Founder and Conference Chair John Johnson says his goals are to increase awareness of the need for online security, train young people for careers, and increase diversity.
"There are students from certain demographics, girls for example, losing interest in STEM activities by the time they get into middle school and high school if they're not encouraged and they don't see it as something that might apply to them."
On Friday, high school students have been invited to learn about cyber security as a career. And on Saturday, the conference will host k-12 students for sessions on coding, electronics, ethical hacking, and games.
Dr. Johnson says one of the topics for adult attendees will be how to hack a John Deere tractor.
"We're going to talk more about the importance of addressing vulnerabilities in embedded computer systems, and the tractor is just a good example of embedded systems. We have them in smart cities, in electric vehicles, and we have them in a lot of our devices in our homes, are smart devices."
In addition to students, he encourages small and larges businesses, and other organizations, to attend the conference to learn about security and privacy.
The conference will be held at the River Center, in downtown Davenport.
