Founder narrative locked T-30 to T-7.
Deliverables (3)
- ▸T-30 to T-7
- ▸30-account cluster
- ▸Village intro engineering


FORKOFF DEF CON activation is a 14-day operating cycle for AI security researchers, infrastructure pentesting tooling founders, and dev-tools teams shipping security primitives into the offensive-security and AI red-team cluster in Las Vegas. Pre-event narrative, on-site cadence at LVCC and the named Villages, post-event compounding, audit-tracked outcomes.
Most teams pay $30K for an LVCC vendor table and hope. Some run a Strip-side dinner and bounce. FORKOFF runs the DEF CON week as a 14-day operating cycle.
Anonymized post-engagement. Names surfaced are DEF CON 2025 ecosystem operators FORKOFF either ran intros into or co-attended Village sessions with.
The hacker ecosystem compounds in ways no other security-conference week does. 30k attendees plus AI Village density plus offensive-security researcher concentration inside one 4-day Vegas window.
AI security researchers + offensive-security operators concentrated across LVCC plus the named Villages plus the Caesars Forum side-event web.
Bug bounty operators, dev-tools founders, and AI red-team researchers all in-market across the same 96-hour window.
Named Villages make AI security researchers and offensive operators reachable in topic-specific rooms.
InfoSec Twitter and AI red-team research cluster compound on residual.
The week breaks into an LVCC main-floor cluster, the named Villages circuit (AI Village + ICS + Hardware Hacking + Recon + Bug Bounty), and the Caesars Forum side-event web running parallel. Activating well means picking the right Village.
Aug 6-9, 2026
Main hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). Co-located Caesars Forum carries side-event programming. The 30+ named Villages anchor topic-specific gatherings. Tour de DEF CON dinners across The Strip.
30,000+ in 2025: 32% AI security researchers + offensive-security operators, 26% dev-tools founders + product leaders shipping security primitives, 24% bug bounty + threat-intel + OSINT operators, 18% press + KOLs + sponsors.
Where the buyer-relevant rooms live. Pick 2 max for any single activation week.
Two prior cycles run on the FORKOFF audit ledger. AI red-team tooling pre-launch, infrastructure pentesting platform narrative. Both ledger entries delivered within T+30 of close.
Four days across the LVCC main floor, the named Villages circuit (AI Village, ICS Village, Hardware Hacking, Recon, Bug Bounty), and the Caesars Forum side-event web. Pre-event narrative, daily on-site cadence, post-event clip cascade. One operator carries every phase. Every phase closes with a ledger entry.
Founder narrative locked T-30 to T-7.
Daily founder posts from LVCC and the named Villages, Thu-Sun of DEF CON week.
On-site InfoSec Twitter operators, AI red-team voices, and bug bounty operators activated through bot-screened placements.
Clip cadence compounds T+1 to T+30.
Strategy 12 weeks out. Production 4 weeks out. Execution event week. Compounding 30 days post. Each phase closes with a ledger entry.
Sample schedule for a Standard-tier engagement. Tier-specific deliverables shown in the next section.
| Day | Date | Motion | FORKOFF owns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed (D-1) | Aug 5, 2026 | Land in Vegas · pre-event Tour de DEF CON Strip-side dinner setup | Venue + invite list + intro choreography |
| Thu | Aug 6 | Opening day attendance · founder posts from LVCC main floor | Daily post + on-site clip cadence |
| Fri | Aug 7 | ICP-account 1:1 meetings · AI Village session attendance | Meeting calendar + Village intro routing |
| Sat | Aug 8 | FORKOFF side event (researcher roundtable / panel / dinner) | Production + KOL invites + recording |
| Sun | Aug 9 | On-site podcast recording day · 3-4 founder + researcher interviews · DEF CON closing | Studio + production + same-week clip pipeline |
| Mon | Aug 10 | KOL placements live · partnership-conversation closes | KOL ledger + per-post tracking |
| Tue | Aug 11 | Founder thread recap of week · InfoSec Twitter cluster reciprocation | Thread craft + cluster activation |
| Wed (D+7) | Aug 12 | Departure · post-event clip cascade live | Distribution sequencing + audit ledger weekly |
Three DEF CON-circuit campaigns, three lanes: AI red-team tooling pre-launch, infrastructure pentesting platform narrative, post-event researcher compounding.
Pre-event narrative across 14 days locked the founder's positioning across the AI security research cluster before they landed in Vegas. Side-event roundtable + AI Village podcast recording fed a 14-clip post-event cadence. Audit ledger closed T+30 with qualified-pipeline math skewed AI red-team buyers.


