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How To Walk A Cybersecurity Vendor Hall
And Not Lose Your Mind
Cybersecurity conferences are funded by cybersecurity vendors, who gain access to potential customers in return. At any conference there is likely to be some kind of “vendor” or “exhibit” hall where vendors can set up booths large or small and where attendees run their gauntlet.
A visit to an exhibit hall can be overwhelming for the uninitiated. So many people, blinky lights, information. Recently I had the pleasure to walk a vendor floor with a younger cybersecurity person who hadn’t ever been on a vendor floor before. It occurred to me that we don’t help young cybersecurity professionals to learn how to get the most from a vendor floor.
The bigger the conference, the more important it is to know how to approach the vendor space, otherwise you will suffer a variety of negative outcomes, including:
- Walking the floor without talking to anybody or learning anything. This is particular true if you are young- or female-looking, because it is assumed you have no purchasing power and are therefore less valuable, so most booth staff won’t approach you unless you approach them first.
- Having your badge scanned by everyone, and spending the next three years trying to get off mailing lists and other cold calling attempts. It won’t matter if you have no staff, purchasing authority, or interest in their product. Once on a mailing list, it’s almost impossible to get off it again, and if you visit booths indiscriminately you’ll end up on more lists than you can handle.
- Getting hung up talking to a handful of known vendors and not getting to the ones that could really add value to your company. It’s easy to talk to vendors you already use, because you think they have nothing more to sell to you (this is a bad assumption, btw) and you may already know the staff; however, you do have less to learn from vendors who are already your partner, so to maximize your time on a vendor floor you should spend time elsewhere.
Here are some tips to get the most out of a cybersecurity vendor exhibit hall:
