A security event without leaving your home

The foundation for security and enterprise management

Last fall I was twice put in the quandary of choosing between two conferences going on simultaneously. In September there was Digital ID World in Las Vegas and The Experts Conference in Berlin. While November saw both the Cloud Computing Expo and the Internet Identity Workshop sharing the same week. I thought I could shuttle between Cloud Computing and IIW, since they were being held only 5 miles apart, but in reality that was a no go.

Then came the underpants bomber and travel, which had been daunting now became unbearable. What to do?

What about a virtual conference?

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Last fall I was twice put in the quandary of choosing between two conferences going on simultaneously. In September there was Digital ID World in Las Vegas and The Experts Conference in Berlin. While November saw both the Cloud Computing Expo and the Internet Identity Workshop sharing the same week. I thought I could shuttle between Cloud Computing and IIW, since they were being held only 5 miles apart, but in reality that was a no go.

Then came the underpants bomber and travel, which had been daunting now became unbearable. What to do?

What about a virtual conference?

At the bottom of many of these newsletters (e.g., this recent one) you'll find links to interesting upcoming events (gleaned from the IdM Journal Events calendar). Many of these are online Webinars. A Webinar, of course, is really a stand-alone conference session. So why not put some related Wwebinars together, schedule them over a couple of days and create the virtual online conference?

Quick thinking Joerg Resch (he's the "partner part" of Kuppinger Cole + Partner) jumped on that right away. The same brilliant team that puts on the European Identity Conference (EIC) has organized a two-day online event in early February.

"Refinement, Expansion or Replacement -- How to Maximize your Investment into Identity Management" will be held Feb. 9  and 10, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. CET (that's 2 to 5 p.m. GMT, and 6 to 9 a.m. PST, groan). Each day will feature three one-hour sessions, a mix of individual presentations and panels as well as a mix of analysts, vendors and users. In short, it's everything a physical conference is, but there's no need to leave your office.

And, of course, there's no charge. With the price of attending conferences climbing (entrance fees plus hotels plus planes plus meals, drinks, etc.) that can be a major factor.

If you go to the conference home page you'll see that I've already signed on to moderate some of the virtual panels and other speakers are being added daily. If you've sat in on any of my panels at EIC or DIDW you'll know that they aren't "puff sessions" for the vendors, but are both educational and entertaining.

You can register now (no charge) by clicking the link on the conference page. One nice touch: you can authenticate with an information card. One added benefit of a virtual conference -- you don't have to see what I look like at 6 in the morning!

Read more about security in Network World's Security section.

Dave Kearns is a consultant and editor of IdM, the Journal of Identity Management.