2020 was a tough year, we certainly all agree on that. However, one great thing happened very early in the year for us. On February 20th, we kicked off our very first Human Hacking Conference (HHC). Year Alpha was a massive success. We had an amazing venue, fantastic trainers, and guests who came with open minds, ready to learn. We left that weekend feeling buzzed from the excitement of it all. HHC 2021 will be just as exciting, despite having to make some changes to our original plans. We are happy to announce that HHC will be going completely virtual! But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s start with the basics.
What is HHC?
The HHC was created by Chris Hadnagy, the CEO of Social-Engineer, LLC. After running several social engineering villages at other conferences, Chris was inspired to create his own conference. This conference is unlike any other. That’s because it’s an all-encompassing event, offering to teach people from all fields – business, security, psychology, and more. With experts in deception, body language, intelligence research, and more, this conference appealed to a variety of people for different reasons. The skills and insight gained from the event benefited the attendees in countless ways.
The conference centered around training workshops that allow attendees to learn skills from professionals of various fields. Joe Navarro, a former FBI special agent, specializing in behavioral assessment, hosted a Nonverbal Communications workshop. Attendees were able to learn from Joe how to assess what is being said and what is being felt, all by focusing on body language. Nick Furneaux, an expert in cybersecurity and digital forensics, taught a packed workshop on how to use OSINT for investigative purposes. R. Paul Wilson, an elite con artist and magician, taught the Dark Side of the Hand workshop. Attendees were shown how to deal with the expectation of your audience at any time.
This is just a small sample of the attendee experience in 2020. We had other workshops with experts such as Robin Dreeke, Stephanie Paul, Dov Baron, and more! As we went through our attendees’ comments on the workshops, we were so proud of what was accomplished. It left us motivated to bring an even better event to 2021.
Enter Coronavirus…
We never could have expected that, just a few short weeks after HHC 2020, the entire world would find itself amid a pandemic. With a global shutdown happening and more and more people getting sick, this meant that planning HHC 2021 would be a bumpy road. Early on, we were hopeful that we would be able to host an event like we did in 2020; however, it soon became clear that we were going to have to improvise. The safety of our attendees and staff was the most important thing to us. So, after a lot of planning, and a few changes along the way, we’re happy to say we are going 100% virtual for HHC 2021.
HHC Goes Virtual!
Our attendees will have access to all the workshops via an interactive livestream. They will have the ability to ask questions and interact with our workshop trainers! It will also give them access to unique networking opportunities including happy hour events happening all 3 nights of the conference.
We also are happy to announce that we have added 3 new workshop trainers to our lineup! We highlighted our originally scheduled trainers in our June blog post, but we want to introduce you to our newly added professionals!
Anne-Maartje Oud
Anne-Maartje has been a behavioral advisor/consultant for 20 years. She is the CEO and Founder of The Behaviour Company, where she helps customize personal development programs for companies worldwide. She specializes in creating better working environments, developing interpersonal skills, and encouraging more effective communication. By focusing on creating awareness in organizations, she helps managers, executives, and team members to communicate and lead better.
Her workshop, “The Art and Science of Conducting Difficult Conversations,” is an interactive session that will help attendees be more effective when it comes to having inevitable difficult conversations. The workshop will focus on how to define these conversations, how to prepare for them, and how influence techniques can be used to attain a positive outcome.
Joshua Bitton
Joshua Bitton is one of the most sought-after acting and dialogue coaches in Los Angeles, USA. With a plethora of plays, TV shows, and movies under his belt, Joshua’s experience has led to him coaching some of the biggest names in Hollywood. His work as an acting coach has included set coaching, auditions, readings, monologues, script breakdown, and character development.
Joshua’s workshop, “The Mechanics of Breaking Down Dialects,” will help attendees design the voice and speech of a character or pretext for engagements. By learning the mechanics of breaking down dialects, Joshua’s workshop will help attendees acquire an authentic accent that can prove useful for any operation or objective.
Sam Qurashi
Dr. Sam Qurashi is a writer, entrepreneur, Instagrammer, and YouTuber. After helping over 10,000 patients as a psychiatric resident in an addiction hospital, Sam walked away from his medical career, believing that there must be a more effective way to help people. He started interviewing experts that live beyond the frame of traditional psychology and who are “masters of the mind.”. This included learning from a ninja, the Horse Whisperer, a samurai, and a pickpocket. He now shares his thoughts and concepts on psychology via his social media platforms, where he has 680 thousand followers.
Dr. Quarashi’s workshop will highlight the verbal and nonverbal communication that alters the emotional state of self and others. His psycholinguistics workshop will help you create a safe feeling in others, resolve conflicts, redirect others’ focus, and help give feedback that builds momentum in others.
Hope to See You At HHC 2021
While we are disappointed to not be able to physically see all our attendees, we are very excited about the event. And we are happy to make a virtual event available. However, HHC would not be possible without our amazing sponsors, Living Security and CG Silvers Consulting! We know the skills and insights that our attendees will learn will benefit them in countless ways, both personally and professionally. We are very excited for this event and we can’t wait to see you!