BSidesLDN2020 Cancellation FAQ

Many considerations attributed to the decision to cancel this year's Bsides London. We were in constant communication with the venue and under the existing Government guidelines, which expected larger events to take place after the 1st October 2020 under set conditions, it was clear the conference would have been extremely limited, with around a third of the expected and usual capacity.

Further risk assessment focused on registration, the rooms hosting the talk tracks and village as well as the vendor hall, where social distancing guidelines would have needed to be enforced. This would have proved to be very challenging, as well as the collection of peoples accurate contact details for any future track and trace activity.

We do not think that a virtual conference is a good replacement for what BSides London has built around the real life interactions that many of us enjoy both professionally and personally.

As a donor, you will have one of three choices: keep the ticket for next year, request a refund, or forgo your ticket and allow BSidesLondon to keep the money to help with event preparation operating costs. A full email and a request form has been sent via email to the address registered to your ticket.

If you have a donor ticket, we kindly request that you complete a cancellation request form before 2020.12.01; details of your options are in the form. This form is located here: donor ticket form

We will honour those and you will receive a coupon when we release 2021 tickets.

If you acquired one of our free event tickets, we will be cancelling those.

We will honour those and you will receive a coupon when we release 2021 tickets.

As you were accepted for BSides 2020, we will be giving you an opportunity to indicate if the material you were looking to present is still on the table for 2021. We are not sure how this will work yet; It may require a few tweaks and updating, and we are not sure exactly what the process will be, yet, but your talk will be given preference in the 2021 CFP process.

Planning for next year's event is underway, when the CFP is opened please follow the guidance on the form and submit your talk. To find out when it opens please follow Bsides London’s Twitter (@BSidesLondon") or sign up to our mailing list on our contact page.

We have debated this internally and came to the conclusion that it will be fairer for everyone to start afresh in 2021. That means, there will be a new Call for Workshops.

Yes! That is the point of what we are doing. We are fully aware that the speakers who submitted to this year’s edition might find their workshops out of date and/or impossible to conduct hence, again - it’s a fresh start where everyone has an even chance..

Planning for next year's event is underway, when the CFW is opened please follow the guidance on the form and submit your talk. To find out when it opens please follow Bsides London’s Twitter (@BSidesLondon") or sign up to our mailing list on our contact page.

Talk was accepted

If you previously had your talk accepted, and as long as you still haven’t spoken at a public conference before next year’s event, you will have the option to speak at the next event.

Talk not accepted

If you were unsuccessful and your talk wasn’t accepted but still wish to speak on the Rookie track at Bsides London, and as long as you meet the criteria for the Rookie track (that being you haven’t spoken at a public conference before), please re-submit your talk (or a new one) for next year when the Call For Rookies (CfR) opens.

Planning for next year event is underway, when we issue the Call for Rookies (CfR), please follow the guidance on the form and submit your talk, follow Bsides London’s Twitter (@BSidesLondon") or sign up to our mailing list on our contact page to be notified of the opening of the CfR.

Continue with your rookie

If your Rookie wishes to present their talk at BSides London 2021, please speak to them and see if it’s practical for your partnership to continue, it could be that continuing until next year's event will not work. If that is the case, please contact us and we’ll arrange for another mentor.

Mentoring for next year

If you wish to volunteer as a mentor again next year, please respond to the Call for Mentors (CfM) when we announce the call is open. Twitter or our mailing list are the best place to be notified of the CfM opening.