Went to the Plaza Hotel today for a Corporate Security IT Forum organized by Forbes and I had a great time. Arrived early to a warm welcome by the bright and beautiful woman who take care of every detail, got my badge and program and went in to a royal dining room where a huge breakfast was all laid out. Soon after sitting down with my fresh fruit I was joined by Robert Littlejohn, we introduced ourselves and then William Cook asked if he could join us. We had a great chat about travel, traffic, the Far East and the fine hotel we found ourselves at. It was only hours later after hearing them speak and reading the program that I realized just who they were.
It was a marathon of panels done at a very professional pace with all the appearance of a television show. As always in the small town that is New York I met a friend whom I hadn’t seen since the last Forbes event we attended. Then we had a great chat about New York food, seafood: some people today would have you believe New York food is bagels and pickled pig. New York is by the sea and our summers were always spent at the water swimming, fishing and eating fish.
We got chicken at the Plaza today, but there was nice silverware and linen napkins! The afternoons talks were very good, a who’s who of the Tech world all with worthy things to say.
By five I was ready for the cocktail reception, and lucky for me they had good beer at hand, big shrimp and what we New Yorkers love, crab cakes. I was in heaven and who should come up to me and say “hi Paul” but John Kirkwood, one of the afternoon’s speakers. He knew me, and I know I had met him before but neither of us could remember where or when. It just goes to show if you keep going to these events you’ll get to know everybody. Then Lt. Colonel Daniel Ragsdale joined in the conversation, he was incredible. Standing there in full military dress describing his trip to DEFCON, this guy knew his computer security and the three of us had a great time exchanging stories and amazing tales. What a day and now if I ever see Lt Colonel Daniel Ragsdale again he’ll come up to me and say “hi Paul” and I’ll know I met him before but I may not remember where or when but we'll have some more stories to tell...