Canadian Security Connection

Although I was hoping to post daily updates, it just didn’t happen given my schedule and all of the sessions. So here’s a quick recap of RSA 2010.

The weather was great.. warm with a few drizzly moments.  Although I didn’t stay there, the W Hotel Lobby seemed to be the hub for conference go-ers post event.

I connected with a lot of industry colleagues… mostly familiar faces and some new. Both on the show floor and off site. Tons of business cards were exchanged - one of the  good barometers of the success of the event for me ! Having said that, the attendance seemed to lower than last year’s, but on the flip side, there seemed to more qualified/interested attendees as opposed to ‘tire kickers’ and ‘tchoki collectors’.

Here are my top highlights of the conference… in no particular order:

1.  Celebrating Canada’s gold medal victory with my fellow Canadian at Websense, our CTO Dan Hubbard – as our US counterparts marvel at the deep meaning this win had for us.

2.  General Session Panel Discussion on “Pandora’s Box: Youth on the Internet”. Given the high profile focus, the security industry is starting to see the importance age plays in our online world; and the need to provide better ways to protect children.

3.  Panel on Top Cloud Threats and and presentation on Linking Malicious Web Through Statistical Modelling

The one disappointment I did have was seeing vendors on the show floor still treating the exposition like the old days… carnival-esque – ie gimmicky attractions that gather all of the ‘tire-kickers’ and none of the relevant potential customers. Oh well, different strokes I suppose.

All in all it was a good conference with informative content and great chance to reconnect or simply connect with peers and colleagues in the industry.

See you all there next year !!

Recently got back from the XChange’09 Conference  hosted by Everything Channel. This year it was held in National Harbor , MD …what a beautiful venue for the conference. 

I landed at Reagan Airport and took what turned out to be a great ‘tour guide cab’.  We drove by the church that Geroge Washington attended… among other things, and was, as  I usually am, taken a back by the history.

The area around the hotel was very quaint, and included shops, restaurants and a marina /harbour – unfortunately(or fortunately), I spent the majority of my time indoors soaking up all of the latest and greatest  in the various sessions, and mingling with resellers and fellow technology manufacturers – including the Canadian contingency that was present there.  I stayed at the Gaylord National, and if you’ve ever stayed at a Gaylord property, this was no different in scale or level of service.

Three take aways from this conference:

It is still a great venue to connect with resellers and solution providers, if for nothing else, to get a pulse of what is going on in the trrenches

The industry is a very tight knit group and connections made here will remain, and it was good to see old colleagues and friends alike

The key to good boardroom presentations is knowing your audience and delivering the message with high energy and passion

Whether you are a solution provider or a manufacturer, I would suggest attending this event next year. It is one of my annual favourites.