I agree, we should all have a Hak5 party/meetup! It will be a great chance to interact with the hak5 community!!!
Also, I just met my companies VP, and talked to him about DEFCON and how it would advance my knowledge, which is true, he said, "I'll pay for your trip to DEFCON, yeah, I'll pay for one conference a year, if the economy was better I'd pay for more, but one a year should be ok, right?"
I loved the comment my friend said after finding that out. His qoute was, "Great job with the social engineering!" I laughed hard. I am rather charming =P.