Latest / Identity at the Center / #391 - Live from Identiverse DC with John DelMauro

Transcript

#391 - Live from Identiverse DC with John DelMauro · Identity at the Center

• 0:04
  This is identity at the center. Welcome to the Identity at the
• 0:10
  Center podcast. I'm Jeff, and that's Jim.
• 0:12
  Hey, Jim. Hey.
• 0:13
  Jeff, how are you? Oh, not space.
• 0:16
  Yeah. We're having a good time here at
• 0:18
  Identity versus DC. First time this event.
• 0:21
  Yeah. And we're here in the actual
• 0:23
  halls. It's awesome.
• 0:25
  Yeah. I mean, it's a great energy
• 0:27
  level. I love the fact that it's like a
• 0:31
  manageable size. I pretty much talked to
• 0:34
  everybody. It stopped it just about every
• 0:36
  booth and everyone's super friendly and willing to engage.
• 0:40
  Yeah, it's been super cool. Had a lot of more listeners than
• 0:43
  I thought here, which is great. Coming up and saying hello.
• 0:46
  Yeah, so shout out to the Polarian guys.
• 0:48
  I know that they listen. So fun conversations that
• 0:51
  identity beer last night. Yeah, and we've been kind of
• 0:54
  sagent. Did majority rule, majority
• 0:57
  rules, you get that? It seems so memorable.
• 1:00
  Gal. We're ready.
• 1:01
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a lot of final.
• 1:04
  They had, you know, a room full of identity, people talking and
• 1:09
  building on their phones and things like that.
• 1:11
  So if you attend conferences and we're there and we're part of
• 1:14
  the agenda, chances are you might see, you know, that game
• 1:17
  show in the future, that kind of thing.
• 1:18
  So yeah, that's good Taps. And we had audience member
• 1:21
  Deshawn 1 and they didn't need the center sticker that was the.
• 1:25
  That's the lead price. That was the lead prize.
• 1:27
  The the second prize that he also received was a free pass
• 1:31
  for Identiverse. The the big Identiverse in bank.
• 1:35
  So lucky. I shouldn't say lucky.
• 1:38
  I mean, he was like, yeah, he's like an ace.
• 1:40
  He was, he was picking the right answers.
• 1:42
  He was playing the game. Shout out to Deshawn, did great.
• 1:45
  We had a couple, you know, runner ups and people kind of,
• 1:48
  you know, nipping at his heels, but yeah.
• 1:50
  That. Was how long?
• 1:52
  No, you weren't. You were definitely.
• 1:53
  I never made the board. He did not.
• 1:55
  So yes, we are here at Identiverst.
• 1:58
  This is the one in DC 2025 for dating purposes.
• 2:01
  Let me go ahead and introduce our guest.
• 2:03
  His name is John Delmaro. He's the EVP, Executive Vice
• 2:06
  president of the business of the events business at Cyber Risk
• 2:09
  Alliance. So welcome for the first time,
• 2:11
  John. Great.
• 2:12
  Well, thanks for having me guys. Appreciate it.
• 2:16
  Yeah, so thanks for being with us.
• 2:18
  First of all, thanks to the partnership even work with you
• 2:20
  guys on the team. Shout out to Shirley.
• 2:21
  She has awesome shout out for out for the last thing.
• 2:23
  Feel like a year or so lasted universe meaning for that.
• 2:27
  So if you have a good time and you know, we have fancy walls,
• 2:29
  we have now we have a tablecloth.
• 2:32
  So, you know, we're, we're, we're starting to get into this
• 2:34
  a little bit. Now you guys been a great
• 2:35
  partner of ours. You bring a lot of energy, a lot
• 2:38
  of fun, right? I think one thing that we'll
• 2:40
  talk about in a little bit is I think some events and
• 2:43
  conferences could allure to some boring and sale and you always
• 2:46
  want to bring some energy, new ideas and some fun and some life
• 2:49
  to them. So thanks for pitching in and,
• 2:52
  and and doing what you guys. Do well we appreciate it we'd
• 2:55
  like to have fun. I I kind of I I kind of follows
• 2:57
  like powder programming. It's like OK, right, people are
• 3:00
  here to learn, you know share ideas and I opened up our
• 3:04
  session with are you going to learn anything?
• 3:05
  No, probably not change and I think hopefully people are done
• 3:10
  but yes, it's it's it's a great opportunity to have
• 3:14
  conversations with people. So hallway kind of strong care
• 3:17
  for sure. But then we've also got
• 3:19
  obviously the different presentations we heard from a
• 3:21
  lot of you know, people who are in the industry people like Sean
• 3:23
  O'dell and Andy Hingle and others.
• 3:27
  I Omega shameless is across the hall from us here, you know,
• 3:29
  from right from Fido. So there's a lot of good
• 3:31
  conversations taking place. I think we'll get lost sometimes
• 3:35
  and people think like, oh, ideniverse, yes, I heard of
• 3:38
  that. And if you haven't heard of
• 3:39
  Ideniverse, you're only going to arrive because it is the best I
• 3:42
  am conference series in I would say North America, but that's
• 3:46
  only part of what Cyber Risk Alliance does.
