Each year, the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) puts on a really good event in North America; the CACS Conference. This year’s conference (2019) was held at the Anaheim Convention Center from May 13 – 15. Read the conference brochure here.
This was my first time attending this conference. ISACA put on a great event in my opinion. Kudos to them and the 1,500 or so who were in attendance.
I was there for two primary reasons; to give my talk and to sign copies of my book at the SecurityStudio booth. Turned out there was a third reason that might have been more important than my original two; to meet a bunch of really cool people! The coolest of which were my wife, Kevin Orth, and Skylar Wickland (representing SecurityStudio).
The Talk
So, my talk was the first talk of the entire conference, in the Innovation Exchange.
Some Evan Drama
My talk was slated to start at 7:20am, but I thought it was supposed to start at 7:00am. I looked at the stage, looked around, and there wasn’t anyone there! Hell no. I’m not going to stand on a stage in an open space in the middle of all the vendor booths and talk to no one. I went over to the SecurityStudio booth, where my people were hanging out, and told them I was going to skip my talk. They were OK with that.
At 7:10am, one of the event organizers stopped by looking for me. She asked if I was ready to talk, and I told her that I was thinking about skipping my talk because there wasn’t anyone there. She said “What are you talking about? The place is packed, and we’re ready for you!” Turned out she was right, and the place was busy. ~100 people were there to hear my spiel (I mean “talk”).
What’s the most exciting thing to talk about on Monday morning, first thing? How about third-party information security risk management?! Maybe not, but there were plenty of people there and most were nodding their heads.
My talk was titled “Why?”. You can download a PDF copy – ISASC_CACS-WHY050719-FINAL-v2.
Book Signing
After giving my talk, people stood in line to get a free signed copy of my book. That was pretty cool.
Just when I thought I was done signing, the event organizers announced the book signing on the conference PA system. This brought a bunch more people. We only brought 150 copies of the Unsecurity book, and they all found new homes.
Cool People
My favorite part of the conference, by far, was meeting really cool people. This is usually my favorite part of conferences. When people came to get a book, I’d ask them two questions. 1) Where are you from, and 2) What do you do? I met some amazing people from Nigeria, Colombia, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and all over the United States.
Overall, it was a very good conference. It was also a great way to start a new week.
