Unauthorized and Brief Guide to RSA Conference San Francisco 2020

RSA Conference San Francisco 2020 takes place February 24 – 28 in San Francisco at Moscone Center! The show must go on!

The Moscone Center is located at 747 Howard St., San Francisco, CA 94103. Attendance is projected to be around 42k https://www.rsaconference.com/usa

Moscone Trivia

The democratic convention was held in 1984 there. Before being built, it was a $5/day parking lot. Dreamforce is held at Moscone each year. Until last year, Oracle world was typically held there. (moving to Vegas in 2021). Macworld was held at Moscone for years.

Passes

You can get an expo only pass for $0 from some vendors (google something like “free rsa 2000 expo pass”) $395 for an Expo Plus Pass $2595 for a full expo pass. Typically, the code will be about 8 characters, begin with an X and have some condensed version of the firm’s name. Get it soon! Free will not be available at the event.

RSA Hours  https://www.rsaconference.com/usa/agenda

Registration starts Saturday

Tutorials are Sunday and Monday

Keynotes begin Tuesday (Full conference and Expo plus pass holders)

Registration typically starts at 7 (6:30 on Tuesday)

Sessions will typically start each day at 8:00

If you’re a full pass holder, don’t forget the continental breakfast at Moscone West. RSA After Hours on Thursday evening is limited to full pass holders 

Expo

Welcome Reception Monday, Feb 24 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM

Tuesday, Feb 25 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Wednesday, Feb 26 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Expo Pub Crawl Wednesday, Feb 26 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM

To view which vendors are involved (about 25) https://www.rsaconference.com/usa/agenda/pub-crawl-2

Thursday, Feb 27 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Closing keynote is 12:30 on Friday It includes Penn & Teller!

“Security Yearbook 2020”. - Just Released

Author Richard Stiennon will be autographing and be giving out copies of his latest book (released on Valentine’s Day) of “Security Yearbook 2020, a History and Directory of the IT Security Industry ”. Among his other books are "Up and to the Right" and "Secure Cloud Transformation".

Spirent Communications, the trusted provider of test, measurement, assurance, and analytics solutions for next-generation devices and networks will be hosting Stiennon in Booth North #5579 on the RSA Expo show floor to sign books February 25 and 26 at 1:00 PM. 

Kudos to the RSA people for letting Expo pass holders attend the Expo every day of the show. Another show which will not be named, limits the free pass holders to the last couple of days of the event. Or maybe I was having a dream......

Some practical stuff

Target is on the same block on 4th for any purchases. There’s a Target both inside Target and across the street. For things to much on Trader Joes is at 10, 4th street, a couple of blocks from Moscone. Consider bringing hand sanitizer with you. Stations will be all over the event.

Trader Joes is just a few blocks away on 4th Street, towards Market. You can load up on energy bars, fruit, etc. It's the home of Two Buck Chuck!

Sessions

Sign up for sessions early (full pass). RSA makes it easy to do. Some will fill up. 

• Analytics Intelligence & Response
• Anti-Fraud
• Applied Crypto & Blockchain
• Business Perspectives
• Cloud Security & Virtualization
• Cryptography
• C-Suite View
• DevSecOps & Application Security
• Hackers & Threats
• Human Element
• Identity
• Innovation & Startups
• Law
• Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
• Mobile & IoT Security
• Open Source Tools
• Policy & Government
• Privacy
• Product Security
• Professional Development & Personnel Management
• Protecting Data & the Supply Chain Ecosystem
• Risk Management & Governance
• Security Strategy & Architecture
• Technology Infrastructure & Operations

RSA Conference sessions are grouped into 24 topics and tracks to make it easier(?) for you to decide what to attend.

Use RSA’s tools to build your agenda and list of favorite vendors. You may want to consider putting the vendors you have/want to visit on a two column spreadsheet and sorting by booth number .https://www.rsaconference.com/usa/agenda

Session Viewing Point

Can’t make it to a session of interest? Visit Moscone West Level 2, Room 2004. You choose from up to eight different sessions to watch on a large screen. Provided headphones allow you to hear only the session you want.

Gathering Information at the Event

DO some research before the show.

Get contact information. It could be one of the PM’s, PMM’s, developers, or a salesperson.

700 vendors with the Expo Hall open 23 hours. That comes out to 1.97 minutes per vendor, hence the need to do some planning.

After going through the show’s tools and compiling a list of who you want to visit, you may want to turn on your excel skills and do a sort by row number to prevent having to zig zag around.

If the info is on their website, why carry it around? That said, collect the other info or perhaps Wiley books, or autographed copies of books for the informative, cool factor.

If you’re serious about trying to get information for a purchase decision:

Play “He said, she said” with the vendors. Don’t be surprised if you get an “I don’t know, I’ll have to get back to you” or “I’d like to focus on how our solutions help your company on its journey"

Tell me a brief story on how you product will help my company.

If I license xx from your company, what could I replace in my network?

If you left for another company, and were told that your current company’s product wasn’t an option, what you would you recommend.

Are there other company’s components under the hood?

What’s the licensing structure?

My company is in the ddd space. Can you name a customer using your product?

See who they consider their major competitors. If they say, "We have no competitors", look at them haughtily and say, "Gartner says that everyone has competitors".

If they say that they're in one of Gartner's Magic Quadrants, see if they'll send you a copy.

See if they’ll provide you any knock offs on vendors you’re considering.

Note – Many of the booth presentations are by a hired speaker and aren’t an employee. They may not be the person to chat with in detail.

There’s nothing illegal with taking pics of the slides during a presentation.

Hints for Competitive Intel

Nothing says, “I work for a competitor” than going to their booth with your badge turned around. Get a free pass to wear.

Swag

Positioning is everything - Sit near the back and sides for swag collecting for a quick escape. Up front if you want to ask the speaker questions or if there’s going to be a quiz for the big prize. Find out whether the presenter is an employee or a hired gun (the former can give much better answers)

If you’re serious about this, "he/she who collects the most toys wins". Seriously though, how many tee shirts, pairs of socks, light sabers, etc, do you need? Go to my post -

“Black Hat 2019 Las Vegas - Zen and the Art of the Tchotchke “ 

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/rsa-2019-san-francisco-zen-art-tchotchke-craig-kensek/

Parties

I used to list these. Not going to do it anymore. Register! In general, Tuesday and Wednesday evening are the party nights.

Where are the business centers located?

Business Centers are located in each building: Moscone South: Lower Level, adjacent to the entrance of Hall C Moscone North: Lower Level, under escalators, adjacent to Room 130 Moscone West: Lobby Level, near the Howard Street Entrance

About the Coronavirus

https://www.rsaconference.com/novel-coronavirus-update

RSA Conference has also added several new health and safety measures for the event including:

·        Disinfecting registration counters and floors continuously throughout the day.

·        Offering disinfectant wipes at all check-in counters, in each session room for the speaker computers and microphones.

·        Adding hand sanitization stations and disinfectant wipes near each touch screen interactive campus map and wayfinding station.

·        Shuttle buses will be:

·        Adding hand sanitizer pumps on every bus.

·        Distributing sanitizing wipes at the shuttle information desk in the Moscone Center.

·        Wiping down all shuttle bus arm rests (four times per day)

Anything Else?

I’ll be adding my recommendations for sessions, either here or on a part II, in less than week.

I’ll also add a “cone of shame” section during the event where people can comment on and add the most atrocious spelling, grammatical errors, absences of hyphens, that they spot on the booth. Proofreading when you spend $$$ on a booth is a good thing.