Physical Computing, Virtual Security” – with Phillip Lindsay, on using physical computing and the Arduino microcontroller in security testing.
    • Defcon 18 – “Hacking The Future: Weaponizing the Next Generation” – a reprise of our Notacon talk on hacker parenting, this time with Tiffany Rad, James Arlen, Tim Krabec, and James Costello.
    • BSides Las Vegas – “The InfoSec Mentors Project panel”– with Joshua Corman, Marisa Fagan, Erin Jacobs, James Arlen, Dave Lewis, and Rafal Los.
  • June 2010:
    • PrivacyCampTO – “Online Privacy and Gender” – facilitated discussion of gender aspects of privacy and online participation.
    • Open Source Bridge, Portland OR – “The Rise of Hackerspaces” – An invited keynote on the history and present of hackerspaces and what they mean for Free and Open Source Software communities.
  • May 2010:
    • WisCon, Madison WI – Locksport Workshop – Taught recreational lockpicking and locksport ethics to attendees of the WisCon science fiction convention.
  • April 2010:
    • SourceBoston – “Rugged Software: A Value Based Strategy For Improving Our Digital Infrastructure” – participated in a panel with Josh Corman, Chris “WeldPond” Wysopal, Tiffany Rad, and Rob Cheyne discussing the Rugged Software manifesto.
    • Notacon 7, Cleveland OH – “Hacking The Future: Weaponizing the Next Generation” – panel with Tiffany Rad and James Arlen on hacker parenting. I presented the perspective of someone without kids who nonetheless does a lot of mentoring and education with young people.
  • March 2010:
    • Security BSides Austin – facilitated discussions on hackerspaces and hardware hacking.
    • Security BSides San Francisco – “Unicorns, Clubhouses, and Ruffled Feathers: Women in Security” – panel with Erin Jacobs, Jennifer Jabbusch, Andrew Hay, Lisa Lorenzin, Leigh Honeywell, Michelle Klinger. We discussed our experiences being female in the infosec industry, ways to foster the participation of young women in the field, and build community among those already working in it.
  • February 2010:
    • PyCon, Atlanta GA – “Think Globally, Hack Locally – Teaching Python in Your Community” – a talk about the Python class I ran at the HackLab in 2009.
  • January 2010:
    • Toronto Geek Girl Dinner – “Disclosure Matters: Learning to Listen to Security Researchers” – on best practices for dealing with the disclosure of security vulnerabilities
    • Canadian University Software Engineering Conference, Montreal – “The Sky is Already Falling – getting your feet wet in infosec” – about the basics of application security and secure coding practices.
  • November 2009:
    • Ignite Toronto – “Fresh Immersion” – an Ignite talk about building communities and attracting people to open source projects from unexpected places.
  • October 2009:
  • September 2009:
    • Ontario [GNU] Linux Fest, Toronto – “Hackers, TNG: Getting kids hooked on FOSS with hardware hacking!” – discussed using open source hardware and the Arduino microcontroller platform to introduce kids to the collaborative elements of Free and Open Source Software.
  • August 2009:
  • April 2009:
    • MeshU, Toronto – “Break it while you make it: writing (more) secure software” – spoke to a developer audience about secure coding practices and web application security.
  • April 2008:
    • HickTech, Owen Sound ON – “Who’s Watching Your Tubes? – Security and crypto for end-users”
  • February 2007:
    • Toronto Area Security Klatch – “Mobile Privacy” – this was an update of the CCC talk.
  • December 2006:
    • 23rd Chaos Communications Congress, Berlin – “Mobile phone call encryption” and “Secure VOIP” workshop (with Paul Wouters) – proposed a design for end-to-end encrypted cellular communication using Asterisk and Openswan.
  • September 2006:
    • CopyCampToronto – Speed Geek: “Open Source 101”
    • Toronto Area Security Klatch – “Fun with Phones: Phreaking, Fraud, Scams, and the Next Generation of Telephony Problems”
  • April 2006:
    • NOTACON 3, Cleveland OH – “Hacking Gender: Strategies for Inclusion and Change” – using lessons learned from studies in the Computer Science discipline, this talk suggested ways in which the infosec community can attract and retain more women.