Back from South Dakota – we had about 70 attendees last night, mostly business owners and leaders from the local community.  About 90% of the companies represented signed up to have their security assessed…why?

Because the event was focused on their business and a growing need every attendee had in common.  This event had nothing to do with products, or the WHAT Golden West Technologies (The sponsoring VAR) sells.  It had everything to do with educating those who have worked hard to build businesses, and who want to keep those businesses going in the future.

This is the time to be talking about security…just this week government representatives and consultants have made statements in the Wall Street Journal saying things like, “Consider every one of our networks to be compromised”, “All we can do now is focus on preserving the data”, “We are losing the war with cyber criminals.”  I also read in Wall Street this week that business leaders tend to shy away from knowing too much…but with a compelling campaign encouraging them to take action, we had over 70 responses in just a couple of weeks.  5 or 6 had to cancel, but consider some of the average attrition rates at lunch & learn programs and you’ll see numbers like 50 and 60 percent.  This was a great event and more are needed just like it.  The business leaders need the education, and the solution providers need to take a more active role in helping business leaders understand the issues and why they need to be involved personally.  Last night was a perfect example of this in action.

© 2012, David Stelzl