What took us 2 months of intense focus to bring together, is our own Singapore Community space at the inaugural DEF CON Singapore held at Marina Bay Sands from 28 to 30 April 2026. Initially ideated by Emil Tan, Div0's Co-Founder, and later accepted through DEF CON's official Call for Creators, our space comprised 2 main features.

FIRST - OUR MURAL

At which point did you join or get to know about our local cybersecurity community?

Our team put together an almost 8 metres long & 2.5 metres tall mural that lays out how Singapore's cybersecurity landscape has evolved over the years. Almost 50 years of history, stored somewhere in Emil's brain, now visualised in person at DCSG1. It showcases when each organisation or community group was first founded, and an abstract of their unique purposes and missions. We also managed to feature some photographs of our local community events, organised and hosted by Div0 and our partners.

Singapore Community Mural at DCSG1, Credits: Designer - Helen

Putting together a large design requires technical finesse and the right file types for any logos or images that go onto it. Our team spent much effort writing to each organisation, some which may or may not still exist, asking for approval and their files in the correct format. Considering that we only started work on this in end March with a print deadline by mid April… team effort truly matters in getting things done here. However…I strongly, strongly, strongly discourage anyone from trying to do the same within the same short timeframe.

On this point, I am also immensely grateful to all the partners for their prompt response, and of course their continued support to Div0 and SINCON over the years. Many kudos to our designer Helen, who spent many nights trying to put together the mural design with no prior experience, and still delivered exceedingly well. Many attendees have shared praise on how amazing it looks.

Here's an exclusive behind-the-scenes picture of how our mural started looking like:

Singapore Community Mural Draft, Credits: Brain behind the mural - Emil

Free tips & lessons learnt

In case anyone else is also planning to build a mural or some sort of physical feature board at MBS, here's a free tip for you: you must get MBS' approval for the request and submit your design plus a 3D mock-up of the space. You either submit this to your event organiser, in our case DEF CON used Kingsmen, or whoever else is designated to do this. We did not know beforehand, and had to submit this less than a week before the conference.

With all my heart and gratitude, we were lucky to meet Gabriel from Kingsmen who rushed it out for us. Gabriel, if you're reading this, thank you for working with us on this rushed assignment! You're a lifesaver and Kingsmen should reward you for this.

On this point, the other challenge for us was actually providing the 3D mock-up which our designer was not well equipped to do. I don't think this is the correct standard operating procedure but in the urgency of things, I used a free software to create a lame 3D mock-up that worked this time.

Here's another exclusive behind-the-scenes picture, of Anna's 3D render of the space:

Anna's noob 3D render of the space using free software featuring the misaligned mural design due to her absent skills

SECOND - KAMPUNG ZONE

It's not a hacker conference without some hands-on activities. Our Kampung Zone aims to enable attendees to try their hands at something they have not done before, and to learn something while attending the conference. Every table top has a designated theme, and thematic activities that attendees can be a part of. For DCSG1, we had the following kampungs:

• AI & AI Security, powered by C4AIL
• AI Guardian, powered by CRPO
• DarkNet Intelligence, powered by Stealthmole
• Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), powered by softScheck APAC
• Post Quantum, powered by PQCee
• Mobile Security, powered by Hack The Box
• Electronic Badge & Hardware, powered by Div0 BadgeLife Quarter

You can check out Div0's social media pages for more information on what each kampung did during the conference.

AI & AI Security, led by Ethan Seow, Co-Founder of C4AIL

AI Guardian, led by Liu Yong & Zhen LiangLi (not in picture), both from A*STAR

DarkNet Intelligence, led by Olivia Kim & Andrew Song, both from Stealthmole

Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), led by Victor Lim (not in picture), Regional Director at softScheck APAC Credits: Photos - softScheck team

Mobile Security, led by Grigoris, one of our mobile security enthusiasts

Post Quantum, led by Nicholas Ho & Teik Guan (not in picture), both from PQCee

Electronic Badge & Hardware, helmed by the team including Manzel (not in picture), Howard (not in picture) & Kai Credits: Photos - Zac

Uniquely Singapore - Limited Edition Electronic Badge

Credits: Artistic Design - Helen; Badge Maker - Howard, supported by Manzel

Electronic badges are essential collectibles from hacker conferences but how often do you get to be part of the team that designs (art & engineering) and builds it? Our team from the Div0 BadgeLife quarter came back on the Saturday right before DCSG1 to put together our own SG Community e-Badge that comes with 3D-printed buttons & collectible Simple Add-Ons (SAOs). This, of course, does not include the many nights that Howard has put into designing the PCB schematics, planning out where attendees can independently solder on LEDs, the hardware challenges embedded within each e-Badge & fixing faulty units on the go during the conference.

For the curious minds, Emil's inspiration for the design of this e-Badge came from the Tingkats and memorable local cuisine - Kaya Toast breakfast set, Chilli Crab and Kuehs.

Free tips & lessons learnt

It was not easy to imagine where you need your power points until much later, because the kampung leaders' decision to participate mostly comes close to the event (±1 month before). For us as the main organisers of SINCON, it was not a major challenge as we could order it closer to the event. Deciding on this as an organiser of the SG Community space was tough, because we had to inform DEF CON pretty early on, shortly after we were accepted. Again, we had to figure this out quite last minute due to the lack of experience. Nonetheless, it was a learning experience through this process, which thankfully worked out eventually.

Free tip: Place your power points in the aisles / middle so you can put a power strip and share between 2-3 tables. Costs saved because you do not need 1 per table, but do note that daisy chaining is prohibited for safety reasons.

Final exclusive behind-the-scenes picture for this article, our simple power point placement plan for the SG Community space.

Anna's hand drawn markings (red 'X') on the additional requested power points

OFFICIAL AFTERPARTY

When there's free beer, people flock in like swarms of bees.

Lessons learnt - I underestimated the amount of beer people can drink within 1-2 hours.

Free tip: Hiring MBS' barista allows you to drink to your heart's content without worrying about steady hands to pour for attendees. But they do it really fast, so the beer ran out within 1 hour instead of the 2+ hours we had planned for the afterparty. Consider this when you are deciding whether to engage this service.

(UN)OFFICIAL AFTERPARTIES

No pictures to share publicly, but get a vibe — it exists! :D

V0ID DECK TEAM & DIVISION ZERO CREW +

Last but not least, of course, I did not forget our Div0 volunteers that we could not have done without — Esther, Zac, Bhone, Fadli, Nat, Kairos, and the HackSmith team.

And our little v0id deck team that hard launched at DCSG1.

First v0id deck team picture + friends

ENDING THOUGHTS

3 conference days, 2 months to plan, and uncountable work plus off-work hours put into the design, timeline, and coordination to bring the SG Community together. Would I do it again? Not in a heartbeat, but I think it will still be a yes after some more beers and enough rest.