John Hammond

ContinuumCon Prep (with Greg Ake!)

ContinuumCon is a newly‑minted virtual cybersecurity conference that flips the traditional lecture‑heavy format on its head, delivering fully hands‑on workshops where attendees work directly with presenters in real time. The event is organized by Greg Ake of Level Effect and partners, and it emphasizes interactive learning over passive slide consumption. The core innovation is the provision of isolated virtual machines for each workshop, granting participants lifetime access to labs ranging from digital forensics to adversary emulation. A persistent Discord server fuels continuous collaboration, allowing attendees to ask questions, share memes, and troubleshoot together long after the live sessions end. Level Effect contributes blue‑team curricula and is expanding into red‑team content, while the organizers promise to assist presenters with VM setup, lowering the barrier to creating high‑quality workshops. Highlights include a MITRE‑focused session that debunked common misconceptions, an atomic‑red‑team emulation lab that walks users through detection engineering, and a lineup of industry experts such as Matt Anderson, Chris Lowe, and Luke Rogerson. Each workshop runs in its own sandboxed environment, preventing cross‑lab interference and enabling rapid reset for repeated practice. By marrying on‑demand, hands‑on labs with a vibrant community and ongoing support, ContinuumCon democratizes advanced cybersecurity training, making it accessible to professionals who lack the infrastructure or time for traditional conferences. The model promises a lasting impact on skill development and talent pipelines across the security industry.