Halifax BSides

We’re excited to announce that the Call for Papers (CFP) for Halifax BSides 2026 is opening the morning of September 12 and will run until October 18, 2026.

Halifax BSides is a community-driven technology and information security conference held annually in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

While security will always be a big part of BSides, we also know that some of the most interesting ideas happen where security, technology, hardware, software, privacy, infrastructure, radio, AI, and good old-fashioned tinkering overlap. This year, we’re opening the CFP a little wider.

If you have something interesting, technical, weird, useful, educational, experimental, or just plain cool that you think our community would enjoy hearing about, we want to hear from you.

Your talk could be a technical deep dive, a case study, original research, a project you built, lessons learned from something that went horribly wrong, a new tool or technique, or an introduction to a technology you think more people should know about.

You don’t have to be a security professional to submit.

Details

• Location: Dalhousie University, Faculty of Computer Science – Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Conference Date: Thursday, November 12, 2026
• CFP Open: September 12 – October 18, 2026
• Speaker Announcements: Late October 2026

Halifax BSides is a place for both new and experienced speakers to share what they know, learn from each other, and connect with the Atlantic Canadian tech and security community.

What kind of talks are we looking for?

Information security topics are always welcome, including offensive and defensive security, incident response, malware, threat intelligence, digital forensics, privacy, OSINT, application security, cloud security, physical security, social engineering, hardware hacking, and more.

But don't feel limited to infosec.

We’d also love to see talks about things like:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Software and hardware projects
• Networking and infrastructure
• Amateur radio, SDR, RF, and wireless technology
• Electronics, embedded systems, and IoT
• Open source projects
• Homelabs and self-hosting
• Privacy and digital rights
• Automation and DevOps
• Reverse engineering
• Robotics and maker projects
• Technology research
• Interesting failures, experiments, and lessons learned
• Something cool we haven't thought of yet

If you're excited enough about a technical subject to spend some time talking about it, there’s a good chance someone at BSides will be excited to hear about it.

What is BSides Halifax?

• Halifax's favourite one-day security and technology conference
• A community-driven not-for-profit
• A proud partner of ShiftKey Labs, working together to advance the technology community in Nova Scotia
• A place to meet, learn from, and share ideas with hackers, developers, defenders, builders, researchers, students, professionals, and curious people

Who should submit a talk?

You.

Yes, you.

We especially want to hear from people who are looking at this CFP and thinking, “I’m probably not qualified to speak at a conference.”

Maybe this would be your first conference talk. Maybe you're a student. Maybe you're new to the industry. Maybe you work in an area of technology that doesn't traditionally show up at a security conference. Maybe you come from a group that has historically been underrepresented in tech or infosec.

Please submit.

Of course, experienced speakers, researchers, industry veterans, and seasoned hackers are welcome too.

The goal is simple: interesting people sharing interesting things with the community.

How do you submit a talk?

Use the submission link below to tell us about your idea!

You don't need to have every slide finished before submitting. Give us enough information to understand what you'd like to talk about, why it's interesting, and what attendees will get out of it.

We personally review every submission — no AI judging your CFP here, though we'd absolutely love to hear your talk about it.

We’ll get back to everyone as soon as possible after the CFP closes.

CFP closes October 18, 2026.

We can't wait to see what you've been working on.

Thanks!

The Halifax BSides Team