Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. - Robert Kennedy
I joined up yesterday to become the sponsorship coordinator for the BSides Las Vegas 2012 event this summer. So far everyone I have interacted with has been very positive and eager to have me join in. I have gotten more than several notes of people pledging to donate funds to the event and help me raise the over 100k we will need. I am truly grateful for the support and will need all the help I can get. But I wanted to give you the why I joined.
As readers of my blog know, the recent “drama” around BSides has moved me to write about what I didn’t like about what was going on with BSides. But I also came to a conclusion in my life several years ago. There are two types of people in life; one type forever sits on the sidelines, bitching and moaning about why things aren’t better. The other type of person says they will make it better. I spent too much time in my life being a moaner and bitcher on the sidelines. I realized that to effect change, you need to roll up your sleeves and make change.
Maybe it is a result of growing up and believing all of that stuff that people like Robert Kennedy used to say, like the quote above. Maybe I am just getting old. But if you want things to be better, you don’t wait for someone else to make them better. Also it is easier to effect change from within than from without. So if I was not happy with what I saw coming out of BSides, I could bitch and moan or I could get involved. Here I am.
I also want to state that with the completion of the financial review, appointment of a formal board of directors and filing of the non-profit corporation, I think and hope that the drama around BSides in general is behind us. We shouldn’t let these events cloud the tremendous progress the BSides movement made in a very short time. Of course any organization with broad roots will have discussion and differences of opinion. But that is part of growing. BSides is I think back in drive and moving forward.
The BSidesLV team is solid, dedicated and focused. Through everything, they kept moving forward with their event which is in my mind anyway one of the premier BSides events year after year. I am honored to be part of the team along with Jack Daniel , Joshua Marpet, Genevieve Southwick and several others. I look forward to meeting most of the others in person in a few weeks as we are all out at RSA Conference and BSidesSF. .
In the meantime, I need help raising sponsorship funds for this event. So many of the security vendors I speak with lament the fact that they don’t know how to reach real, live security professionals. They recognize that many trade shows and conferences are not where their target audience “hangs out”. They are business development fests with great parties thrown in.
Well if you want to reach the rare and elusive security pro, BSides is a great place to find them! Mind you no hunting or shooting is allowed, pictures only. But seriously, if you want to make real live security folks aware of you, this is a great chance.Hitching your brand to the BSides engine will get you mindshare with the people you are trying to influence and reach. Sponsorships are a fraction of what a comparable event of this size and magnitude would be otherwise.
I will have an updated sponsor kit ready shortly. But if you have some marketing dollars, want to earn buko good will in the security community, be part of something really good and cool, consider being a BSides sponsor. I will be following up with each of you shortly
Thanks and wish me luck on this new amazing adventure.