Single-track Lite tier: 14-day pre-event narrative + 1 on-site podcast recording timed to the founder's AI Village slot. Audit-ledger entry shipped T+14 with qualified-intro list surfaced before the founder landed in Vegas.

Sponsor-grade activation across the parallel RSA Conference week for a security tooling vendor. Side-event tour (3 venues), 5 podcast recordings on-site, English-language clip cycle that rode the residual attention curve for 45 days. Same playbook ports to DEF CON.
14-day pre-event narrative + 30-account AI security research ICP map + qualified-intro list shipped before you land in Vegas. If we do not deliver the intro list inside 14 days, the $5,000 comes back.
FORKOFF runs the only DEF CON activation we have seen built around a 14-day operating cycle, not an LVCC vendor table fee. The audit ledger told us exactly which AI Village intros compounded into researcher partnership pipeline.
Founder · AI red-team tooling SaaS
DEF CON 2025 standard tier · researcher roundtable layer
Two weeks of pre-event narrative + 30-account AI security research cluster activation + DEF CON-specific intro engineering. You leave with the audit ledger of qualified intros surfaced before you land in Vegas. Lite tier scopes a single track. Selective on ICP, capped per quarter.
Receipt-by-receipt, on the same five dimensions every buyer asks about. No tier shell games, no asterisks.
| Feature | FORKOFF activationOutcome-priced | DIY booth + sponsorLogo on banner | Traditional PR firmPress retainer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Outcome-priced. Per-event commit. $5K to $40K tier band. | Vendor table fee plus AV plus founder hours. Often $30K plus before any sourced researcher lead. | Monthly retainer regardless of event outcome. $10K to $25K per month. |
| Pre-event narrative | 30-day AI security research cluster activation plus 30-account dev-tools intro engineering | Tweet announcing booth number a week before | Press release embargoed until DEF CON opening day |
| On-site cadence | Daily founder posts, Tour de DEF CON dinner, AI Village panel, KOL placements, podcast recordings | Founder behind a vendor table, hopes the right researcher walks past | Press wrangling around the talks track, no operating cadence on-site |
| Post-event compounding | 30-day clip cascade plus qualified-pipeline ledger sourced from InfoSec Twitter cluster | Folder of phone photos and a vague Slack debrief from the LAS flight home | Coverage clipping report, often disconnected from researcher pipeline |
| Audit ledger receipt | Signed by operator, qualified-pipeline math, T+30 close | Whatever the founder remembers from the LVCC main hall | Vanity coverage report, no pipeline math |
All tiers carry the audit ledger + qualified-pipeline reporting. Tier scales scope, not philosophy.
$5,000 to $10,000
By application
By application
Apr 2026 · San Francisco · Standard tier by application
Apr 2026 · Las Vegas · Standard tier by application
Nov 2026 · San Francisco · Standard tier by application
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DEF CON is the world's pre-eminent hacker conference, anchored at the Las Vegas Convention Center each August. The 2025 edition drew 30,000+ attendees across LVCC main hall plus 30+ named Villages (AI Village, ICS Village, IoT Village, Hardware Hacking, Recon, Bug Bounty) plus the Caesars Forum side-event web. DEF CON 2026 is DEF CON 34, running August 6 to 9 in Las Vegas. The room is the highest-density gathering of AI security researchers, offensive-security operators, infrastructure pentesting tooling founders, and dev-tools teams shipping security primitives in the world.
Beyond DEF CON week. AI-side ICP playbook for AI security researchers and AI red-team tooling founders.
Beyond DEF CON week. Dev-tools ICP playbook for security primitive shippers.
Pre-event narrative + intro engineering across 30 ICP accounts attending DEF CON.
On-site podcast recording day during DEF CON week. Studio + crew booked at Vegas partner venue.
Bot-screened InfoSec Twitter + AI red-team + bug bounty KOL placements during DEF CON week.
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Lite activation $5,000 to $10,000 single-track. Standard tier by application end-to-end. Full tier by application sponsor-grade with researcher roundtable production. Audit ledger on qualified pipeline across every tier.

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