Hi, I'm Tom Field senior vice president of editorial with information security media group I'm previewing RSA conference 2020 content at the event. It's my pleasure to welcome back to the studio Britta Glade She's the director content creation with RSA conference Britta. Thank you so much for joining me again Thank you for having me Tom. It was my pleasure.
I asked you this question every year. What is new or different at this year's RSA conference? Every year is an experience We spend a lot of time on the evaluations that we get back from our attendees and we push ourselves hard to to do new and different surprise and delight is our is what our motto is For what we want to the experience we want to create for our attendees. So there's a lot of new things We have some new content tracks which which I'd love to run through with you We have the engagement zone Which is a really cool space that I want to make sure that attendees are super well aware of and then an expanded area called the viewing point Which is a wonderful session overflow area that I think will be a favorite for attendees this year So that's a little tiny flavoring of lots of new and different beautiful Britta, I know that even though you start taking applications for sessions way back in the previous year You often introduce a last minute topics or sessions.
What have you introduced at the 11th hour this year? Yeah, well, you know, this is an election year So there'll be a lot of things in and around election security both on the regular tracks as well as that's actually one of the villages in the sandbox The sandbox is a super popular area that has kind of speed presentations and then interactive experiences So certainly election is top of mind We also have three new tracks that really did you know as you mentioned the call for speakers is just that call for speakers And it's really us, you know captain the fishing pull out to see what you know What's of interest to the community and we have some ideas before then and then some of it really Coagulates based on what we see come in so specifically the three the three new tracks are in and around open source tools You know you get open source presentations across many many different tracks But we really seem to be at a to use an overuse term tipping point if you will for some collection of open source contents There's a great track put together in and around that product security, you know related to the open source thing But also we we were asked by leaders who have tools Hey, you know, we don't have a conference right now that offers something very specifically to those creating product Can you put together a track? There's a really great collection of content in and around product security that is very actionable very prescriptive And I think it was going to be very helpful for that community And then lastly a topic near and dear your heart anti fraud As you know, we have a meeting on Monday four leaders in and around the the fraud community and that group also They're like oh, we've got so much to talk to the larger or say conference community What can we do so we have a really well put together track in and around topics on anti fraud? So those are those are three that I think will be of a particular interest to attendees But it's hard to be about the theme the human element that strikes me as one that could mean almost anything you wanted to mean What does it cover specifically this event and you are exactly right?
It's interesting when we do themes it usually, you know It's done to provide an anchor for you know the marketing and the imagery and all of that and they've tended to be you know More esoteric if you were will in the past last year was better this year these words resonated in such an interesting and powerful way With the community, you know, as you know, we have a we've had a track that lasts several years including this year called Human element, you know, which is a collection of human awareness training kinds of things insider threat Social engineering really, you know, all of the things in and around the human. We're using that thematically this year And wow, it has just resonated with people. Yeah, there's there's things, you know, all the way from you know automation, you know, man versus machine You know the basic bread and butter of the human awareness of social engineering the elections that we talked about before So you will really see a spread of human element ask conversation across keynote stage across session across every track It really, you know, we're humans here. We are humans having this conversation This one has been powerful and it's really spoken to the community that we serve the important role that that humans play front and center in Everything we're doing across the cybersecurity industry Brody, I mentioned the keynotes and I know this that in the past two years you really have listened to the market in terms of diversifying the keynote presenters The keynote topics.
What are some of the highlighted keynotes sessions? You bring to our attention this year. Oh, it's it's hard to pick favorites here Right, and again I have had the distinct pleasure of being on all the prep calls with all of the key noters and there are some really passionate experts who will be addressing the community next week For if I can pick four to to highlight here the closing session is always a favorite Hugh Thompson show he has special guest this year dr. Laurie Craner who is an amazingly accomplished researcher in and around you know It's it's this intersection of security and the human how do we behave?
Why do we do what we do? So dr. Craner will will have a discussion with you in and around that which leads very neatly into pen and teller Which will there'll be some special magic tricks just for this just for this community I think some will particularly resonate well with our audience. I'll be audience participation Which is nice.
So that's always you know That's that's the very nice bow on top of the week of our say conference at the end but earlier in the week You will welcome Peggy Whitson and Mike NASA me know so this is cool. You're here. It's a special just for listeners of this show as advertised You see Peggy being what's talked about here Peggy is an amazingly accomplished NASA astronaut who better to interview a NASA astronaut than another NASA astronaut So you'll you'll hear about Peggy's accomplishments. You'll hear about some of the your preparatory work She did you know who I like to be in space, but that will be brought to you through the questioning of another NASA astronaut So that one I think's going to be pretty special and that I'm really looking forward to being front and on that one married Bara CEO GM how cool about you know This is the CEO of one of the most powerful companies in the world That's really at the intersection of our community security and on motor revolution So she'll be talking very directly about some of the work they're doing there some of her vision She's she's a very powerful leader That'll be a great session and car switcher.
I'm also very much looking forward to you. She's got some really interesting commentary on Technology what is our responsibility? What is our opportunity? So I think you know all of our we we try to help people think perhaps differently Perhaps about you know different areas and maybe are there day-to-day areas of focus but things that are you know important to us as a community?
