Free stuff. Isn’t that what conferences are about? There was no shortage of swag at this evening’s RSA Conference 2009Welcome Reception, but nothing really jumped out as the uber-cool itemof 2009. Although there were no serious attempts to beat thecompetition via swag, there was plenty of one-upmanship when it came totechnology.
I had a chance to talk two vendors offering phone based two-factorauthentication. Authentify offers a solution which usesvoice/behaviour biometrics, while Phone Factor is PIN based. It seemsto me that the use of biometrics gives Authentify a technologicaladvantage, which is what they argue. Shortly after, I raised thispoint with someone from Phone Factor, who proceeded to offer a solidlist of acceptable reasons why would you by Phone Factor anyways.
For each member of the competition, a vendor must always have anargument that sets themselves apart. This one-upmanship is what makesthe RSA Conference Exhibition Hall so tiring: once you complete a firstpass of all the vendors, you are forced to take a second pass in orderto get clarification by asking deeper questions. I made a good starttonight, but my second pass is a must for tomorrow.
Here’s to hoping I won’t need a third pass. My feet hurt enough already.