2020 SecureMiami Conference

This past weekend I attended the 2020 SecureMiami Conference.  This was the 4th time this conference was held, again at FIU's Graham Center and co-located with BrewMiami held later that day at the FIU stadium.  I've been to all of these events, promoting the South Florida ISSA Chapter and had a good time.

This event was organized by DigitalEra and again had a great number of speakers and panels, and a good set of sponsors and exhibitors. 

I enjoyed Jorge Orchilles talk.  He is a past president of our chapter.  Hacker Hector Monsegur was the final speaker, and I wasn't previously aware of him.  He gave a great talk from the point of being a former 'black hat' who has become a 'white hat.

I look forward to next years event.  This one sold a quickly with a large waiting list.  Will they move to a new location because of this?

2019 Secure Miami

This past weekend I attended 2019 Secure Miami conference, the third edition of this local cybersecurity conference.  Organized by DigitalEra, and held at FIU, it also tied to BrewMiami, held later that day at FIU.

This was a full day event held in FIU's Graham Center with key note speakers and panel discussions.  As I've been to the prior events, I felt this as good or better then the last one.

On the panel discussions, topics covered included the "Cybersecurity skills gap", "managing visibility and compliance" and "smart cities".  The skills gap discussion was interesting, as I know several who struggle to find work and our hiring process in IT/infosec is broken.  Had a good chat with one of the people on the panel about the NICE conference that we had at FIU and learned the next one will be in Phoenix.  The smart cities one got into the matter about IoT security and the like.  We'll see where that goes.

On the keynotes, they had an interesting one given by a former FBI Agent and his experiences, and another about artificial intelligence.  AI was a topic I had a keen interest in college, but drifted away from, that seems to have become more a topic in infosec.  I need to get back on top of that.

Afterwards many of us headed over to the BrewMiami event and chatted and had fun.  Another great event.  I look forward to next year's event, as well as other upcoming events in the area:  ISACA South Florida's WOW event, Infragard South Florida's next meeting, South Florida ISSA's Conference and HackMiamiCon.

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.

SecureMiami 2016- Dec 10th @ FIU

If you're in the South Florida area, we have a new one day security event coming up down at the FIU main campus in Dade:  SecureMiami.

This event is being organized by DigitatEra, FIU, and the South Florida ISSA Chapter and sponsored by several vendors.

Its a 3 hour event starting at 2pm at FIU's Graham Center Balllroom (GC 140), located at 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, FL 33199.  Not sure about parking, but I assume will be in either the Blue or Gold parking lots near the Graham Center.

Tickets are FREE and can be obtained from the above website.

Following the event is BrewMiami at the FIU Stadium.  More info on that can be obtained from the SecureMiami event page.