IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR SPAWNCAMP 2025
Unfortunately, due to policies we were not aware of, we will **NOT** be able to hold SpawnCamp at BSides Delaware 2025. So, sadly, this year we will be an adults-only conference. We *WILL* be back as a family-friendly conference next year. For more information, please refer to the details below.
What is SpawnCamp?
Since its debut in 2014, SpawnCamp has quickly become a popular staple of BSides Delaware. SpawnCamp encourages parents to bring their Spawn and let those Hacklings learn about programming, hardware, and how to build, break, and explore! Each year, BSidesDE works to provide a great lineup of activities, so your Spawn can have as much fun as you!
Oh, and a friendly reminder: We want you to be involved in their journey of exploration and learning, and to do so, we mandate that you remain with your child(ren) at all times.
The History of SpawnCamp
Since our inception in 2010, BSidesDE has been a family friendly conference. Parents take joy in sharing knowledge of STEM and information security concepts with their children in the relaxed setting of our conference hosted on a college campus. Some of those children have been inspired to do research and present at the conference, some are now young adults studying STEM fields in college, some eagerly wait all year to attend because it is the highlight of their year.
In 2014 SpawnCamp was born officially when we formally added registration for kids who would be dubbed Hacklings. This allowed us to survey ages to facilitate tailoring activities to the age groups we knew would be attending. Additionally, it allowed us to clearly communicate safety and supervision expectations to parents. All activities are designed for parents and children to share and work on together so they may be inspired to continue learning together at home. SpawnCamp is not designed to or adequately equipped to provide child supervision as that was never the purpose.
Fun Fact: BSides Delaware is so passionate about SpawnCamp, we couldn’t help but make sure everyone knew about our mission! “Hackling” was added to Urban Dictionary after the second year of SpawnCamp in 2015. Check it out here.
What You Can Expect
Each year BSides Delaware works hard to offer hacklings a variety of topics and skills to explore and learn about with interactive and guided activites, classes, and walkthroughs. Typically classes and activities explore topics such as:
- Robotics
- Cryptography
- Privacy
- Programming
- Network game installation (Minecraft)
- Electricity and circuits
- Organic power sources (potato clock)
- Hardware design, dismantling and understanding components, and responsible e-waste recycling
- Logic puzzles
- Chess
- Self defense
We’ve bought many laptops, and we typically coordinate with our venue to provide some monitors, mice, and keyboards for our Raspberry Pi users. We are bringing cases of laptops, overhead projectors, a typewriter, and other items for the kids to disassemble gleefully (Destruction Alley). We’ve also arranged for the CTF to do a little teaching session for some of the older or more interested kids, so they can start learning how to “stress testing” the security networks and applications. (Job training can’t begin too early!!!)
Lockpick Village is always a great distraction, and it’s right next door, perfect for parents and kids to enjoy! In other words, we’ve got plenty of activities, all in a university setting, in a single room, so it’s easy to maintain contact with your hackling, and it’s a very comfortable place to be. It’s going to be freaking AWESOME!!!
Another Reminder (because it’s so important): We want you to be involved in their journey of exploration and learning, and to do so, we require that you be with your child at all times.
We hope to see you there (resuming in 2026)!
2025 SpawnCamp Announcement
Hi folks,
Unfortunately, due to policies we were not aware of until 09/19/2025, we are not allowed to admit minors (anyone under the age of 18) to the conference. This means that we will not be able to hold Spawncamp this year. This is extremely upsetting, but we have very little recourse at this point in the planning process.
So, for this year, we will be an adults-only conference, but we *WILL* be back as a family-friendly conference next year, potentially at a new venue.
If you have purchased tickets for minors, we are happy to offer refunds for those tickets. Please seek a refund through Humanitix or reach out, and we will take the necessary steps to fix things.
If you’re interested in the legal bits of this, the college policies are found here :
We thank you for your understanding.
Warmly,
BSides Delaware Management