• 3:48
  And I know I've done a couple of the things outside of it and
• 3:50
  honest with you guys, but maybe you just have take a second and
• 3:53
  tell our audience. Who in what?
• 3:55
  Is Cyber Risk Alliance and sort of explain some things you work
• 3:58
  on. Yeah.
• 3:59
  So Cyber Risk Alliance is about a six year old company.
• 4:03
  We are a data analytics, events and media company.
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  So we produce content, newsletters, webinars, virtual
• 4:13
  events, big piece of our business are live events.
• 4:16
  So we produce over about 150 different events annually in
• 4:21
  different size and scale across the portfolio.
• 4:25
  Obviously Identiverse being one of them being our largest.
• 4:28
  But we run a number of events that are single day, see so
• 4:33
  focused regional events for our communities business.
• 4:37
  So we run about 45 regional events across the country for
• 4:40
  security professionals and see so's we have our communities
• 4:43
  business that we also run about another 15 invite only
• 4:47
  regionalized events. And then we run for those
• 4:49
  communities about another 60 to 70 dinners to service those
• 4:54
  areas and sections of the country.
• 4:56
  And so within the communities business, we'll do one event,
• 5:00
  one event per year and then have a dinner each quarter in those
• 5:04
  markets. So our goal is to continue to
• 5:07
  make sure we service the, you know, the cybersecurity
• 5:10
  platform, the industry and continue to provide them with
• 5:13
  outlets of information, data, analytics, networking events and
• 5:18
  you know, providing them a kind of a one stop shop to get all
• 5:22
  that information to be as successful as they can.
• 5:25
  John, I've already kind of showed my and I have a great
• 5:28
  time here. Most of the folks I've talked to
• 5:30
  are having a great time. I wanted to know from you kind
• 5:35
  of your perspective and what you've run into, how is the
• 5:37
  vibe? How are people kind of welcoming
• 5:40
  this event? And by the way, I'll also
• 5:42
  mention, I think a lot of people would love to go to Identiverse
• 5:47
  in Vegas, but they can't get approval, right?
• 5:50
  So adding a more East Coast event gives them the opportunity
• 5:55
  to be here. Kind of like.
• 5:56
  Sharing this community which I think is awesome.
• 5:59
  Yeah, so I mean, the vibe here has been great, right?
• 6:02
  It's exactly what we we put forward and thought it would be
• 6:06
  meaning that identiverses, you know, 3-4 thousand people.
• 6:08
  Las Vegas, you know, major production, lots of content,
• 6:13
  right. Also, you know, very expensive
• 6:15
  for people to get to and spend time there.
• 6:18
  Our goal is to not just pop up the tent once a year, but to
• 6:21
  have events like this for the community to get more of a
• 6:24
  regionalized based and opportunity for people to come.
• 6:27
  So you know, we've got over about 300 people here today.
• 6:31
  You know, the exhibit hall has been great, the traffic's been
• 6:34
  great. The feedback that I've gotten
• 6:36
  from the content, from the traffic has been has been really
• 6:39
  good and we're really pleased with the outcome of what we put
• 6:42
  forward this year. Yeah, the food's great too.
• 6:46
  That's always like, for me, that's very important.
• 6:49
  And all the meals have been served here in the Expo hall.
• 6:53
  It gives people a good opportunity to kind of interact
• 6:57
  with the exhibitors. I I've seen it with my own eyes.
• 7:00
  I've had a lot of people come over and interact with us.
• 7:03
  Jeff mentioned, Hey, a lot of people are stopping by and say,
• 7:06
  love the podcast and shout out to all the people that have done
• 7:09
  that and let us know because so boring to us is to know that
• 7:14
  it's actually meaningful. To and I'm going to tell you
• 7:17
  this hotel has been great. Yeah, you know, I mean, it's, I
• 7:22
  mean, I'm kind of a foodie and enjoy all that stuff and the
• 7:24
  fact that they have like the Bellagio bakery downstairs and
• 7:27
  the coffee's great. And so it's been a from that
• 7:30
  experience point of view, it's been really pleased with the
• 7:32
  venue. So I, you know, I'm a foodie
• 7:34
  too, and there's a Shake Shack on the 1st floor.
• 7:38
  So yeah, you get bonus points just for having a Shake Shack in
• 7:43
  your facility. I don't have to go outside like
• 7:45
  an animal and get food. So yeah.
• 7:48
  Yeah, it's kind of cool too. Like, I mean, it's like, I would
• 7:51
  say it's a movie in Las Vegas, but they do have a casino here
• 7:54
  and so funnier stuff for people to do.
• 7:56
  But kind of back to the extra hall.
• 7:59
  I mean, have you interfaced with any of the exhibitors yet?
