Today I’ve been noticeable quieter than normal on the blog, and that’s because I’ve spent the day — gasp! — away from an Internet connection.
Most of today I spent at an event hosted by NetworkWorld magazine called the “Remote Office Networking” technology tour & expo. It was basically a free event about remote networks (specifically about security) that got me out of the office and learning something new for the day. What’s not to love?
Even better, the event was actually very informative and enjoyable for me. (Bonus!) Issues of network security have become increasingly important to me in the work I do because of things that happened a couple of weeks ago where our Web server was hacked into. Today, I learned about a lot of new products and strategies to combat malicious attacks while still providing access and services. Now, if only I had the authority to make those products and strategies part of the mix at work … 😉
Anyway, what I thought was particularly cool about this particular conference … well, there were two things. First, since it was almost exclusively attended by middle-aged white men, whenever we broke for lunch or pit stops or whatever, there was NEVER a line for the women’s restroom. In fact, I went three times (love that water drinking!) and only saw one other person in there any of those three times. So that was cool. (Meanwhile, the guys were in line out the door. HEHEHEHE! Revenge!)
The second really cool thing about this event was that we were encouraged to jot our burning questions onto yellow notecards throughout the sessions that would be asked of the panelists/sponsors at the end. I actually threw two questions into the suggestion bowl, and both got asked … but the second one I drafted was selected as the “best question of the day,” and for that I was given a $100 American Express gift cheque. Beat that! 🙂