Simon on: ITCM - Be responsible for event registration security

We’ve seen many major companies experience security breaches with the Ashley Madison hack even leading to suicides, so isn’t it time industries take a look at how it protects its customers’ data?

The events sector has seen an increase in the number of conference websites which requires its delegates to sign in, pay to attend, and book sessions, and while the companies behind the sites should be doing everything to keep data secure, some of the onus is on those registering.

When it comes to password choice, size really does matter, but websites still insist on implementing password limitations.

Read the whole article about the vicious password circle, as featured on ITCM, by clicking here.

Simon on: Stop droning on about drones

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has finally created a drone code for those who seem hell-bent on implementing these unmanned aircraft here, there and everywhere – and about time too.

I have nothing against this technology. I myself am an avid hobbyist when it comes to drones and I’m the first to concede that they have amazing potential in all sorts of areas but conferences and other indoor events isn’t one of them.

It simply seems another case of pointless technology use – why risk endangering others, breaking several laws (and incurring fines or prosecution) and wasting valuable conference planning time filing flight plans, checking pilot licences and insurances when we already have video?

Video today holds all kinds of possibilities and the quality along with software advances means footage can be captured just as easily, and a lot more safely, using this method.

I think what gripes me most about the explosion of drone popularity and the shunning of video is that the industry hadn’t even mastered video correctly yet, but has moved onto something far more complex and dangerous without even considering the multitude of consequences.

Anyone can buy an off the shelf drone but with it comes a mass of responsibility – it cannot just be used at a conference for the sake of it, and really, is there anything that is going to come out of the conference that requires such an expensive and dangerous piece of tech to be used? 

Originally published in Conference News

Simon on: When is a presentation not a presentation?

I’ve attended a lot of presentations at events over the years and it seems to me that the definition of a presentation is increasingly getting lost somewhere along the way.

The dictionary says a presentation is a “speech or talk in which a new product, idea or piece of work is shown and explained to an audience” but I’m seeing an increasing number of presentations that had a brief introduction and then the speaker told us to get into groups and discuss the topic.

I don’t believe people attending these sessions want this. I believe they want to hear an expert tell them things about a particular subject that they didn’t previously know and to provide them with ideas and data that they couldn’t get anywhere else.

The method demonstrated by these speakers who turned the session into a discussion is the equivalent of buying a book to find that after one chapter, the rest is blank and all it says is ‘discuss’.

It all seemed a bit of a cop-out and made me feel that the presenters didn’t really know the subject – it was probably easier for them to lead the group to a discussion as it absolved them of any responsibility. 

Originally published in Conference News