No such thing as a free lunch?

Today was another long day as I woke up to take a call from the CTO of PKWare. He missed it because of trouble with aeroplanes, of course, I should have predicted that. Lunch with Protegrity's CEO, Gordon Rapkin, and VP of Marketing, Paul Giardina - having been in competition with these guys for the last few months it made for some very interesting conversation. Of course I sold them all the trade secrets I could remember and in return got a free lunch.

I made a lazy amble round a few of the other stalls. Then I remembered why I don't do that at shows. The experienced show-goer knows that if you slow down, you're going to get badgered. Jetlag failed me and I ambled right into an ESET demo of their heuristic antivirus. This is like giving the Pope a dissertation on Islam - he probably knows it already and despite having a deep respect for it, won't touch it with a bargepole. Still, I got a free t-shirt, and my luggage still hasn't arrived.

This actually lightened my mood, so I did another rekke, free Radware t-shirt with an amusing slogan, excellent. My wardrobe bolstered I made my way over to Proofpoint and had a chat with some very sympathetic people. Another t-shirt. I hope this doesn't spoil my claim to British Airways.

Highlights of the day were to come however. Dressed in a smart new t-shirt and crappy old jeans, I made my way over to the Vormetric reception at the Yerba Buena opposite the Moscone Center. I was amazed to find that the girl on the desk remembered me, Krystal Kiser was a young university graduate when I first met her, and I have to admit I was quite taken with her as a young SE myself. I never thought she'd remember me of course. So, feeling quite the man, I went into the bar and talked to a few old friends. Mike Fleck, now director of Engineering, still leaves me in stitches every time we speak. Sadly I can't repeat what he said to make me laugh here or I'd be thrown off the internet.

Then, of course, came THE event of the day, the conference, and the year. The blogger's meet. What can I say. You were all probably there anyway. I was the tall guy in my traveling clothes. I saw Bruce Shneier taking all the food, and Hoff taking all the drinks. Finally hooked up with Anton Chuvakin, met Mike Rothman, Rich Mogull, Chris Hoff, Alan Shimel, all the great names in security blogging. Jet lag prevented me from taking the podcast stand as I would have just burbled into the microphone and embarrassed everyone. I still enjoyed it, another chance to tell everyone that I don't know where my luggage is.

Oh, and I got another t-shirt.