May 28, 2009, 12:46 PM — I had a good time meeting and speaking to folks at the Dallas ITEC show yesterday. I mentioned I was going to give the audience at my keynote address a chance to vote on which topics were of highest importance for them. I put this list on the screen:
Data Safety Score
The Pirate Backup System
Choosing the Right Technology
SaaS – Your Company in the Cloud
BSA Says Your Software Isn't Legal
Social Media – Smart or Stupid?
More Work with Less Email
Trend – Smaller, Smarter, Synched
Affordable Full Disk Encryption
Free Open Source Software
The top subject, Data Safety Score, was the only topic I planned to cover for sure. I discussed how companies can calculate their Data Safety Score by looking at each link in their data security chain: data storage locations, backup practices, processes in place to manage hardware and software, and security. During the few minutes of the Data Safety Score discussion, a helper tabulated the voting results. Here's how the Dallas crowd voted:
Affordable Full Disk Encryption
More Work with Less Email
Choosing the Right Technology
Free Open Source Software
BSA Says Your Software Isn't Legal
SaaS – Your Company in the Cloud
Social Media – Smart or Stupid?
The Pirate Backup System
Trend – Smaller, Smarter, Synched
I have to admit some surprise that Affordable Full Disk Encryption got the most votes, but it was the winner by a handful. It could well be that attendees have been reading plenty of articles about Social Media and Software As A Service other places, which is why those topics ranked lower than I expected.
My hope was to cover four or five of these ten topics, and we got through Data Safety Score and the top three on the list above. Four topics are plenty for a keynote, and that left time for a prepared opening and a good wrapup.
I did cover the Pirate Backup System during my Laptop Safety Seminar.
Thanks to ITEC for having me speak, and thanks to the attendees from my area, Dallas, for their attention.
