Weathering the Blizzard of 2015 while preparing for TechSec

As what has been forecasted to be an epic blizzard bears down on us here in the Northeast—and from what the howling wind sounds like outside it would seem the forecast will come to fruition—we are making our final preparations for TechSec 2015 in sunny, warm, blizzard-free Florida.

We're thankful the storm is hitting now so as not to delay us from flying down to Delray Beach next weekend for what we expect to be one of the greatest TechSec conferences ever. (Check out the lineup ... )

Meanwhile, though, I have to think of some of our conference participants, those security folks out there in the blizzardy trenches. Just last week, Martha and I were speaking with Ralph Nerette, our second-day opening speaker—and also a recent past “20 under 40” award winner. Ralph is the director of security and emergency management at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston with excellent insights into the ever-growing health care security vertical.

Early during our conference call, Ralph said there had been a shooting next door at Brigham and Women's Hospital that he was closely monitoring; it was having an impact on security at DFCI, what with all the police officers and police helicopters in the area and nearby roads cordoned off.

A few minutes later, he had to end our call to deal with the fallout at his hospital in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Brigham cardiac surgeon Michael Davidson's and the suicide of the shooter.

Giving Ralph some time to breathe, I sent an email to him this past Monday to reschedule our discussion in advance of TechSec. He responded quickly that he was in the middle of preparing his hospital for the blizzard, but that he would get back to us as soon as he could. He's a busy guy, that Ralph.

Ralph is a dedicated professional, one of many whom you will meet at TechSec. His talk, “Five things you may not know about health care security,” will be moderated by the always entertaining Rob Hile, director of strategic accounts for SureView Systems. We are pleased to have both of them participate in our conference, along with all the many other dedicated, insightful security pros who are scheduled to speak and those who will offer ther expertise from the audience.

I look forward to seeing you at TechSec. And stay safe (and warm!) out there everyone!