Recent events: ITPalooza and SecureMiami

This past week I attended a couple of events here in South Florida.

First up was the 5th ITPalooza.  A bigger event then last year, the South Florida Technology Alliance organized the event and moved it to Signature Grand, a large banquet/conference center here in the area.  The event took over the whole place, which I've never seen.  Usually I'll be there and there will be 3 or 5 other events going on.

They had a large exhibit hall with various vendors, organizations, schools, and recruiters.  Unlike past years, they didn't have the recruiters relegated to another room.  I was there helping man the South Florida ISSA booth, promoting our org.  Had several people drop by, so hope we will get more members.  We also talked with some vendors and local universities.

In addition, there where several tracks of speakers.  The CIO track was exclusive to the iCoast CIO Council, others were open to all.  Here good things about those, but missed out.

For a first time event with new people in charge, I saw good and bad.  There is always room for improvement.  They have already set the date for next year's event as December 7th, 2017.  Look forward to it.

A new event held this year was SecureMiami.  This was held in conjunction with the existing BrewMiami event at FIU.  SecureMiami was organized mainly by DigitalEra and was located at the Graham Center from 2-5pm.  There was a keynote speaker, Jack Daniels, with speakers from 3 other vendors followed by a panel discussion with several VP Infosec/CISOs.  All the speakers were good.  It seemed the bad weather in the area discouraged some from coming, but they missed out.

Afterwards most went over the BrewMiami, where we had a VIP section just for the SecureMiami folks.  Here one could sample various beers and food from local brewers and vendors.

Not sure if they will do this event again, but if so, they will have a lot of work to top this one.

ITPalooza 2016

If you're in the South Florida area, the 4th annual ITPalooza is coming up next week on Dec 8th, 2016.

This event, now sponsored by the South Florida Technology Alliance, is planned to be bigger then even and has moved to the Signature Grand.  Now an all day event of speakers and activities, there will be booth from vendors and user/professional groups and a job fair with a variety of recruiters and companies in attendance.

Full info is available at their website.  Tickets can be obtained there.  As always, you can get a free ticket if you bring 2 new unwrapped toys.

Upcoming Security Events (I plan to be at) in 2016

Well, there are several upcoming events I hope to be involved within the coming months.  Several of these I hope to have further postings to promote them, but here is a quick run down.

Upcoming Information Security Events (& Organizations) in the South Florida area

As an information security professional, it's important to stay up on the latest trends.  One great way of doing so is to attend conference and meetings and learn from your peers thru the presentations, panel discussions and just networking and chatting.

Here in the South Florida area (Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beaches) there are several opportunities for such, but sadly, too many don't take advantage of them.  Here are some to keep in mind for the coming year.

ITpalooza 2014

Here in my local area, we have an event aimed at IT people during the holidays called ITpalooza.  Now in it's third year, this event aims to bring together the various user groups and professional associations, along with vendors and recruiters, and have various speakers.

ITpalooza 2014 will be held December 4th at Nova Southeastern University.  It runs all day, with speakers, training, fun stuff and more.

Check out the website.  The event is FREE.

Getting involved locally- joining, learning, networking

So its been too long since I've posted.  Something in the back of my mind is my observations of my collegues in the IT and IT Security realm.  What has long disappointed me was how many never bothered to keep learning and being involved in the larger "community".  Other then taking some training courses, many didn't bother to keep up with what is going on in the industry- didn't read journals (either print or on-line), didn't get engaged with local groups or events or the like.

For me, I joined USENIX and SAGE when I got involved as an IT admin.  When I got involved in IT Security, I joined ISSA and got involved in the South Florida ISSA chapter.  I was briefly involved with ISACA (and thought about getting back involved).  I know about other groups (we have a chapter of ISC(2) getting formed) and have looked at others to see if they were worth joining.

I tried to get involved with local events tied with those groups (my chapter runs a security conference every 2 years, and has an annual "hack the flag" event), as well as others.  Last year in December we had the ITPalooza event, which will happen again this year.

So my advise to you is if you want to succeed in your IT career: GET INVOLVED.  Depending on what your interest or focus is, see if there are groups that are appropriate for that, and join them.  Especially get involved with local chapters of these groups.  Maybe think about becoming an officer.  If you are the type, consider making a presentation, even its at a local event.

So, if you've had experience getting involved, comment about what you've done and what you've gotten out of it.