PhreakNIC is an annual
hacker and technology convention held in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
. It is organized by the
Nashville 2600 Organization and draws upon resources from SouthEastern 2600 (se2600). The Nashville
Linux User Group was closely tied with PhreakNIC for the first 10 years, but is no longer an active participant in the planning. First held in 1997, PhreakNIC continues to be a long-time favorite among
hackers
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who achieves goals and solves problems by non-standard means. The term has become associated in popular culture with a security hackersomeone with knowledge of bugs or exploits to break ...
, security experts and technology enthusiasts. PhreakNIC currently holds claim as the oldest regional hacker con and is one of the few hacker cons run by a 501(c)(3) tax-free
charity
Charity may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons
* Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...
. The conference attracts about 350 attendees.
PhreakNIC consists of presentations on a variety of technical subjects, sometimes related to a conference theme. There is also a film room showing
anime
is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
and technology-related videos from popular culture. The
Nashville Linux Users Group held a Linux
Installfest from PhreakNIC 3 through PhreakNIC X.
PhreakNIC is attended by hackers and other technology enthusiasts from across the United States, although, as a regional conference, most of its attendees come from a two-state radius around Tennessee, including groups from
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
,
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
,
Washington, DC
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States
Georgia may also refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
,
Kentucky
Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
, and
Alabama
Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
.
As PhreakNIC has been held in downtown Nashville, near the
Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. They play the ...
stadium, the exact date for PhreakNIC was previously not announced each year until the
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
released its schedule in April. PhreakNIC is intentionally scheduled not to coincide with a Titans home game, to give conference organizers full reign over the venue. However, PhreakNIC is typically held around the time of
Halloween
Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
.
Past locations
* Drury Inn at I-24 and Harding Place
** PhreakNIC 2
*
PhreakNIC 3 October 29–31, 1999
* Days Inn on Briley Pkwy at the airport
*
PhreakNIC 4 November 3–5, 2000
*
PhreakNIC 5 November 2–4, 2001
* Ramada Inn downtown
*
PhreakNIC 6 November 1–3, 2002
* Days Inn at the Stadium
*
PhreakNIC 7 October 24–26, 2003
*
PhreakNIC 8 October 22–24, 2004
*
PhreakNIC 9 October 21–23, 2005
*
PhreakNIC 10 October 20–22, 2006
*
PhreakNIC 11 October 19–21, 2007
*
PhreakNIC 12 October 24–26, 2008
*
PhreakNIC 13 October 30–31, 2009
*
PhreakNIC 14 October 15–17, 2010
*
PhreakNIC 15 November 4–6, 2011
* Clarion Inn and Suites, Murfreesboro, TN
*
PhreakNIC 16 November 9–11, 2012
*
PhreakNIC 17 September 20–22, 2013
* Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, Nashville, TN
*
PhreakNIC 18 October 30 - November 2, 2014
* Clarion Inn and Suites, Murfreesboro, TN
*
PhreakNIC 19 November 6–7, 2015
*
PhreakNIC 20 November 4–6, 2016
*
PhreakNIC 21 November 3-5, 2017
*
PhreakNIC 22 October 19-20, 2018
*
PhreakNIC 23 November 8-10, 2019
*
PhreakNIC 24 November 3-5, 2023
See also
*
DEF CON
DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon, or DC) is a Computer security conference, hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include comp ...
*
Hackers on Planet Earth
The Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) Computer security conference, conference series is a hacker convention sponsored by the security hacker magazine ''2600: The Hacker Quarterly'' that until 2020 was typically held at Hotel Pennsylvania, in Ma ...
*
Notacon
Notacon (pronounced "not-a-con") was an art and technology conference which took place annually in Cleveland, Ohio from 2003 to 2014. Notacon ceased operations in 2014. The name Notacon became a bacronym for Northern Ohio Technological Advancemen ...
*
Shmoocon
ShmooCon was an American hacker convention organized by The Shmoo Group. There were typically 40 different talks and presentations on a variety of subjects related to computer security and cyberculture. Multiple events were held at the convention ...
*
CarolinaCon
References
{{reflist
External links
PhreakNIC websiteNashville 2600Nashville Linux Users GroupSouthEastern 2600PhreakNIC Video ArchivesOfficial PhreakNIC YouTube Channel
Hacker conventions