Infosecurity Europe 2012: the aftermath

It's April, torrential rain is the order of the day and the tubes are on the blink, which can only mean one thing: security professionals and hacks were making their way to Earls Court this week for Infosecurity Europe.

Phew! That was my first Infosecurity Europe and, whilst it was enjoyable and informative, the huge number of vendors in attendance and vast array of seminars and conference sessions made it a somewhat overwhelming experience. A colleague told me that it's all about the spectacle and now I see what they meant. Many of the stands were among the biggest and most elaborate you could wish to see at a trade show. The downside of this is that the bigger companies can drown out the smaller players, many of whom often have interesting, innovative solutions on display.

I'll save the indepth review for the next issue of FStech, but for the meantime some random thoughts/highlights.

I was expecting the show to be busier. The first two days apparently pulled in 12,490 visitors and almost 200 press attendees. But, while it was standing room only at some of the conference sessions, it was pretty quiet on the exhibition floor at times. Perhaps some people were put off by the inclement weather?

I had childhood flashbacks when I found out that the man, the legend Roy Walker was on the SafeNet stand. Roy had dusted off Mr Chips and was inviting visitors to play Catchphrase, with two games in the morning, two in the afternoon and the four winners then going head to head to play Super Catchphrase. All together now: "It's good, but it's not right."

Trade shows are like buses. You wait ages for one to come along and then three turn up at the same time. It was a shame that three exhibitions/conferences were scheduled at exactly the same time this week. TradeTech and Internet World both looked good, but when push comes to shove you have to go with Infosecurity Europe.