• 8:02
  And what's the feedback that you're getting?
• 8:04
  Yeah. I mean, the feedback, I've
• 8:05
  talked to most of the folks in here, you know, I think the
• 8:08
  quality of people that are here, I mean, the great thing about
• 8:11
  what we do is, you know, these aren't sort of, you know, events
• 8:15
  that people are just looking for swag and stuff, right?
• 8:17
  So if you're coming here, you're somebody from the industry
• 8:21
  looking for solutions, looking for partners and, and one of the
• 8:25
  thing we pride ourselves on is making sure that we deliver the
• 8:27
  quantity, even if it's not the quality of thousands of people
• 8:31
  picking up socks and merch. Like making sure that you've got
• 8:33
  the right people coming to the event and and having genuine
• 8:37
  strong conversations. And so, yeah, I think the
• 8:40
  quality's been exceptional. And that's feedback that I've
• 8:42
  gotten is that the quality's been been really strong.
• 8:45
  Well, No Fear because Jim came walking over and with a pair of
• 8:49
  socks in his hands. He was very happy when when when
• 8:52
  that showed up. I.
• 8:52
  Was going to I was actually going to say, John, don't
• 8:54
  disrespect the grease socks. None of them to.
• 8:57
  See those start. People love silos, so I'm not a
• 9:01
  sock person, but I know that they're very popular.
• 9:04
  Jim got his, so we're good. Yeah, I'm nappy.
• 9:06
  Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about
• 9:08
  the sessions and maybe some of the like holiday conversations
• 9:11
  that maybe you've been part of. What are some of the major
• 9:14
  themes that you've been hearing or topics maybe that have been
• 9:17
  coming up from people in the holly here?
• 9:20
  I mean, you know, obviously this is a a, you know, smaller
• 9:25
  version of Identiverse, right? So we're not as deep and reached
• 9:29
  across. So, you know, some of the
• 9:32
  conversation. I mean, AI obviously just kind
• 9:34
  of rules everything right now, right?
• 9:37
  So you can't go into a session or have a conversation where
• 9:39
  that's not driving probably a good portion of the
• 9:43
  conversation. Obviously that's going to be a
• 9:45
  big focus for us going into next year, even more so than it's
• 9:49
  been. But I think, you know, I mean,
• 9:52
  your session was a home run. Everybody loved it, right?
• 9:54
  The game show. That was my last question was
• 9:56
  what do you think of majority rules and why was it awesome?
• 9:58
  But please go ahead. But you know, having guys like
• 10:02
  Andy, right, we've been partnered with Andy for years
• 10:03
  even before we acquired the event from Ping and you know,
• 10:08
  bringing his expertise, bringing his knowledge to the mainstage
• 10:11
  last night with his panel was awesome.
• 10:13
  You know, having financial institutions like Citigroup or
• 10:16
  Capital One up there, you know it's important to make sure that
• 10:19
  we continue to drive kind of the best in breed and these kinds of
• 10:22
  organizations up to the dais and talking about the industry which
• 10:25
  is really important. Yeah, you actually mentioned the
• 10:29
  the game show. You also mentioned AI, Jeff.
• 10:33
  It's certainly the question there that I kind of made fun
• 10:35
  of, like how much AI guess mentioned and I've heard other
• 10:40
  people talking cheek like Shawn Nadel came on and said I'm on
• 10:43
  saying AI now. I promise I won't say it again.
• 10:47
  I kind of feel like we're cheating AI, like we cheated 0
• 10:51
  trials for you know? It's like a it's.
• 10:54
  Not the same ball game though. Yeah, it's a capability slash
• 10:57
  marketing terminal and it's like you know podcast now has 100%
• 11:01
  more AI like I see how you. Look at all the tools that we
• 11:07
  buy. It's all like AI driven and it
• 11:09
  saves us so much time. It's a truly game.
• 11:12
  I think you're trusted game changer.
• 11:15
  I think you got abused. And now people, at least on the
• 11:18
  conferences that I've been to lately, they talk about zero.
• 11:21
  Trust is not like a punchline that you know.
• 11:26
  Don't want AI to be a punchline. But I think some of that is
• 11:28
  because the marketing has eased up the gas a little bit, right?
• 11:31
  So a couple years ago you go to RSA and identifiers A Gartner.
• 11:35
  Like any conference, you know vendors are going to vent.
• 11:38
  And so they want to put whatever the buzzword is.
• 11:40
  Oh yes, we are your 100%. Zero Trust partner.
• 11:45
  Right. And really?
• 11:45
  Only do a part of it. AI is a little bit like that,
• 11:48
  kind of seeing that with agentic I, agentic AI and agentic
• 11:52
  identity. And so I'm starting to see that
• 11:54
  as like a trend showing up with vendors trying to figure out
• 11:57
  what is their position in trying to address that heart of it.
• 12:01
  It's not a bad thing. It's just this is the world that
• 12:04
  we're in. And everybody's using it, right?
• 12:06
  You're using it as a consumer. Your kids are using it for their
• 12:09
  school work or whatever it may be.
• 12:11
  You know, every marketing team is using that for their
• 12:15
  creative, you know, creative assets.
• 12:17
  They're how they're talking to their customers.
• 12:19
  And so to me, it feels that it's not just endemic to this, but it
• 12:23
  touches everybody, you know, whether it's for the technology,
• 12:26
  for your marketing, for your sales team, building content,
• 12:29
  building productions, building collateral.
• 12:32
  I couldn't feel the same way. Like AI agents, or we're talking
• 12:35
  about, oh, here come these AI agents six months ago, and now
• 12:39
  it's like I'm building AI agents, Jeff's building AI
• 12:42
  agents. And it's like, wow, this tidal
• 12:46
  wave is moving quicker than anyone I've seen before.
• 12:49
  For sure. Well, it's very accessible also.
• 12:51
  So it's the most accessible or technology way that I've seen in
• 12:55
  a while. Usually the technology is done
• 12:57
  more like plumbing, but now it has an interface and so you've
• 13:00
  got a website you can go. Do things to interface.
• 13:02
  Everyone knows how to use the figures out extremely quickly.
• 13:06
  Chat to it or talk to it or whatever.
• 13:07
  Being Chad, you kind of answered part of a question.
• 13:10
  I want to go on a sidetrack with you was and that is AI.
• 13:13
  How is AI like impacting or influencing what you do and like
• 13:17
  your role and like, you know, putting on events and marketing,
• 13:20
  right and all that kind of what's wrong with it?
• 13:22
  Like where does it? Where does it impact you the
• 13:24
  most? Yeah, so I think the one great
• 13:26
  thing about live events and why I love it so much and I've been
• 13:29
  doing this for 30 years, is that AI can't build to this.
• 13:33
  It can't, you know, put butts in seeds and can't bring, you know,
• 13:36
  serve you coffee you can't have a conversation with in the
• 13:39
  hallway, right. So that's what's really genuine
• 13:40
  about in person that hey, I just can't do or technology can't do.
• 13:45
  And that's why this business is so important.
• 13:47
  What it does for us is it makes our life so much easier now,
• 13:52
  right from databasing content, recruiting speakers, building
• 14:00
  marketing plans, you know, you know, talking to the industry
• 14:06
  like we're from the industry, which is really important, which
• 14:08
  is sometimes hard to do when you have marketing managers and,
• 14:11
  and, and content people that aren't experts in the industry,
• 14:14
  right? And so, you know, we've got to
• 14:16
  talk to the industry as the consumers and making sure that
• 14:19
  it's relevant. And AI has certainly helped us,
• 14:22
  I think position ourselves better as experts.
• 14:25
  And you know, I was working with Chris Tanaka and Andy on
• 14:29
  building out the some of the sessions and some of the
• 14:33
  speakers for, for, for next year.
• 14:35
  And literally, you know, spent 1015 minutes using Google Gemini
• 14:41
  and putting in like financial services.
• 14:43
  You know, who are the leaders, who are the speakers in for
• 14:45
  banks, insurance companies, manufacturing, automotive, CPG?
• 14:49
  And in so 3 minutes, you know, there's literally, you know,
• 14:56
  100, you know, whether they're endemic speakers or people that
• 14:59
  we know that you guys know, or people that you may have never
• 15:01
  heard of working for Boeing or things like that, that, you
• 15:05
  know, spits out where they've spoken, what they've done, you
• 15:07
  know, how's it connected to identity and access?
• 15:12
  And that was like, I'm like, Oh my God, we just identified 100
• 15:16
  people that weren't really on our radar that could or could
• 15:19
  not be applicable. But that's just cut out.
• 15:21
  You know, like typically I would call one of you guys and say,
• 15:24
  Hey, who, who's the latest and greatest?
• 15:26
  And who are you guys working with and who do you want to hear
• 15:28
  from? And that just took hours of
• 15:30
  research and compiled it into a, you know.
• 15:34
  We'd say, hold on, John, let me check a right, right.
• 15:39
  But, but speaking that exact topic right now, you're starting
• 15:43
  to formulate what the next Identiverse in Las Vegas is
• 15:47
  going to look like from the gender perspective.
• 15:50
  What are some of the big themes that you're expecting to touch
• 15:54
  on? Yeah.
• 15:55
  So one of the themes that we're working on or the theme is sort
• 15:58
  of global identity, right? And how it touches basically
• 16:01
  everyone and everything. And, you know, so I think a lot
• 16:04
  of the themes will, you know, once again, be consistent,
• 16:08
  right? Because we don't want to go away
• 16:09
  from like the core, you know, where this started, right?
• 16:13
  But at the same time, you've always got to evolve and grow,
• 16:16
  right? So, you know, you know, we're
• 16:19
  going to still vote, you know, we introduced the NHI workshop
• 16:22
  and Pavilion last year. We're going to work with the NHI
• 16:24
  management group on, on building that out even more and, and, and
• 16:28
  making that bigger and more important.
