DEF CON 34 by the Numbers

A schedule snapshot of sessions, communities, people, and places

At a glance

Table 1: Headline metrics for the DEF CON 34 conference schedule, August 6–9.
Metric Value
Scheduled sessions 1,746
Distinct activities 1,408
Scheduled session hours 1,828.9
Unique named speakers 1,281
Organizations, villages, and communities 126
Distinct tags 168
Locations 157
Peak concurrent sessions 155

The schedule contains 1,746 scheduled sessions across 1,408 distinct activities. It names 1,281 speakers and 126 organizations, villages, or communities.

Of those scheduled sessions, 338 are additional slots beyond one per distinct activity, representing 19.4% of all scheduled sessions. These repeated slots give attendees another opportunity to attend an activity offered more than once. Among sessions included in the duration analysis, the median scheduled duration is 60 minutes.

The busiest day is Friday, August 07, with 723 scheduled sessions. Peak concurrency reaches 155 simultaneous sessions on Sunday, August 09 at 11:10 AM PDT.

Session counts include all sessions scheduled from August 6 through August 9, 2026. Duration-based metrics and visualizations include sessions longer than zero and no more than 4 hours. Longer entries commonly represent open hours, training, contests, registration, or multi-day activities. Times are shown in Pacific Time.

Distinct activities are calculated using unique content_id values. An activity scheduled multiple times counts as one distinct activity and multiple scheduled sessions.

Built from the Hacker Tracker schedule export. Explore the live DEF CON 34 schedule at info.defcon.org.

Schedule shape

Figure 1: Each point is one scheduled session longer than zero and no more than four hours. Point size reflects scheduled duration.
Figure 2: Active eligible sessions in each five-minute period. The outlined point marks peak concurrency.

Across five-minute periods with at least one active session, the schedule averages 30.3 concurrent sessions with a median of 8.0.

Largest schedule contributors

Figure 3: Program areas, communities, organizations, and villages ranked by scheduled sessions. Names are preserved from the schedule export.

Busiest locations

Figure 4: Locations ranked by scheduled sessions. Names are preserved from the schedule export.
Table 2: Scheduled sessions and filtered session hours by local start date.
Date Scheduled sessions Sessions in hour analysis Session hours
Thursday, August 06 19 13 22
Friday, August 07 723 587 642
Saturday, August 08 700 579 630
Sunday, August 09 304 293 535

For richer rankings, see the organization and location tables.