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Reasonably Accurate 馃馃 Transcript
Morning everybody. How are you doing today? Um Thanks for your patience, was not on the air. The last two days first, they had some technical difficulties with my um setup, couldn't get things streaming consistently.
And then yesterday, I thought I was gonna have time um during my travels to be able to record, uh just do a stream to do something. Um Just didn't work out. I was at the Aws summit in Toronto yesterday.
It was the first time they've had one in Canada in Toronto specifically. And it was really interesting. It was, it was a great time. I was speaking in the developer lounge, had a couple of 100 people gathered around to hear about how to connect various Aws security services together and had some great chats with people.
But it got me thinking on a bigger question and I'm asking maybe a little bit of a favor from you in the audience. So obviously, I do a big focus on cloud and that's a huge part of my full time job.
I'm the vice president of cloud research at cybersecurity Giant Trend Micro. And so re invent Aws re invent is a massive conference that Aws holds, um, end of November early this first week of December every year in Las Vegas.
Um, now this year is gonna be bigger than ever. About 50,000 people. I've written, uh, the ultimate guide to Aws reinvented every year for the last few years. Um, this year's keeps growing. Um, I'll link to that below.
Um, that's up on medium. Um, and, you know, that goes through the various activities of the conference and things like that. But yesterday got me thinking um to ask this question to you guys and I'll get to that question.
Uh But I attend a lot of conferences because I speak at a lot of conferences and I have a very different experience um of going to these conferences than, than most folks because I am a speaker uh because I am sort of on the inside of the community or sponsor or whatever the case may be.
Um So what I wanted to know from you guys was, what do you get out of conferences? What's the number one thing? And what's the number two thing that you guys like doing at conferences?
Is it the hallway track? Is it attending sessions? Is it the keynotes? Is it something else entirely? I'm interested because I want to know how to build up and tailor some content leading up to Aws re invent.
But also in general, I, you know, as a speaker at conferences, my goal is to deliver compelling content to you. It's to, you know, engage you around my topic, but that's just part of it.
So another good example is two weeks back down to Toronto for sect to which is one of the biggest Canadian security conferences. And I'm one of the keynote speakers very honored to have been selected.
And I know, you know, part of that role is to deliver hopefully a kick ass keynote. But after that hour, there's a bunch of other things that I can contribute to the conference. And I want to maximize that.
Is it streaming live from the conference floor? Is it being more active on Twitter? Is it recording a bunch of videos leading up to it? It, recording interviews on site with various folks who have interesting insights on to topics that are relevant to the audience.
What is that key? What can I do as a speaker as a keynote speaker? What can I do to help you enjoy these conferences more, whether you're there or whether you're attending from afar?
And I think that's really critical as we're seeing more and more of this technology, you can tell from the shakiness today. I'm doing handheld, I need to figure that out a little bit more to get a little better image quality for you guys.
So you don't get a little uh upset this morning with the, with the visuals. Um But uh how do you enjoy conferences from afar? Um You know what's the best way to do it.
There, there's tons of people who do, you know, just simple reviews is what I heard. I saw. Um, there's a lot of people who are active on Twitter. What, what is engaging content though?
What is, what will pull you and what will deliver value, whether you're on site or not. And that for me is really key like it's interesting to hear. Oh, so, and so gave this talk and here's a recording of that talk, but there's a different experience I think being there, right?
You have these conversations for me. That's, you know, even at this stage of the game for me, that's one of the biggest things is those hallway, the hallway track, um listening, talking to people, um having conversations, catching up, meeting new people, making new friends, talking to old friends, um sharing a meal, that kind of stuff you can't replicate.
So, uh you know, a lot of that online. Um but there are things where you can share insights. Um and how, how would that be effective? I know nobody really has a clear answer, but I'm looking for ideas here.
So that's my, this is my Friday Mornings with Mark Ask to you, you know, we're up episode, we're over 100 now. The audience has gotten pretty big. So what do you guys think? Let me know, I'll compile them back together.
Um Maybe do another stream next week on some of the results, but also build that into my plan for leading up to these events. So, um obviously, the big, big event for me is going to be aws reinvented at the end of November.
And I've got two months of leeway or lead time, essentially lead time to, to scramble to build out content to ramp up to what is inevitably the biggest conference in cloud. So how can I maximize that for you?
How can I deliver the most value to you in the audience? So that is my thought for today. I hope you're set up for a fantastic day. As always, you can hit me up online um at marknca for those of you on the blog in the comments down below.
And as always by email, especially for the podcast listeners, me@markn.ca have a fantastic Friday and an amazing weekend. We'll talk to you online and we'll see you on the show on Monday.
