The problem
Generic swag doesn't move the needle at technical conferences.
Your audience is different
Black Hat and DEF CON attendees are security researchers, engineers, and practitioners. They walk past lanyards and stress balls without a second glance - but they'll stop, spend 20 minutes, and come back the next day for a compelling hardware challenge.
Engagement that converts
A badge-driven CTF keeps attendees in your booth longer, creates natural conversations with your team, and leaves them with a physical artifact tied to your brand - something they wear proudly and show to others on the floor.
What we deliver
Everything your booth needs,
built from the ground up.
We handle the full stack — PCB design, firmware, manufacturing, challenge authoring, and on-site support. You brief us on your goals; we build the experience.
01 — Badge
Custom electronic badges
Fully branded to your company — logo, colours, and messaging etched into the PCB. OLED displays, RGB LEDs, wireless connectivity, and custom artwork. A leave-behind people actually keep.
02 — CTF
CTF & puzzle experiences
Multi-stage capture-the-flag challenges built directly into the badge hardware, themed around your product's domain. Each challenge layer reinforces a concept your platform is built to solve.
03 — Contest
Booth contests & leaderboards
Competitive scoring, live leaderboards, and prize structures that drive repeat booth visits throughout the day. Your brand sits at the centre of every competition.
04 — Village
Hardware hacking villages
On-site workshops where attendees learn, solder, and hack. Workshop-in-a-booth format or standalone village — we've run these across 20+ countries and dozens of events.
05 — Domain
Domain-specific challenges
Identity attacks, threat triage simulations, code vulnerability hunts, cloud misconfiguration discovery — every challenge written to reflect the exact problem your product solves.
06 — Made
Full in-house production
No outsourced manufacturing. We own the full pipeline — schematic, layout, firmware, assembly, and QA — out of our lab in India. Tighter timelines, better quality control, no surprises.
The process
From brief to badge in weeks.
We've run this process enough times to make it efficient, even on tight conference timelines.
01 — Discover
Discovery call
We learn your booth goals, target audience, product narrative, and what success looks like for your team on the floor.
02 — Design
Concept & design
We propose a badge design and experience concept tailored to your product category. Renders and challenge prototypes before anything is manufactured.
03 — Build
Manufacturing
PCB fabrication, firmware development, assembly, and full QA — all in-house. You get updates at each milestone.
04 — Deploy
On-site support
We can be on the floor with you to run the CTF, support attendees, and make sure the activation lands exactly as intended.
Past clients
Trusted by teams who know
what their audience expects.
Security vendors, cloud platforms, and enterprise tech companies who wanted their booths to be remembered — not just visited.
"It's technical enough that you know someone technical wrote it and you need to be a bit technical to solve it but not so technical that you've lost the whole audience from trying to sound smart. I'm impressed with how well Hackerware nailed the audience level."
— Events Manager, F5
Badge gallery
Hardware you can hold,
experiences you remember.
Every badge is a fully custom PCB — artwork, firmware, and challenge logic designed specifically for the client and event.
F5
CTF & booth activation game for F5
Arcanum
Security gospel badge swag for Arcanum
Amazon
A banana-themed CTF for Amazon live event
Village
Hardware hacking village — live workshop
CTF
CTF challenge — attendee solving
Bugcrowd
Personalised award Badges for Bugcrowd
Where we've been
Built for the world's most
demanding security audiences.
If your audience attends these events, they'll recognise the craft. That recognition is half the battle won before your team says a word.
Black Hat USA
DEF CON
RSA Conference
BSidesSF
HITB Abu Dhabi
SINCON Singapore
Packet Hack Village
Red Team Village
AVTokyo
BSidesPGH
Pacific Hackers Conference
RootCon
+ 20 countries
