Hello everyone I hope all is well with you.
I decided to go to Infosec the computer security show's 15th anniversary at Earls court London.
The last time I went was a couple of years ago and it was at Olympia.
I don't know how many more shows will be here as it is rumoured that Earls Court Exhibition Centre will be demolished in the next couple of years, maybe it will move to Expo.
Well things are a bit different, for a start it didn't have so much of the usual razzmatazz and a few of the big names were absent i.e. IBM, Microsoft and AVG to name but a few, but heh there is / was a recession.
The show seemed mainly orientated towards "Cloud" security.
The place was half full with exhibitors the other empty half curtained off, and quite a few people said it was a lot smaller than last year.
But...the staff were really helpful and friendly (Hello to the big Boss security guy that was keeping things in check :-) and hello to the Press room people (Hi Neal) and the helpful lady behind the desk.
And last but not least a big hello to the lovely young lady dishing out the coffee and food in the press room, thanks for the cake :-)
well it was my 50th birthday...
Everywhere I went there were people coming up to say hello and asking were I had been for the last couple of shows, it's nice to be missed :-)
Hi to all the guys and girl from London 2600 that turned up, and special thanks to Zap for the drinks on the way home on my birthday, I hope the sofa wasn't to uncomfortable :-) and Hi to Stan, long time no see, SA is rather a long way away.
I had one weird moment where a person came up and was convinced I tried to nick a Citroen badge off him last year and he was adamant it was me ??? I tried to explain first of all I wasn't there and that as I call these vehicles Shitrons for good reasons why would I want his badge? Then he just wandered of with his mates, chuntering to whoever wanted to listen.
The after party was a bit toned down compared to previous events but there was a guy doing green screen backdrop photos with a choice of backgrounds the most popular was the one below, apart from the booze he was the best thing there, there was also a band but it couldn't be heard from where I was so can't comment on their performance.
The unofficial place found for smoking was outside the emergency exits but when we went back a second time they were padlocked from outside so we decided to smoke where we were being we were surrounded by concrete when this big voice boomed out that we were breaking the law by smoking where we were, immediately followed by me shouting back "not as much as you lot locking the emergency doors with people still on site" a short silence later the voice came back with, ok follow me you can smoke out here and took us to a different fire exit :-)
Now the bit you've all been waiting for...The freebies...
Tshirts
www.Qualys.com
www.Splunk.com
www.Netflowninjas.lancope.com
www.eccouncil.org X 2
www.toplayer.com
Codenomicon defensics (a very sought after "T" as they were not
giving them out unless you signed on the dotted line)
www.codenomicon.com
2 nice Glass beer tankards and lots of Grolsch from www.Qualys.com
5 glasses of Champagne from Cisco's garden party. www.cisco.com
2 x 8Gb stainless key shaped storage drives from The Press Office
2Gb Encrypted Safestick from www.blockmastersecurity.com
Various small usb storage keys from different vendors.
Laptop bag from www.messagelabs.com
Baseball cap and notepad from Application security,inc.
www.appsecinc.com
And from www.gdatasoftware.co.uk two packages one called Internet
security for netbooks 2010 and the other Notebook security special protection with a kensington style lock with it.
A £15.00 I tunes voucher from Veritysystems.co.uk
A pair of water pistols in NAMCO colours.
And finally a magnetic red tin of sticky plasters which I needed after opening the tin thanks www.secunia.com
The last day saw me in the pub with Peter Wood and crew from www.firstbase.co.uk
Peter has known me for a fair while and introduced me to loads of people whilst telling them they could learn a lot from me :-)
Cheers Dude.
All and all a good time was had and I am looking forward to next year.
And on a last note following me blagging bits and pieces and then saying can I have one too ? after I did all the persuading worked this time, but next time ????? :-)))
Bye for now
Thanks for dropping in
Yours
The Reverend Rat +:-)