• 16:30
  On Leila Choda's. Group, right?
• 16:32
  I'll be happy to hear. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll be happy.
• 16:35
  That's my guy, Mr. NHI, right? But he's been, he's been a
• 16:39
  phenomenal partner with us and looking forward to expanding
• 16:43
  that would like to replicate that some sort with AI, right,
• 16:48
  just to go back to that. But we've had a workshop on that
• 16:51
  last year. I think that could be bigger
• 16:53
  and, and just a little deeper than what we did last year.
• 16:57
  We're trying to work on like an AI pavilion on the show floor
• 16:59
  next year. Continuing on the trends with
• 17:02
  the, you know, we had the workshops on continuous and
• 17:04
  personal identity, you know, some something like that from a
• 17:08
  workshop point of view. Something we're introducing this
• 17:11
  year for the first time is we're going to have a one-on-one
• 17:13
  networking platform that's going to enable us to work through an
• 17:18
  algorithm to connect, you know, interested parties.
• 17:21
  So we're going to do that on the front end of the event.
• 17:24
  We just invested in the technology to help us do that.
• 17:27
  So we've always had the matchmaking that you can go
• 17:29
  through the app. This is going to be, you know,
• 17:31
  very way more organized and the algorithm's really going to
• 17:37
  bring people together to have meetings and then utilize your
• 17:42
  time on site. So I assume this is like an opt
• 17:44
  in? He says like you started
• 17:47
  describing it. I know it's not this but I just
• 17:49
  make the joke anyway. It's like a Tinder.
• 17:51
  We've always said you want to take yeah, yeah, yeah, the
• 17:54
  bumbler, the Tinder for, for this business.
• 17:56
  But you know, you know, these guys spend so much money, you
• 17:59
  know, we all spend so much money and time.
• 18:00
  And how do you find a way to like, you know, bring that
• 18:03
  together in a, in a 1 to 1 concentrated efficient way,
• 18:07
  right? Because I think like all
• 18:09
  elements of the show. But you know, I've been in this
• 18:11
  business for a long time. You know, I've done it.
• 18:13
  Some of the other companies I've worked on, peers of mine that
• 18:15
  are working on other shows outside of cybersecurity are
• 18:18
  doing it. And it's going to be a big new
• 18:20
  key driver for our success this year.
• 18:23
  So talk to me a little bit more about this idea of these
• 18:27
  one-on-one needs you to have like a, a clear vision, like who
• 18:31
  are The Who are the two sides of the one-on-one?
• 18:35
  I make it really be, you know, this industry like I came from
• 18:39
  financial services for many years, right?
• 18:42
  And so the buyer seller relationship was like super
• 18:45
  clear. You know, I'm a payments
• 18:46
  processing company. I want to talk to a bank, right?
• 18:50
  This industry, it's not as you know, it's not the buyer seller
• 18:55
  exactly right. So, you know, it's it's really
• 18:58
  for anybody that wants to connect, whatever your interests
• 19:01
  are, what are you trying to solve for and building out those
• 19:04
  profiles. And then we're connecting you on
• 19:06
  the back end of that, right. So it's really based upon what
• 19:09
  your interests are, what your needs are and trying to solve
• 19:12
  those. OK, Right.
• 19:14
  Yeah. So, you know, if you have a
• 19:17
  question about, you know, some, you know from me, you need
• 19:22
  answers from an attorney or things like that about, you
• 19:25
  know, some standards and things like that, we would try and map
• 19:27
  that through the algorithm to connect you guys.
• 19:31
  And then the way it sets is that we set up like little tables
• 19:34
  with two seats and on the front end of the conference, when
• 19:36
  there's nothing else going on, we're going to orchestrate that
• 19:39
  and execute that on the front end of the event.
• 19:41
  So during the rest of the event, you can go to the exhibit hall,
• 19:43
  you can go to the receptions, go to your parties, go to the
• 19:45
  sessions and all that stuff. So.
• 19:47
  OK, that sounds pretty cool actually.
• 19:49
  Yeah, I mean, imagine or, you know, chill out a profile of
• 19:51
  some sort, right? And say here's my interests,
• 19:53
  here's what I would like to talk about.
• 19:55
  I mean, it's it's it's helpful because I think, you know, no
• 19:58
  offense to like content like that's great.
• 20:01
  But a lot of people, the big value are the hallway
• 20:03
  conversations, right? It is the networking, it's the
• 20:05
  fellowship, whatever you want to call it.
• 20:07
  You go for the content, but you have conversations in the
• 20:10
  hallway and. Can you organize that a little
• 20:12
  bit more so you don't just like happened to run into someone,
• 20:15
  right? So I and somebody to introduce
• 20:17
  you that were, you know, look, we all start on the outside
• 20:20
  somewhere and it's like, OK, you're on the outside of the
• 20:22
  ring. And I think, you know, we've
• 20:24
  tried to be think better as as a industry, the identity industry
• 20:27
  of hey, bring somebody like introduce somebody to someone,
• 20:30
  right? So, OK, have you met my friend
• 20:31
  Jim? Have you met my friend John?
