Black Hat + DEF CON Las Vegas: A Workspace Guide for Security Pros

Hacker Summer Camp turns Las Vegas into the busiest week of the year for the security industry every August, when Black Hat USA and DEF CON land back-to-back and the city fills with researchers, vendors, red-teamers, and CISOs. Between the briefings, the show floor, and the parties, finding a quiet, secure place to actually work becomes its own challenge.

If you are exhibiting, demoing, taking client calls, or just need somewhere to read a contract without 80 dB of hallway noise, you need a workspace that is off the conference floor and off the Strip. Muze Office is at 6860 Bermuda Rd, Suite 200, in the Paradise area near Harry Reid International Airport — close to both convention venues, with free parking, fast WiFi, phone booths, and private rooms with doors that actually close.

When are Black Hat USA and DEF CON 2026?

Both events run in early August, as they do most years. For 2026 specifically:

• Black Hat USA 2026 runs August 1–6 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on the south end of the Strip, with Trainings August 1–4, the Business Hall August 4–6, and the Briefings August 5–6 (blackhat.com/us-26).
• DEF CON 34 runs August 6–9 at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) West Hall (defcon.org).

The overlap on August 6 is exactly when the city is most crammed — Black Hat is wrapping up while DEF CON is spinning up, and hotel lobbies, coffee shops, and convention work lounges are at capacity.

Why security pros need off-site workspace during Hacker Summer Camp

The conference floor is for talks, demos, and hallway-con. The actual work — closing deals, briefing clients, reviewing findings, prepping the next demo — happens somewhere quieter. During Black Hat and DEF CON, that work has specific requirements:

• Private client and sales calls. Black Hat's Business Hall runs August 4–6, 2026, with 400+ security vendors packed onto the floor — every meeting there happens in the open, over show-floor noise, with competitors and buyers walking past. A booth or a hotel-bar table is not where you discuss a prospect's environment, pricing, or an active engagement. You need a flat-rate room with a door, off the show floor.
• Demos and POCs that need a clean network. Conference WiFi is famously hostile — DEF CON's network is practically a sport. If you are demoing a product or running a proof of concept for a buyer, you want a controlled environment and reliable upload speeds, not the most attacked network on earth.
• Confidential reviews. Reading a contract, drafting a disclosure, or going over a pen-test report is not something to do over someone's shoulder in a packed lobby.
• Hackathon and CTF war rooms. DEF CON 34 runs hands-on capture-the-flag and hacking competitions inside dozens of its roughly 30 villages — AI Village, Recon Village, and Car Hacking Village among them — and the LVCC West Hall itself provides no team workspace or quiet rooms to prep in. Competing teams want a private room for the full day: laptops out and the door closed before the clock starts, then the same room to regroup and debrief once judging wraps. Venue marketplaces like Peerspace list Las Vegas hackathon spaces at roughly $63/hour on average — a flat-rate meeting room off the convention floor covers the same need with less scrambling. The same demand applies to exhibiting crews and research teams who want four to ten people to sync on booth coverage or prep tomorrow's session without shouting.
• Press and podcast coverage. Black Hat's media rules restrict recording of attendee interviews to a sponsor's designated booth, so reporters, analysts, and PR teams running a podcast or video interview series around the show need recording space off-site instead. Muze Office has a soundproof room built for exactly that, with mics and AV already set up — see our guide to podcasting rooms in Las Vegas for what's included. It books by the hour, the same as our other meeting rooms, so a single interview slot does not require a full-day rate.

The talent crunch behind all this is real: the 2024 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study put the global cybersecurity workforce gap at roughly 4.8 million unfilled positions (isc2.org), which is a big part of why these two weeks of recruiting, selling, and deal-making matter so much to the industry. Every hour you can actually work counts.

What Muze Office offers during Black Hat and DEF CON week

Muze Office is a professional, off-Strip workspace — not a hotel business center and not a hotel lobby. Here is what fits the security crowd best:

Day Pass — from $25. A real desk with high-speed WiFi, coffee, free parking, and private phone booths for calls or quick recordings. No membership and no long-term commitment — pay for the days you are in town.

Meeting rooms by the hour — huddle rooms from $25/hr. Book a huddle room for a one-on-one buyer demo or a quick vendor sync, or step up to a larger room for team debriefs and negotiations. Every room includes AV and video conferencing, so you can pull in a teammate who could not make the trip. Hackathon and CTF teams book the same rooms as a private war room for the day — in before your village opens, door closed while you work the challenge, and back in that evening to debrief.

Private offices by the day. If you want a lockable base of operations for the week — somewhere to stage gear, run back-to-back client meetings, and leave your laptop while you grab lunch — a private office for one to ten people gives your team a home away from the show floor. Memberships are month-to-month, so there is no long-term lease to sign for a one-week need.

Conference rooms for bigger sessions. Briefing a group of stakeholders, running a roundtable, or hosting a small partner meeting away from the noise? Larger conference rooms with full AV handle it.

On-site you also get biometric 24/7 access for members, printing, and the Muze Cafe for hot meals so you are not fighting Strip restaurant lines between meetings.

Getting to Muze Office from both venues

Muze Office is well-placed for Hacker Summer Camp because it sits between the airport and the south Strip, away from the worst convention congestion.

• From Mandalay Bay (Black Hat): about 10 minutes by car. Mandalay Bay anchors the south end of the Strip, and Muze Office is just east toward the I-15/I-215 corridor.
• From the LVCC (DEF CON): about 15 minutes via I-15 S to I-215 W, exit at Bermuda Rd. LVCC traffic during a major show is heavy, so leave a little buffer.
• From the airport: about 10 minutes via I-215. If you are flying in for the week, you can drop bags and start working before you even check into a hotel.
• Parking: always free at Muze Office — no meters, no valet, no convention surcharge. During Hacker Summer Camp, Strip and convention parking fill early and run $20–40+, so free parking minutes from your venue is a genuine advantage.

Book your Black Hat and DEF CON workspace

Hacker Summer Camp lands every August, and the quiet workspaces book up first. Reserve meeting rooms in advance for show week; day passes can usually be booked online same-day, but the first week of August is the busiest of the year in Las Vegas, so earlier is safer.

Grab a day pass for desk time and phone booths, or explore convention coworking options for the full week. Need a private room? Reserve a meeting room or book a tour so your team has a quiet, secure place to actually get work done between the briefings.