hideouspenguin
TProphetDEF CON is the kind of place where if you show up with an idea and you're willing to put in the work, they make a space and let you try it out. That's how we started @queercon. We were kicking the idea around the Alexis Park pool, and DJ Keith Myers said if we found a space he would play. So I asked @thedarktangent if @defcon would give us a space. He gave us a room, the Goons made that space safe (which was very much needed back then) and the rest is history. We dreamed it, and DEF CON created a space for us to do it, sometimes profoundly changing the lives of the thousands of people it continues to touch (and for which I take absolutely no credit; I'm only a founder emeritus these days).
The first @telechallenge started as the Telephreak BBS Challenge. I built a puzzle that strung together a challenge on a floppy disk with an actual phone based BBS (super old-school, the one I ran in high school and still full of messages and warez from back then) that could only be reached by dialing a local room extension at the Alexis Park. Getting the extension required a live social engineering challenge.
You could get a floppy disk from me if you were under 25 and it was your first @defcon. I just made the game and did it, with the help of @rixon who donated space in his room. I wasn't even thinking of it as a contest. More for fun, a way to see if anyone could solve it, and a way to meet smart people we could invite to the Telephreak party.
Grifter noticed. He made the case with @thedarktangent that a young couple who came to their first DEF CON and spent it solving an epic puzzle should get a black badge. They did, and they also got a coveted Telephreak party invitation.
itgrrl 
Falcon Darkstar
BrBr.Prime