• 20:32
  Right. Get people in conversation.
• 20:34
  Some people are good at it, some people aren't.
• 20:36
  I think it's just another way to expand that network.
• 20:39
  Yeah. Well, it's funny because when I
• 20:41
  did this for financial services and then I did it for commercial
• 20:44
  real estate technology, and everybody was open to,
• 20:48
  especially on the commercial real estate side, connect with
• 20:50
  people. And when I got to, you know,
• 20:53
  cybersecurity, I was told everybody's concerned about
• 20:56
  their privacy. Nobody's going to download the
• 20:57
  app, nobody's going to network, nobody's going to talk to each
• 21:00
  other. And I kind of called BS on that,
• 21:03
  right? Because I think, you know, I
• 21:05
  know privacy, people still take it seriously, but like, you're
• 21:08
  here for a reason and you want to meet people, right?
• 21:11
  There's still plenty of people that won't.
• 21:13
  But the more and more I see is that, you know, it's less about
• 21:16
  the privacy of like, who am I meeting with or my app?
• 21:20
  And you want to maximize your time here.
• 21:22
  And so, you know, I've seen that come a long way over the 4 1/2
• 21:26
  years that I've been in cybersecurity.
• 21:29
  And it's even identity, you know, like, oh, they will never
• 21:31
  do that. They'll never do that.
• 21:32
  I'm like, yes, like people are people and they want to meet and
• 21:36
  connect. So I think it's going to be a
• 21:37
  big, big part of the puzzle for identifiers.
• 21:40
  You're right. I mean, why do people get on the
• 21:42
  plane or travel to go to a conference with people was
• 21:46
  because they want to meet other people.
• 21:48
  If just are going from session to session, not fucking anybody.
• 21:52
  You could do that from home watching remotely or something.
• 21:55
  So people want to have those interactions.
• 21:59
  I've had some great interactions this week.
• 22:02
  I Jeff nailed it. Identifiers in Las Vegas is like
• 22:06
  the event of the year you're planning that.
• 22:10
  I'd love to get a hot take or give us some like information.
• 22:14
  What's it going to be like and are there is there anything you
• 22:17
  can tell us that maybe you'll be making public for the first
• 22:21
  time? I'd love that.
• 22:23
  Have a piece of that for the show.
• 22:24
  Yeah, give us a scoop, John. We might have puppies this year,
• 22:27
  OK, you know. You know, go on.
• 22:31
  I'm listening. I'm a dog person.
• 22:34
  No, I think you know where this conversation started about like,
• 22:38
  you know, you all have a lot of opportunities to go to things,
• 22:41
  right? And I'm a big believer that it's
• 22:43
  got to be incredibly valuable, important and fun, right?
• 22:47
  And so, you know, I think we're going to try and drive more of
• 22:51
  that, you know, you know, more innovation content on the show
• 22:55
  floor, more of the pavilions, more, you know, experiences and
• 22:59
  activations outside of the floor in different areas at the
• 23:01
  Mandalay Bay. And, and, you know, it's really
• 23:04
  important to make sure that we're creating value for
• 23:07
  everyone. And, you know, I want you to
• 23:09
  leave there and come back and be like, that was awesome.
• 23:10
  It's like, I have to be there and then you're going to tell
• 23:12
  four or five of your friends that you have to be here.
• 23:14
  It was so fun. The party at this place or the
• 23:17
  event at this place and the mainstage production was over
• 23:19
  the top and it was great. And so, you know, we're, we're
• 23:22
  working on all that right now. You know, our, our big goal is
• 23:25
  to get ahead of it, you know, and, and, and you know, we've
• 23:29
  got a bunch of keynotes that we're working on right now and
• 23:31
  some really cool stuff. And you know, I can't drop that
• 23:34
  right now, but, but hopefully, you know, our goal is to have a
• 23:37
  good portion of those big time name speakers, you know,
• 23:41
  confirmed by the end of December and in market by the 1st of
• 23:44
  January. And you'll see like kind of the
• 23:47
  investment in what we're trying to do for, for next year.
• 23:49
  Yeah. I mean, I'll say that the
• 23:51
  Mandalay is an awesome location. I'm glad you're going back there
• 23:54
  again. I just had an idea.
• 23:58
  You can take it, leave it, whatever you want to do with it.
• 24:00
  But I remember going to some conferences maybe a decade ago
• 24:03
  and they'd have like beanbag chairs everywhere.
• 24:06
  Like you could just sit down and relax and get out of your
• 24:09
  laptop. I'd love to see Beanbag.
