All the shows

I've been ignoring the usual slew of mails I get telling me that RSA Europe is just around the corner, not because I don't care about the shows any longer, but because I can't see myself going this year due to work commitments. Not that I don't want to go either, it's always interesting to see what's up and coming, and who has made enough money to get there this year as the prices escalate still further.

I have a couple of issues with the RSA show, the most off-putting being that it is miles out in Docklands, and takes me 2 hours to get to by train, and longer by car. There is ample parking of course, but at a crazy cost which ensures I will only be able to afford to stay for an hour or so.

And maybe that's enough for shows these days. To be clear, I'm not anti-RSA, I enjoy their shows, they flew me out to San Francisco earlier this year (with disastrous results sadly) and gave me a free conference pass, just for writing something about encryption, so in fact I probably owe them. Without SecurID I wouldn't have started in security in the first place, so maybe they owe me. :)

The problem with the RSA show, and InfoSec is that they have become the victims of their own success, and IT Security companies are no longer the one or two-man band start-ups from a garage, but multi-national corporations with oodles of cash to spend on flashy marketing and shiny suits.

The first RSA shows were a group of like-minded guys in sandals with long hair showing each other what cool stuff they could do. I wish it was more like that now. I fear however, that we have lost those days forever. In their place, I suppose the 21st century marches on, but that doesn't mean I don't miss the BBC model B, ZX81 and the Amstrad 464 either.