It’s been a minute since my last post. I’ve been running around to a few of the last conferences I’ll be attending this year. I was offered the opportunity to sit on a panel in Cincinnati at CDO Magazine’s Cybersecurity Summit. Our topic was Securing the Future: AI-Driven Data Governance and Protection. While more than happy to share insights, what sold this conference for me was the location….a Great Wolf Lodge. A Great Wolf Lodge is a giant indoor waterpark for families. So, I loaded up the whole family and drove out. It’s a bit of an ironic place. Themed in outdoor woodlands and with fun little creatures like wolves, bears, and raccoons all around, you never actually go outside. By day two I started to feel trapped inside with artificial sunlight and recycled air. Many of the visitors likely had never ventured out into the woods, lol. I was happy when we were able to hit the road back to the real outdoors.
What matters is the kids had a good time. It was definitely a challenge to juggle three kids in a giant waterpark, but I’m glad we had the opportunity. I even had one of the kids sit in on the panel. Granted, she didn’t listen to any of it, but I got to use her for a couple laughs from the crowd.
Next up, after arriving home from Cincinnati, I left the following day for Scottsdale, Arizona. This was for a unique, invite only conference called Innovate. They limit attendees to around 130 and their unique take on the conference is to do what is called a Reverse Expo. The CISOs all get a table and for 90 minutes, vendors can come pitch to the CISOs in 5-minute blocks. It was daunting, but also kind of exciting. You get to hear a lot of pitches quickly and if they are a fit, setup a meeting time. If not a fit, they just move on. It served it’s purpose. Besides that, the conference had many excellent presentations, giveaways, and the best part, the conference paid for the flight and hotel. You were herded to each event quickly and there were practically no breaks, which made for really long days, but they did try to provide you with lots of content so you weren’t wasting your time. I’d say this was the best conference of the year. One of the best I’ve ever attended and will definitely be going back.