• 24:11
  Chairs until you have to get up and that could make a beach
• 24:15
  turtle trying to get out of it. I know Megan and Adrian from
• 24:18
  Fight Alliance. They're big on beanbag chairs so
• 24:20
  if you go like authenticate they have their beanbag which are fun
• 24:23
  but they sound great in theory until you have to get.
• 24:29
  I'll see if I can get you a beanbag chair, yeah?
• 24:31
  And you're a little. Personal one.
• 24:33
  Yeah. Yeah, that'd be funny.
• 24:36
  So let me ask you a final question here as we kind of wrap
• 24:38
  things up. You're putting on all of these
• 24:41
  events, right? You're focused on identity and
• 24:43
  security and all the things that cyber has does.
• 24:45
  But let's say you're not doing that.
• 24:47
  You can. Put together whatever.
• 24:49
  Con You want John. Con tomorrow?
• 24:53
  Con whatever. What is?
• 24:55
  What is that convention? What is the topic or the theme
• 24:59
  and where do you host it? So I, I think about this all,
• 25:03
  yeah, if I was going to do this on my own and what, what I would
• 25:06
  do, and not to be cliche, but like health and Wellness, like
• 25:11
  really, really has come so far, right.
• 25:15
  I've been working out and doing stuff for, for my whole life,
• 25:19
  basically playing sports. And I have two boys playing, you
• 25:21
  know, high level lacrosse and how much time and effort they
• 25:24
  put into it. And, you know, I asked a buddy
• 25:26
  of mine, like, how many private lessons did you have growing up?
• 25:29
  And the answer was 0, right? And I've given my kids and all
• 25:32
  of our kids have gotten all these things.
• 25:33
  And, you know, I think health and Wellness is, is, you know, a
• 25:36
  significant piece of our life. It's not going away.
• 25:41
  You know, I've invested in, in, you know, studios and, and
• 25:46
  fitness concepts and things like that.
• 25:48
  And so it's like where my passion is, you know, I just
• 25:52
  where the technology's taking that business.
• 25:54
  I mean, I don't know if you guys wear a woop, but I wear a woop.
• 25:56
  And you know, I mean, tells me I don't sleep enough to probably
• 25:59
  drink too much, but but it's, it's really fascinating.
• 26:03
  Like the more and more and more you read about this and, and,
• 26:06
  and understand it like where that is going, you know, so
• 26:11
  that's, that's one of my passions.
• 26:13
  And and if it wasn't that, it'd probably be something around
• 26:17
  wine and food. So where?
• 26:19
  So where? Would you have this health
• 26:21
  thought? What's the location?
• 26:23
  You know, I, I think Austin, TX is the greatest place really,
• 26:27
  you know, lots of technologies kind of consume that place.
• 26:32
  It's an incredibly fit city, right?
• 26:34
  I just love Austin, right? Like you could run down by the
• 26:38
  river. They've got all these concepts,
• 26:41
  you know, bike, you've got the water, you can row, you can
• 26:44
  boat, you can do all this kind of stuff.
• 26:45
  And and then I think just Austin's got a great music
• 26:48
  scene, super fun, great food. And yeah, it's probably, it's
• 26:54
  like one of my favorite spots. So that's probably where I
• 26:58
  would, I would. Host it.
• 26:58
  Good spot. They got a comedy scene too.
• 27:00
  Good stand. Up, yeah, down there, I have not
• 27:02
  rounded the mothership. Yet, but OK.
• 27:04
  Yeah. Have you?
• 27:05
  I have not. But I, you know, I, I, I, I've
• 27:08
  been to Austin maybe just a couple times and you know, I'll
• 27:11
  travel for work and I rarely spend extra time where I'm at.
• 27:15
  I'm in and out for business. But that is one of the things
• 27:18
  that I want to do is go see like, you know, I go see a
• 27:21
  comedy show, you know, go see something like a kill Tony or
• 27:24
  something like that. I love stand up comedy and any
• 27:28
  chance I can get to do like that?
• 27:29
  So that's on my list. But also going to like New York
• 27:32
  City. And I've been in New York City a
• 27:34
  bunch of times, would have never actually made it to a comedy
• 27:36
  club like, you know, Village or wherever AV but.
• 27:40
  So how about you guys? What what?
• 27:42
  What if you weren't doing a podcast for identity?
• 27:45
  I think we'd go into together, John and I want to like sharpen
• 27:50
  it a little bit, see if you're on board.
• 27:52
  Longevity. Yeah.
• 27:54
  So this longevity term that's like one of my mind worms that
• 27:59
  that's the mind viruses that I, I get onto YouTube and I watch
• 28:02
  all these people. It's getting so big now and
• 28:05
  there's like all these different branches that and I, I don't
• 28:10
  think it goes super nerdy like academic flongevity.
