Auscert 2010

So much for blogging once a week! Work has been totally hectic and unfortunately I've got a bunch of cool projects that have been bumped to the backburner. However I'm not complaining because I've just back from my first conference which was the security focused AusCert 2010. If I had to summarize in one word... awesome!!

But for those who want more details

So not having been to one of these before I wasn't sure what to expect. It was held on the beautiful Gold Coast at the lavish Royal Pines Resort. The basic idea was a number of speaking sessions to attend per day combined with vendors detailing their wares. Most sessions overlapped and you generally had a choice of about 4 different topics to attend each hour. The speakers spoke to varying subjects and I was determined to take a few notes to share things with colleagues. Interestingly I thought I'd rate my level of interest in speakers also and found that after each session I was writing "this was the best so far!".

For me the standouts were Roger Dingledine (Tor Project), Marcus Rannum (Tennable Network Security), Crispin Cowan (Microsoft) and Scott McIntyre (XS4ALL). These guys were passionate about their projects and terrific speakers. That's not to say that I agreed with everything they said but they really made me think. These guys were just a few of many great presentations. There were a couple of snoozers for me but to be fair these might have been more suitable to someone else.

The venue was beautiful, the conference was very well run with free wifi, food and coffee on tap, and I learned heaps. If I got the chance to go again I do it in heartbeat. Possibly next time I'd spend some more time networking with some of the other like minded people there. I was surprised to see so many 'booth babes' at a nerd fest like this. To paraphrase Marcus Rannum, its hard to imagine people being influenced to buy security hardware and software by scantily clad young women. Not that I'm complaining.

If you ever get the opportunity to get there, I couldn't recommend it more highly particularly if the speakers are as great as the ones I heard.