On October 6 and 7, the Full Sail campus served as the host venue for the 2023 BSides Orlando Security Conference. The theme for this year’s conference was “Rise of the Robots.” BSides Orlando is a community-organized cybersecurity conference that provides an opportunity for beginners, security experts, and industry professionals to share ideas and insights, and to develop longstanding relationships in this community.


Held in the Full Sail Live venue, this two-day event offered up a range of interactive workshops and presentations. Keynote speakers and panelists from across the information security field provided their insights and knowledge on the latest industry developments. In addition, there were networking opportunities for attendees to connect with like-minded individuals. Full Sail students had the chance to attend the Saturday conference events at no cost. Close to 700 attendees registered for this year’s event, including about 200 Full Sail students.


Topics covered during the event included:

• Artificial intelligence
• Alternative and advanced search engine intelligence
• Image intelligence
• Ham radio operations
• Ethical hacking
• C++ and shellcode
• Entry-level roles in the cybersecurity field


As part of the conference, two Full Sail students were awarded with academic scholarships worth $5,000 each. The recipients were Caleb Gostellow, a student in the Cybersecurity bachelor’s degree program, along with Ashton Broussard from the Information Technology bachelor’s program. Plus, Full Sail was a diamond sponsor of the event.

Full Sail began serving as the venue for the BSides Orlando Security Conference in 2018, making this the sixth rendition of the conference held through the university and the longest-running venue for it over the years.