The 15th Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference will be held from July 12-14, 2024.
H.O.P.E. stands for Hackers On Planet Earth, one of the most creative and diverse hacker events in the world. It's been happening since 1994.
Thousands of people from around the world come to HOPE. Join us for three full days and nights of activities, including provocative and enlightening speakers that the HOPE conferences are known for. The conference is in-person on the St. John's University campus in Queens, New York City. Many sessions will also be available online.
Past HOPE events have featured fascinating talks, inspirational keynotes, and workshops on every topic from lockpicking to getting a ham radio license to analyzing Android malware. HOPE has showcased new movies, had cool live performances, done live radio broadcasts, and much, much more. Past speakers include Steve Wozniak, Jello Biafra, and Edward Snowden.
We're literally only limited by our imaginations and how many volunteers come on board to help build the event. Sign up for our mailing list to be part of it all.
HISTORY
1994
The first Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conference took place at the Hotel Pennsylvania in Manhattan, New York City over two days. It was the first time that a hacker conference of this size had been attempted in the United States and it was inspired by the Dutch hacker gatherings of the 80s and 90s. National security veteran Robert Steele was our first keynote speaker, as well as our first speaker ever.
1997
Our second conference was Beyond HOPE, held at the Puck Building in downtown Manhattan. We decided to move there because we weren’t happy with the hotel’s prices. Our keynote speaker was journalist Brock Meeks. This conference was held in conjunction with Hacking In Progress (HIP), a Dutch hacker camp taking place at the same time.
2000
While the world panicked about Y2K, we held a conference called H2K (an acronym within an acronym). We returned to Hotel Pennsylvania (we were even less happy with the Puck Building’s prices) and made that our default home for future HOPE conferences, adding a third day in the process. And in a bit of a twist, we had Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys as our keynote speaker.
2002
H2K2 was the sequel to H2K and a name nobody was expecting. In a break with tradition, we had two keynote speakers: media scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan and Boondocks author Aaron McGruder. Our space expanded to a whole new level of the Hotel Pennsylvania, allowing us to grow to a size we were comfortable with.
2004
The Fifth HOPE was known for being the first hacker conference where renowned hacker Kevin Mitnick was finally allowed to speak, and he became one of our three keynotes. We also managed to get Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as another keynote, with Jello Biafra returning as our third.
2006
Our sixth conference was entitled HOPE Number Six and it was filled with references to the Number Six character from the cult classic TV show The Prisoner. Every speaker and attendee was assigned a number and referred to by it throughout the weekend. There were a lot of Number Twos for some reason, and the identity of Number One was revealed at the closing ceremonies (sort of). Our keynote speakers were free software activist Richard Stallman, Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart, and, yes, Jello Biafra, who by this time had become a HOPE fixture.
2008
The Last HOPE appeared to signal the end of the HOPE series as the Hotel Pennsylvania was slated to be torn down, leaving us without a home. The entire conference had a funeral theme with our keynote speaker being Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution author Steven Levy. (The true meaning of the conference name was divulged in the closing ceremonies.)
2010
The Next HOPE was the logical name for the next chapter in our history, as the combined efforts of HOPE attendees and concerned citizens were enough to keep the hotel standing for a while longer. We were supposed to have WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as one of our keynotes, but then some things happened and we had to scale that back a bit. Famed hacker Dan Kaminsky gave our other keynote address.
2012
HOPE Number Nine was what we called the flipside to HOPE Number Six without ever really going into details. Highlights included keynotes by National Security Agency whistleblower William Binney and mischief makers The Yes Men, along with an ever-expanding group of security experts, activists, and hackers of all sorts.
2014
Dissent and censorship were the themes for HOPE X, along with frequent use of the letter X. In fact, we somehow managed to get xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx as one of our domains and had some fun spreading that around. Daniel Ellsberg, arguably the biggest whistleblower of all time, was our keynote speaker and we also connected with surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden who was exiled in Russia. We honored dissidents and whistleblowers throughout the weekend and on our website.
2016
The Eleventh HOPE emphasized the theme of “taking it to eleven” from the cult classic Spinal Tap. Renowned author Cory Doctorow was our keynote speaker and participants included the usual band of hackers with talks and workshops on new, ancient, and theoretical technology.
2018
Unknown to us at the time, but The Circle of HOPE would be the last ever HOPE conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Subtitled “A Hacker’s Dozen,” this was our 12th conference, and part of that meant recognizing 12 distinct types of hackers that helped to make up our community (detailed on our website). Among the many speakers was government whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
2020
We had already planned to have HOPE 2020 in a new venue, due to skyrocketing hotel costs. But COVID made any venue impossible. So instead of a three-day, three-track, in-person event, we decided to have a nine-day, one-track, virtual event. It was exactly what we all needed and it worked incredibly well. It also created a virtual aspect of the conference that continues into the present. Our nine keynote speakers were Libby Liu, Flavio Aggio, Idalin Bobé, Tiffany Rad, Yeshimabeit Milner, Jaron Lanier, Cindy Cohn, Cory Doctorow, and Richard Thieme, each of whom represented a unique and essential part of the hacker community.
2022
A New HOPE ushered in a new era at our new home: St. John’s University in Queens, a borough of New York City known for its diversity and liveliness. Newness was the theme. Unlike the hotel, which had not survived COVID and was in the process of being demolished, the university provided a very supportive environment with a whole lot of space and excellent infrastructure. Facebook whistleblower Sophie Zhang gave our keynote and we all began to realize the potential of this new location.
2024
And now the future awaits as HOPE XV comes into existence. Help us write the next chapter...
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