• 28:15
  It'd be more, of course, research based, but it would be
• 28:20
  more of like the commercial, like how does the average Joe
• 28:23
  wind up juicing the the length and quality of their life, You
• 28:29
  know, rather than just, you know, living to 80, maybe living
• 28:33
  to 90, but also making that last 10 years more valuable, having
• 28:38
  more muscle. That's part of it, but it's also
• 28:40
  all the other things like what are the supplements you could be
• 28:43
  taking? What are the things you can do
• 28:45
  to improve the quality of life of your life?
• 28:50
  If you can get me to show off, that's the trick.
• 28:53
  Yeah. Like.
• 28:55
  Yes, yeah. I just think that, you know, it
• 28:59
  wouldn't take long till you're in Vegas where you you know, you
• 29:02
  have to have like Comic Con level, like, you know, space
• 29:09
  some under the hell the people showing up for your confidence
• 29:11
  because you're the top longevity conference That could
• 29:14
  definitely. For sure.
• 29:15
  What do you? What do you think, Jeff?
• 29:18
  I mean, I'm a I'm a total nerd and dork.
• 29:21
  So it would probably. Be something technology related.
• 29:25
  I know there's already like a podcast thing that happens.
• 29:28
  So maybe some like that Ned National and something
• 29:31
  Association of Broadcasters has like a conference.
• 29:33
  So I don't know what it would be, but it would be probably
• 29:36
  some sort of like nerd con, like cool technology.
• 29:40
  So crap and let's plug if it and see what works.
• 29:44
  I'll tell you as a kid growing up, I went to the consumer
• 29:48
  electronic show. It was in Chicago at the
• 29:51
  McCormick Center and it was when the Nintendo was at sort of at
• 29:54
  the height of its hour, the original Nintendo.
• 29:56
  And I was blown away at how cool it was to be in this giant
• 30:01
  Convention Center. That's probably 11 as well would
• 30:03
  be able to play games that were cutting out, you know, in the
• 30:06
  future and seeing all the different technologies and stuff
• 30:09
  like that. CES is now massive.
• 30:11
  It's in Vegas. It's it's I will attend one some
• 30:15
  point, but that's the kind of thing that would interest me
• 30:17
  would be, you know, something, something like that.
• 30:21
  And I would do it in Japan. Paulin.
• 30:23
  So I've never really been to Japan other than the two
• 30:26
  airports on my waist coming and going from other other areas.
• 30:30
  But I think I would love to go to Japan because they definitely
• 30:32
  have the technology footprint that I have interest.
• 30:34
  All right. That's the other thing we need.
• 30:36
  We need an Idanoverse Tokyo. So John, sign me up.
• 30:39
  Let us know when you're ready for that and we will be at ZB
• 30:43
  and Me partner. Perfect.
• 30:44
  Yeah, we're always looking for a reason to travel.
• 30:48
  We're really gospel of ID 8 this 100 to everybody.
• 30:52
  All right, well, this has been a great conversation.
• 30:53
  John. I can't thank you enough for
• 30:55
  your partnership. It's been a great ride.
• 30:57
  Let's keep it going to 2026 again.
• 31:00
  How are you Shirley? She's awesome to work with.
• 31:02
  We're texting back and forth. She's like making sure we got
• 31:04
  convenient. I'm making sure that she's got
• 31:06
  hurt from that she needs from us.
• 31:08
  So it's been a. Great hardship there.
• 31:09
  And at that point I was just like, my, my team is awesome,
• 31:11
  right? I mean, from it, it's so fun
• 31:14
  building these things and when you got like a cohesive team,
• 31:17
  all kind of rowing the boat together and, and, and, and you
• 31:20
  know, the benefit that you come and experience this.
• 31:22
  But you know, kudos to these guys for busting their hump to,
• 31:25
  to making all this stuff happen because without them, this, this
• 31:27
  doesn't exist. Chris has been awesome.
• 31:29
  She's she's like this silence, like conference ninja.
• 31:34
  She's walking around. She's like making sure things
• 31:36
  going all right. She's like, all right, let's fix
• 31:38
  this. Yeah, for sure.
• 31:41
  Super Palm and very fun to work with as well.
• 31:45
  All right, let's go ahead and wrap it up for this
• 31:47
  conversation. Let's see, we're on the web
• 31:50
  iecpodcast.com. I have links in our show notes
• 31:53
  to connect with John on LinkedIn that also to the Cyber Risk
• 31:55
  Alliance so you can learn about all the stuff they work on.
• 31:57
  Again, not just identifiers, but so much more.
• 32:00
  And then yeah, like and subscribe and that helps us get
• 32:02
  out to these conferences, have great conversations and and all
• 32:05
  that fun stuff. And yeah, so leave it there for
• 32:08
  this week. Thanks everyone for watching and
• 32:11
  or listening and also I could be on the next one.
• 32:13
  Thanks guys. You've been listening to
• 32:18
  Identity at the Center. We hope you've enjoyed the show.
• 32:22
  Make sure to like, rate and review, and we'll be back soon.
• 32:26
  But in the meantime, hit the website at
• 32:28
  identity@thecenter.com. See you next time on Identity at
• 32:35
  the Center.