> des moines, ia · verified oct 22, 2026
Iowa
SecDSM meets on the first Thursday of each month in West Des Moines and is the main open, free security meetup in the area. ISSA Des Moines holds quarterly lunch meetings downtown, the ISACA Iowa Chapter meets in the western suburbs, and BSides DSM runs a one-day conference in Ankeny each June. Iowa State University in Ames hosts a weekly student hacking club and a state cybersecurity conference on October 22, 2026.
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Thu, Nov 5, 2026 · Doors at 6:00 p.m.; talks from 7:00 p.m.
T12 Distillery, 111 S 11th St, Suite 100, West Des Moines · Metro area
Talk: Andrew Ware on stolen authentication material and privilege escalation (Tokens, Tickets, & Thievery). The site says no registration is required and the meetup is free.
ConfirmedMeetupFree
Thu, Dec 3, 2026 · Doors at 6:00 p.m.; talks from 7:00 p.m.
T12 Distillery, 111 S 11th St, Suite 100, West Des Moines · Metro area
Talks: Craig Leabhart on Excel tips and Jacob Schubert on a DIY Flipper Zero. The site says no registration is required and the meetup is free.
ConfirmedMeetupFree
Thu, Jan 7, 2027 · 6:00 p.m.
T12 Distillery, 111 S 11th St, Suite 100, West Des Moines · Metro area
Per published schedule; confirm with organizer.
MeetingFree
Thu, Feb 4, 2027 · 6:00 p.m.
T12 Distillery, 111 S 11th St, Suite 100, West Des Moines · Metro area
Per published schedule; confirm with organizer.
MeetingFree
Thu, Mar 4 to Fri, Mar 5, 2027 · Pre-conference training March 2 and 3, 2027
Hilton Omaha (downtown), Omaha, Nebraska · Regional
Community hacker conference in Omaha, about two hours west of Des Moines, with talks, villages and training. Registration is paid (one example price on the site is $370 for a ticket with a workshop); children under 14 attend free with a paid adult. The organizer site loads its content by script, so dates were read from its script bundle. Also listed on the Omaha page.
ConfirmedConferencePaid
Thu, Mar 4, 2027 · 6:00 p.m.
T12 Distillery, 111 S 11th St, Suite 100, West Des Moines · Metro area
Per published schedule; confirm with organizer.
MeetingFree
Thu, Apr 1, 2027 · 6:00 p.m.
T12 Distillery, 111 S 11th St, Suite 100, West Des Moines · Metro area
Per published schedule; confirm with organizer.
MeetingFree
Announced without a date, or expected from past editions. Not confirmed.
Held in June in Ankeny (June 7, 2025 and June 13, 2026); 2027 date not yet announced
Ankeny · Metro area
ExpectedConferencePaid
The 2026 edition was March 31, 2026 in Coralville; 2027 date not yet announced
Hyatt Regency Coralville Hotel & Conference Center, Coralville · Regional
ExpectedConferenceFreeVendor-hosted
Held in Des Moines every year from 2019 to 2025, the last time on September 25, 2025; FutureCon has posted no Des Moines date for 2026 or 2027
Des Moines
ExpectedConferencePaidVendor-hosted
Held in mid-May at the West Des Moines Sheraton (CyberCon XI was May 13 to 14, 2026); 2027 dates not yet announced
Sheraton West Des Moines · Metro area
ExpectedSummitPaid
Held each September; the 2026 edition was September 9 at The Meadows Events Center, Altoona. 2027 date not yet announced
Altoona · Metro area
ExpectedConferenceFreeVendor-hosted
Clive and Johnston · Metro area
Monthly board lunch meetings that members may attend, plus an annual meeting, seminars and socials
IT audit, governance and security chapter. The 2026 annual meeting was held May 21, 2026 at Escapology in Clive with 1.0 CPE. The chapter also runs a spring seminar with IIA Central Iowa (May 14, 2026) and joint events with ISACA Nebraska. A members-only board lunch was scheduled for October 9, 2026 in Johnston and a LeadHERship Series day for June 25, 2026; neither is counted as activity because the chapter's pages do not report on them. No later event is posted.
Members only
Principal Financial Group, downtown Des Moines · In the city
Quarterly lunch meetings at 11:30 a.m., usually at Principal Financial Group downtown; registration requested
Meetings include a free lunch and CEU credit. The chapter also holds coffee meetups open to non-members, a spring career panel for DMACC IT students (March 30, 2026) and a January holiday social with DevOpsDSM and InfraGard Iowa (January 29, 2026, Smash Park, West Des Moines). The September 29, 2026 quarterly meeting is counted as held because the chapter and Eventbrite pages still list it with no cancellation, but neither page reports on the meeting itself. No later meeting is posted.
Free
T12 Distillery, 111 S 11th St, Suite 100, West Des Moines · Metro area
First Thursday of the month, doors at 6:00 p.m., T12 Distillery, West Des Moines
Nonprofit monthly meetup running since February 2016. No registration or dues; talks, demos and tool notes. Its Meetup group is named Iowa InfoSec, which lists the October 1, 2026 Halloween meeting as past. The site lists meetings on November 5 and December 3, 2026 and January 7 and February 4, 2027 (the January and February agendas are not yet filled in).
Free
Des Moines (statewide chapter) · In the city
Irregular; members-alliance meetings and joint events are announced to members
FBI and private-sector partnership; membership requires an application and vetting. The chapter site posts no events. The most recent dated activity is the January 29, 2026 holiday social it co-hosted with ISSA Des Moines and DevOpsDSM; the last dated chapter meeting found was February 14, 2025 in Des Moines (listed by Safeguard Iowa Partnership).
Quiet: last activity Jan 2026Vetting required
DMACC Ankeny campus · Metro area
Meeting times change each semester
Student club at DMACC, a CAE school. Meetings open with a short news segment followed by CTFs, tabletop exercises, lock picking or talks. The club's last dated activity is the digital-footprint and OSINT sessions at DMACC Ankeny on April 7 and 8, 2026, where DMACC called it the DMACC Cybersecurity Club; that DMACC page has since been replaced with a 2027 notice, and no fall 2026 meeting is posted.
Quiet: last activity Apr 2026Students only
1011 Coover Hall, Iowa State University, Ames · Metro area
Weekly Wednesday evening meetings during the semester, 1011 Coover Hall, Ames
Student club, formerly the Information Assurance Student Group, part of Iowa State's Center for Cybersecurity Innovation & Outreach. The fall 2026 orientation meeting was announced for September 9, 2026 and the club's page lists weekly Wednesday meetings through October 7, 2026; the page does not report on any meeting after it was posted, so September 9 is the last date used. Start times vary between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m.
Students only
DMACC Ankeny campus · Metro area
One-day conference each June
Nonprofit community conference first held June 7, 2025. The 2026 edition was Saturday, June 13, 2026 at the FFA Enrichment Center, 1055 SW Prairie Trail Pkwy, Ankeny.
Paid
Lean Techniques, 9131 Northpark Drive, Johnston · Metro area
Irregular evening meetups, about every two months
Adjacent: a general AWS cloud user group, not security-focused. The most recent meetup was a Strands agent workshop on June 24, 2026. Meetup lists a virtual get-together on November 10, 2026 and a re:Invent recap on January 12, 2027; neither is security-specific.
Free
Numbered references for the listings on this page.