{"id":81,"date":"2026-05-01T20:14:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/spawncamp\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T17:27:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T17:27:39","slug":"spawncamp","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/spawncamp\/","title":{"rendered":"SpawnCamp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SpawnCamp is back for 2026!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

SpawnCamp returns at BSides Delaware 2026, November 13\u201314 at the Fintech Innovation Hub, University of Delaware. Bring the family: there are STEM activities for kids, and SpawnCamp is a relaxed place for families to hang out during the conference. Parents and guardians must stay with their children at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is SpawnCamp?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since its debut in 2014, SpawnCamp has quickly become a popular staple of BSides Delaware. SpawnCamp encourages parents to bring their Spawn and let those Hacklings learn about programming, hardware, and how to build, break, and explore! Each year, BSidesDE works to provide a great lineup of activities, so your Spawn can have as much fun as you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oh, and a friendly reminder: We want you to be involved in their journey of exploration and learning, and to do so, we mandate<\/strong>that you remain with your child(ren) at all times<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The History of SpawnCamp<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since our inception in 2010, BSidesDE has been a family friendly conference. Parents take joy in sharing knowledge of STEM and information security concepts with their children in the relaxed setting of our conference hosted on a college campus. Some of those children have been inspired to do research and present at the conference, some are now young adults studying STEM fields in college, some eagerly wait all year to attend because it is the highlight of their year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014 SpawnCamp was born officially when we formally added registration for kids who would be dubbed Hacklings. This allowed us to survey ages to facilitate tailoring activities to the age groups we knew would be attending. Additionally, it allowed us to clearly communicate safety and supervision expectations to parents. All activities are designed for parents and children to share and work on together so they may be inspired to continue learning together at home. SpawnCamp is not designed to or adequately equipped to provide child supervision as that was never the purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fun Fact: BSides Delaware is so passionate about SpawnCamp, we couldn\u2019t help but make sure everyone knew about our mission! \u201cHackling\u201d was added to Urban Dictionary after the second year of SpawnCamp in 2015. Check it out here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SpawnCamp took a one-year break in 2025, when we were unable to admit minors to the conference, and returns in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What You Can Expect<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Each year BSides Delaware works hard to offer hacklings a variety of topics and skills to explore and learn about with interactive and guided activites, classes, and walkthroughs. Typically classes and activities explore topics such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n
  • Robotics<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Cryptography<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Privacy<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Programming<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Network game installation (Minecraft)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Electricity and circuits<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Organic power sources (potato clock)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Hardware design, dismantling and understanding components, and responsible e-waste recycling<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Logic puzzles<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Chess<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Self defense<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    We\u2019ve bought many laptops, and we typically coordinate with our venue to provide some monitors, mice, and keyboards for our Raspberry Pi users. We are bringing cases of laptops, overhead projectors, a typewriter, and other items for the kids to disassemble gleefully (Destruction Alley). We\u2019ve also arranged for the CTF to do a little teaching session for some of the older or more interested kids, so they can start learning how to \u201cstress testing\u201d the security networks and applications. (Job training can\u2019t begin too early!!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lockpick Village is always a great distraction, and it\u2019s right next door, perfect for parents and kids to enjoy! In other words, we\u2019ve got plenty of activities, all in a university setting, in a single room, so it\u2019s easy to maintain contact with your hackling, and it\u2019s a very comfortable place to be. It\u2019s going to be freaking AWESOME!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another Reminder (because it\u2019s so important): We want you to be involved in their journey of exploration and learning, and to do so, we require that you be with your child at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We hope to see you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    SpawnCamp is back for 2026! SpawnCamp returns at BSides Delaware 2026, November 13\u201314 at the Fintech Innovation Hub, University of Delaware. Bring the family: there are STEM activities for kids, and SpawnCamp is a relaxed place for families to hang out during the conference. Parents and guardians must stay with their children at all times. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-81","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455,"href":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81\/revisions\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bsidesdelaware.com\/bpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}