London Calling

The Infosec London Conference is coming up this week, running April 23-25 at the Earl’s Court Exhibition Center. Cisco will be there of course, in a booth showing the latest Cisco security innovations and presenting four papers on:

• “Securely Accelerate Access to Data Center Applications” (Tuesday, April 23, 10:30)
• “The Changing Landscape of Identity: Is 802.1X Enough?” (Tuesday, April 23, 16:00)
• “Outbound Content Security” (Wednesday, April 24, 10:30)
• “BYOD Demo—Onboarding the iPad With Cisco Identity Services Engine” (Thursday, April 25, 10:30)

While taking in Cisco content at the show is definitely a must do item, I have a little insider travel tip to impart. Show goers should also check out the small and emerging companies usually found next to the walls in the convention hall.

Not every company in an economy booth is taking its first step to world domination, but it really does pay to take a stroll through the sideshow. At the very least, it encourages you to keep your mind open to new ways of looking at the security space and new approaches to solving problems. In addition, I’m sure that despite its size Cisco can more than hold its own on the innovation front compared to the upstarts on the floor. In our industry, it’s the bigness of ideas that count, not the bigness of trade show booth footprint. But like I said, keep your mind open. Innovation is where you find it—in big booths and small.