One month in and (TL)2 Security seems to be attracting a fair amount of interest which is very heartening. What I am not used to however is projects just disappearing. In my old day job, if i decided to pursue a project we got onto it and did it until it was finished or I decided to abandon it. In my new world that decision is not up to me and so a number of leads have, as is the normal course of things, just gone cold on me.

It is, to say the least, very disconcerting, and I have a new found respect for salespeople as a result. Who knew I would be uttering those words today?

That said, I am also keeping busy preparing for two big speaking engagements coming up:

One Identity UNITE Conference, April 1 – 4 2019

This is a new conference for me, and one where I am doing the closing Keynote of the main conference on Wednesday 3rd April.

A closing keynote is an interesting one to do, and I discussed this with the organisers in a preparation call; the delegates will be tired and need buoying up , the message needs too be uplifting and inspiring, and does not need to be technical or even a core message from the conference.

To that end I will be talking about trust, why it is important, how we lose it and what to do when that happens. Trust is key in IAM, not least because it is a fundamental tenet of uniquely identifying someone under the auspices of the authorising them to a system. But it also matters as we continue to gather more and more details about people in order too ascertain their identity in the first place. I opened a business bank account recently and had to take a photo of my passport to be uploaded in order to be correctly identified. I have to trust that that bank will not lose my passport details or sell them on, and if they do, what are they going to do about it?

Wednesday 3rd April: Won’t Somebody Think of the Users? – Auditorium

I am looking forward to the conference, and while it is driven by a vendor for its users the agenda looks to be very engaging across the board. Any vendor that avoids selling directly during events like this is always OK in my books!

European identity & Cloud Conference, May 14 – 17 2019

I have worked with Kuppinger Cole at this conference (and a couple of their other ones) since 2014; they put on a fantastic show with great talks, and a wide range of workshops and topics. The setup is very professional, and the staging and production vales are very high. As a speaker it is an absolute pleasure as everything is taken care of, your requests are taken seriously and they do their best to make the environment as easy as possible to work in.

In my experience, most conference organisers will focus mostly on the attendees; after all they are the ones that are playing to attend. Speakers are often bundled around, ignored until five minutes before we are required, told we have to use their Windows XP laptop with Powerpoint 2011 on it, and then quickly forgotten about.

Not so Kuppinger Cole. Given I have spoken at their conferences some five times, and enjoyed every part of it means not only do they like what I do, but I also like what they do. To be fair, they also like to get the value for money out of me so I am going to be presenting one keynote and then involved in two other talks:

Tuesday 1§4th May: Facing the Post-GDPR Reality – Auditorium

Wednesday 15th May: How Traditional IAM Will Change Within the next 5 Years – ALPSEE

Wednesday 15th May: Panel: Anonymisation and Pseudonymisation – What Is It and Why Does It Matter? – AMMERSEE I

What I also like about working with Kuppinger Cole is that these are the titles they gave me. I could change them if I really wanted, but as they stand they challenge me to create interesting content and take it in a direction i may not have originally though of.

Ultimately, what I am saying is come and see my talks as i will be delivering with a smile and from a good place (not just the stage), and in fact every speaker will be doing the same. Come and see the difference a happy speaker makes at a fabulous conference!