Monday At The RSA…

(Warning, I am writing my posts in Notepad2 and will not be including hyperlinks until I have a better connection–The latency kills Wordpress and my posts.)

Today was definitely a good day to be a network security gangsta.

To be honest, it started really slow.  The morning was focused on the pre-conference tutorials, which, as cool as they are, I could not swing on my budget, and registration.  I spent a lot of time waiting and actually came back to the hotel for a couple hours.

I spent the afternoon in a few sessions hosted by the Trusted Computer Group focused on, dare I say, Trusted Computing.  I spent time with Network Access Protection and Hard Drive encryption.  Both very cool technologies.

The rest of the afternoon I spent anxiously awaiting the opening of the Expo floor, where all of the vendors (345+) had setup shop to provide information about their products, solutions, etc and to give away “booth bling.”  I want to state for the record that yes, there’s such a thing as too much schwag… =(

I did learn a few things on my journey today:

- Wear comfy shoes…the pair I have on works great I just need insoles
- If someone asks “Did you read this book?” and you didn’t just say “No, but it’s on my list.”  Thankfully I got away with it because I met the author of the Cisco Press CS-Mars books.
- Having your booth location near the beer is good and bad
- Carry business cards…I only have about 20 and I’m giving out like mad
- Carry your booth bling in a competitors bag…good conversation starter

One vendor, IronPoint, was giving away engraved poker chip sets.  To win you just had to play Texas Hold ‘Em and get a straight or a flush.  I went home with a pack of free cards.  No poker set for me.  I had to fold on the flip, I had crap for cards.

I also met the guys (and gals) from Splunk.  The coolest shirt ever.  I’m posting pics when I get back.  It involves ninjas…

There are a lot of good products out there.  RSA is really a great time to get a view of what is on the market and which products compliment each other.  I’m going to spend another hour or two at the Expo again tomorrow and Wednesday.  (Tonight was a special event for the Full Conference attendee’s.)

Other than that I am planning to get a good night of rest.  The morning is full of keynote speeches, starting with Mr. Bill Gates at 8:00 AM sharp.  There are other keynote speeches until almost noon, and then it’s time for learning.