A little over three weeks ago, I was fortunate to join HelpSystems and become the Director of Product Management for our Data Protection suite, comprising of Digital Guardian Data Loss Prevention and Secure Collaboration and Fortra Data Classification.

As I was going through the hiring process, I learned that Digital Guardian has a large presence at RSA Conference and that they wanted me to attend to meet and talk with new and existing customers and meet with our valued partners.

Since this was my first-time attending RSA, and as a newly minted Product Director for a vendor, I thought I would share with others my perspective moving to the other side of the booth. Until recently, I was only on the customer side.

My first message is: I want to talk to you! 

“Sure Mr. Vendor, you want to put me in a headlock and get my information to spam me and get me to sign a contract!”

Not the case. I want to talk with as many people as I can to learn from them. So far, RSA has allowed me to connect with people from all over the world in one location - and they told me their stories which is incredibly valuable to me!

The second thing that stood out to me is that regardless of what country you are coming from, we all share the same challenges. Yes, we are all trying to adhere to the regulations that govern us, but most of the professionals here at RSA are not here to do the minimum. They want to do whatever they can to protect their customers and company assets.

The next time you’re walking past a booth and someone reaches out to say Hello… share a story!  Chances are you’ll get a story back and before long you will probably also share a laugh and you’ll both walk away richer with an extra bit of knowledge that may help you some day.

I know in the past if someone said Hello at a convention I would rarely stop. In retrospect, it was me that was losing out on that relationship.

If you’re still at RSA today and you happen to come by the Digital Guardian booth (#927, South Expo) - stop and say hello!  I promise, only stories and laughs, no headlocks.