I think that's what the keynote stage represents and I really believe there's some powerful content this year that will again Surprise in the light are attendees. I trust this is an RSA first few times and opening up for pen and teller Opening act for pen and teller how cool is that right? Pretty talk a few minutes ago about some of the new and unique track sessions this year talk to me about some of the networking opportunities You're offering I am so glad you asked that because this again This is us listening to our community listening to the feedback conferences are great for many many reasons Perhaps the most valuable reason to be in a conference is exactly for that network purpose Some of us we already know who we're connected to some of us We're seeking out new people and and some of us figure out how to do it directly ourselves and some need a little bit of help So we have this really cool new area called the engagement Right in the heart of our say conference on the second floor of Moscone West There are many Organized activities to help people network and there's an organized activities meaning space that you can grab have a conversation You know spin up with someone made it you just met in the last session Are you not in the hallway or whatever? But we're really trying to create a very personable and approachable space in the engagement zone We have partnered with a fabulous organization is called e 180 and they have a platform called brain date on right now You you can set up your own brain date profile You can put out their topics of interest that that you know you consider yourself an expert in or maybe you want to have a conversation about You can set up a meeting one-on-one or one-to-fue But we really we've listened hard to the community We serve we're trying to help them utilize this platform to make some of those deeper connections that you know Made it's a connection for the week But maybe it's a connection for life because at the end of the day we're a community And we're all better off when we learn from support and work with one another on fighting engagement when we'll be powerful for people Britain we're looking at tens of thousands of people at RSA next week What do you offer this year for the RSA conference veteran the person has been here after year and thinks she or he has seen it all?
I think the veteran is going to be intrigued with the engagement zone again I think there's there's opportunities for them there We do very specifically label all of our content as to the level of attendees applicable to him And what's hard with that question and frankly what's hard even with the labeling is you may be have been there for 10 years But you're new to a particular topic So you know as a veteran do look at the classifications for the content that's out there We believe we have we have something for everyone and we've tried to make it very easy for them to find But perhaps that that 300 level content that labeled advanced will be of greatest interest to them as well as these You know these opportunities to to find and engage with one another I would also love to encourage that veteran who is many of them are very interested in mentoring the next generation To seek out and look for look look for the newbies new defined as New York industry But also we are say conference have a passion in and around the next generation We have college day which allows any college student from an accredited Institution to come for free on Thursday and Friday to take part of the the great content the great community that is our Say conference and then we have 80 security scholars These are these are you know the top of their class as identified by their professors from universities across the United States We host them at our say conference. It's an amazingly diverse group diverse in terms of their background as well as their areas of study Veterans look out for those students. We know that you can teach them and they have much to learn from people like you So, please do seek those folks out Yeah, I flip side of that bread talk to me about the newbie What do you offer to help bring that person more into the community and get the most out of the experience? Yes, excellent excellent question there, too.
So for our first-timers welcome We are so looking forward to you being at our say conference You'll be given a little pin at registration which will help you identify other newcomers But also help us as staff to keep our eye out for you, you know and really go over and above Hopefully helping you have an amazing experience at our say conference We also have a reception on Monday at 4 o'clock Anyone can come but we do specifically gear that content to our first-timers to kind of give them, you know The magical path if you will through conference, but also to help them visually identify other newcomers You know, hopefully those will be you know, they can hang out with each other during the week They can they can sit together and then we also bring them together every single morning It's a lot of people and lots of people can you know This is kind of like you know, my daughter's starting high school lots of people can be good Lots of people can be scary, but we want to help them, you know find and dissect the community in smaller Vites if you will and again the engagement zone, you know, all all roads lead to engagement zone in this conversation Because there really are those great opportunities for people to identify others who share similar interests And that's not the powerful thing So Britt I ask you this every year, but now we've got the Muscoleah Center back together We've got the Mariela Marquis, the construction is finished How can an attendee get the most out of this week-long RSA experience? As any good practitioner of security has in mind have a plan A, have a plan B, but go in with a plan So number one most important guidance is, you know, spend some time thinking about, you know, what you want to accomplish at conference So that then you can, you know, work backwards to making sure you have that You have the ability to go and reserve seats for sessions, do that It doesn't mean that you're locked in and you can't change your mind or anything like that But that then starts building a calendar, build a schedule out for you You can also favorite things so that you have that, you know, plan B, plan C in your pocket So go through, build a plan, there's, you know, powerful search engine on the site that'll help you search by terms, search by people But kind of, you know, have your plan, give yourself some flexibility, spend some time on the Expo floor Which is also really big, so have a plan there too, know where you want to go and what you want to accomplish And do, you know, take care of yourself, relax, recharge, it's always important We'll have some space for you to do that in, you got it on the engagement zone But yeah, have a plan and a purpose in being there So that it's just, your decisions start making themselves for you There's lots of us in and around the conference team is identified with, you know, we've all got, you know, black card again or shirt We're clearly identified as a conference team, don't hesitate to ask any questions, there's info desks all over the place We want to help you make the most of this week, and we will do everything we can to over-deliver on our goal of surprising and delighting our guests next week Britta, as always, I appreciate your time and insight and I look forward to seeing you in San Francisco Indeed, thank you so much, Tom Again, we've been talking about RSA Conference 2020, I'm speaking with Britta Glade, she's director of content and curation with RSA Conference For Information Security Media Group, I'm Tom Field Thank you very much