Ekoparty 2010 has come and gone and I think it's fair to say that a stellar time was had by all. Throw out the fact that the conference is highly technical and yet completely informal. Throw out the fact that the attendees are some of the coolest and friendliest geeks around. Throw out the fact that the conference organizers are the most generous hosts I've ever had the pleasure of spending a week with. The simple truth is that Buenos Aires, Argentina is a beautiful city rich in culture, cuisine and friendly faces. Everywhere I went, I was struck by the portenos' willingness to accommodate my piss-poor Spanish and help me enjoy their wonderful city. If you get the chance, I highly recommend you make the trip down to Buenos Aires and make some new friends. And hey, if you can do it during Ekoparty 2011, all the better!

The reason that Ekoparty is the premier conference in South America can be summed up in one word: collaboration. Everything about this conference lends itself to a spirit of collaboration, between the organizers, the speakers, the attendees and the vendors. Although there were in excess of 700 attendees at this, the 6th public incarnation of Ekoparty, the conference still felt small, personal and incredibly topical. Set in the heart of Buenos Aires, at the Konex Cultural Complex, which the conference organizers transformed into a Gibsonian landscape of thumping house music, gnarled mechanical monsters and gleaming neon gas tubes, the conference had the feel of an underground warehouse party. A very technical warehouse party, mind you, but still. The Konex Complex features a small cafe on the ground level and it was there that a great deal of the conference collaboration took place. A common mantra from the speakers was, "well, I've gone over time, so if you have questions then meet me at the bar!"

From the moment the TippingPoint team arrived, we were welcomed by everyone we came in contact with. From Chris Valasek buying a round of beers as we walked in the door, to Federico stuffing us full of fresh empanadas in the speakers' lounge. Conference Day 1 was a travel day for us, so we missed the talks before lunch while we were getting our bearings in Buenos Aires. We did get a chance to see Gary Golomb present his analysis of PE header anomalies and to hear my friend, Giovanni Cruz, break down the VoIP threat landscape (in real-time Spanish to English translation, no less). In truth, we spent most of Day 1 in the cafe, meeting developers, pen testers and security researchers from all over the world.

We were able to see almost all of the Day 2 presentations, save for a couple that we missed while gorging on Argentine-style pizzas and milanesas at a nearby pizza parlor. I enjoyed the in-depth discussion of the Maltego software presented by Roelof Temmingh and the reverse engineering walk through that Eric Monti relayed through the development of his iPhone Rootkit. Of course, the big news from Day 2 was Julian Rizzo and Thai Duong's Padding Oracle/POET tour-de-force, covered extensively by every media outlet in the two hemispheres! The entire conference was buzzing following that presentation and with good reason. Kudos to the Ekoparty organizers for bookending the conference with Barnaby Jack's epic ATM Jackpotting talk. It was, as you would expect, both hilarious and precise; there's something just a tad bit unsettling about watching an ATM literally spraying bills all over the floor under the orchestration of a man some 6000 miles away. It should go without saying that the audience erupted into applause and cheers at that point in the presentation :) As Federico made it clear that we would need to be well... insulated... for the Ekoparty conference wrap party, we availed ourselves of some of the finest asado Buenos Aires has to offer. Did you know that these people will even grill provolone cheese!!!! Yeah, they do that. And it's amazing. I think Aaron ordered a Provoleta everywhere we went. It was comforting to find that the Argentines are as fanatical about beef as we are here in Texas, I had one of the best ribeye steaks of my life that night. The after party was a blur, to be honest... but I do recall that some of the team was still trying to make their way home at 7:30 the next morning!

Being the Diamond sponsor of Ekoparty, we felt it was our duty to throw a speakers' party to cap off the conference. Duty. With the help of Federico, Emerson Tan and Cedric Blancher, the TippingPoint team hosted a true Argentine asado at our apartment in the trendy Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires proper. I think my favorite memory of that night was looking up from my potatoes and chorizo preparation to see an Englishman working the grill, a porteno building chorizo sandwiches and a Frenchman dicing onions like a madman. A true United Nations of culinary skill! As we ate nearly every cut of beef from the snout to the tail and drank an entire vineyard worth of Malbec, it was awesome to see everyone trading war stories and discussing the state of netsec, reverse engineering and software development in general. Barnaby Jack and I availed some of the party-goers with our respective adventures in getting banned from local watering holes and Chris Valasek assured me that Pittsburgh is, in fact, a pretty nice town once you get to know it.

Cedric Blancher has posted a nice collection of photos of Ekoparty which spans from setup to speakers' party but even those great shots can't capture the enthusiasm and camaraderie that was felt in Buenos Aires those all-too-short three days. Huge thanks go out to the Ekoparty organizers, especially Federico and Francisco for delivering not only a stellar conference but for making my first trip to Buenos Aires one of the best times I've ever had. It goes without saying that I'll be back next year; the only question is whether or not there will be a BBQ battle between the Texas crew and the portenos!