From the TDI page:

A diversity-driven conference committed to helping all underrepresented genders, sexualities, races and cultures in Information Security. The Diana Initiative features multiple speaker tracks, fully expanded villages with hands-on workshops, and a women-led Capture the Flag event.

This year our theme is “Spark A Journey.” Our discussions will focus on emphasizing the ability in each of us to spark many journeys, and how we can be an inspiration and driving force for increasing representation in cybersecurity – whether gender, race, sexuality, skill level and neurodiversity.

Overview of Volunteering

Over the two days, I was a volunteer for the conference. Volunteering required doing just about anything througout the conference (link)):

• Set up of rooms and event spaces
• Assisting with registration
• Supporting the various villages
• Manage swag distribution
• Providing Safety/Security
• Be a Room or Speaker host
• Run social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc)
• Managing the parties
• Floaters and Roamers to help out staff and village organizers
• and more!
• Interested in volunteering? Please complete our volunteer form and we’ll be in touch closer to the event time frame.

First, the whole program being run by @fl3ury and @CircuitSwan throughout the conference. They really helped to make the conference run really well.

Next, [@marcellelee] ran the CTF Village with ease.

Villages

Several village happened had over the course of the event.

CTFs are alweays fun and there were four in the event (see CTF Village):

• TDI Core CTF
  • This happened on Try Hack me
  • See CTF write up from @apiratemoo
• Secure Code Warrior CTF
  • This one is interesting. It allows you to look at code and secure the code using an online platoform. I have had a couple of chances to do but usually happens during an event I am volunteering for.
• Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Industrial Control Systems (ICS) CTF
• OWASP DevSlop Workshop

I did do some of the TDI Core CTF but did not have time to really work on them due to volunteering.

This was the first time for the Teen Village. This allowed a specialized location for teens to be able to hang out and be a part of the conference. I was on a panel for this village. However, none of the talks were recorded from the village. Great to include teens into the industry.

Talks

There were lots of talks over the two days! I did not get to watch too many of them due to being in villages and expos and generally be everywhere else.

@AlyssaM_InfoSec introduction was so good. If you watch nothing, go watch her intro starting at the 5:22min mark in the video above.

She gives a run down of her career progression and talks about the dreaded Imposter Syndrome. The talk was great about careers. You can also pre-order her book Cyber Defenders' Career Guide and get a preview look at the contents.

@StephandSec kicked off day two with continuing talking about the problems people face in the hiring process. She does this through a fictional character named "Sage" and walks through how to change jobs through the whole process from finding a job to the interview to being hired.

You can find all the talks on the Diana Initiative YT channel.

It was a great time. The whole conference centered around career advancement in the main talks with villages allowing you a chance at soldering, locking picking, and CTFs.

The event has already been posted for next year. Get tickets on Eventbrite: #TDI2022. I am not sure if it will be a hybrid event or not. It will be just before DefCon next year as well.