Suggestions For Speakers / Instructors?

[BarryStiefel]

Hello All,

We're working away here planning the content for CPUG CON 2007. I want to get lots of feedback from our community to ensure we're providing the best possible content for our users.

Who or what would you like to see as a speaker or presentation at the conference? Is there anyone in particular you'd like to have as a speaker? Any topic in particular you'd like to see us cover?

What would you like to see?

[northlandboy]

Someone from Check Point that I can berate about their poor support?

Someone from Check Point that can explain their incredibly complex licensing, and why the licensing seems to change in advance of the technology - e.g. why do I need to apply a hotfix to R62/R60 HFA 04 to get a license working?

Someone who can explain the whole UTM/Power/Whatever new name we come up with today thing to me again, because I still don't get it?

Slightly more seriously, random thoughts off the top of my head:
<nb haven't fully read all the CPCON details, you may have covered some of these>
* Someone from Check Point to talk about product direction - not just their new products they want us to buy, but the core products that most people are using, and how they see those progressing. I'm thinking about stuff like audit trails - things have improved with rev. control & audit logs, but there is still a need for things like FireMon to do something that many sites now require as a minimum for compliance purposes.
* Related to that, perhaps someone from the SPLAT team to talk about future directions there. Greater integration with Smart Clients for SPLAT configuration? HW support, installation of third party HW monitoring tools, etc...(e.g. HP's system agents)
* Competitors? Hmmm...maybe not - but someone with experience across a broad range of platforms could be interesting, to talk about deployment/mgmt scenarios in mixed environments.
* Technical people from _very_ large deployments, talking about how they manage their environments. Stuff like change management, auditing, etc. How they schedule changes - some places do anything, any time, others limit numbers of changes, to certain times - and how they deal with the fallout from that.
* Audit/Compliance/Forensics stuff can be interesting
* Career progression for the FW-1 admin?
* Nokia/Nortel/Crossbeam to talk about their direction, and how they intend to differentiate themselves from SPLAT

CPCON looks pretty interesting. Like the idea of the mentor thing - I could have used that a few years ago. I'll probably be in Iran or Turkmenistan in May though. Probably have a beard too, although not a grey one...

Also good to see you've got Phoneboy along, even if he doesn't do so much CP stuff these days - VoIP is the future anyway.

Hope it works out well, and attracts enough attention to keep it going - maybe one day I'll be in regular employment again, and I'll be able to convince the boss to send me along...;-)

[melipla]

Nice suggestions! Maybe the theme for the conference should be, "Beat up the Check Point support engineer, for Free!"....

[BarryStiefel]

Originally Posted by northlandboy

Someone from Check Point that I can berate about their poor support?

I'm negotiating with Check Point technical support to have people on hand to provide face-to-face technical support and also to have a presentation giving the behind-the-scenes tour of their whole technical support operation.

Originally Posted by northlandboy

Someone from Check Point that can explain their incredibly complex licensing, and why the licensing seems to change in advance of the technology - e.g. why do I need to apply a hotfix to R62/R60 HFA 04 to get a license working?

One of our breakout sessions is going to purely on licensing, with a Check Point employee going through all the details.

Originally Posted by northlandboy

Someone who can explain the whole UTM/Power/Whatever new name we come up with today thing to me again, because I still don't get it?

I'm confused on all this also. We're working on getting someone from Check Point to answer these bigger picture questions and provide a road map for products (and their names) going forward.

Originally Posted by northlandboy

Slightly more seriously, random thoughts off the top of my head:
<nb haven't fully read all the CPCON details, you may have covered some of these>

* Someone from Check Point to talk about product direction - not just their new products they want us to buy, but the core products that most people are using, and how they see those progressing. I'm thinking about stuff like audit trails - things have improved with rev. control & audit logs, but there is still a need for things like FireMon to do something that many sites now require as a minimum for compliance purposes.

* Related to that, perhaps someone from the SPLAT team to talk about future directions there. Greater integration with Smart Clients for SPLAT configuration? HW support, installation of third party HW monitoring tools, etc...(e.g. HP's system agents)

* Competitors? Hmmm...maybe not - but someone with experience across a broad range of platforms could be interesting, to talk about deployment/mgmt scenarios in mixed environments.

This would be interesting. How about a breakout session on integrating Check Point products into a mixed infrastructure? Anybody want to lead this?

Originally Posted by northlandboy

* Technical people from _very_ large deployments, talking about how they manage their environments. Stuff like change management, auditing, etc. How they schedule changes - some places do anything, any time, others limit numbers of changes, to certain times - and how they deal with the fallout from that.

Can you provide me with contact information for someone who could present this?

Originally Posted by northlandboy

* Audit/Compliance/Forensics stuff can be interesting

* Career progression for the FW-1 admin?

We're going to have a General Session which is going to be either an open discussion or a panel discussion specifically about this.

Originally Posted by northlandboy

* Nokia/Nortel/Crossbeam to talk about their direction, and how they intend to differentiate themselves from SPLAT

I agree SPLAT is a serious competitor here. Nokia/Nortel/Crossbeam are being invited to give technical presentations on their products.

Originally Posted by northlandboy

CPCON looks pretty interesting. Like the idea of the mentor thing - I could have used that a few years ago. I'll probably be in Iran or Turkmenistan in May though. Probably have a beard too, although not a grey one...

Also good to see you've got Phoneboy along, even if he doesn't do so much CP stuff these days - VoIP is the future anyway.

Hope it works out well, and attracts enough attention to keep it going - maybe one day I'll be in regular employment again, and I'll be able to convince the boss to send me along...;-)

I wish you could make it. You're a valued contributor here.

Barry

[BarryStiefel]

Originally Posted by melipla

Nice suggestions! Maybe the theme for the conference should be, "Beat up the Check Point support engineer, for Free!"....

As appealing as that might be, I'm trying to make the conference as Check Point friendly as possible. I'd really like them to attend and contribute. Everybody knows technical support needs improvement; I'm hoping we can make improvements collaboratively.

[melipla]

Originally Posted by BarryStiefel

I'm negotiating with Check Point technical support to have people on hand to provide face-to-face technical support and also to have a presentation giving the behind-the-scenes tour of their whole technical support operation.

I thought this was already confirmed?

Originally Posted by BarryStiefel

One of our breakout sessions is going to purely on licensing, with a Check Point employee going through all the details.

I heard a rumor that the SecureClient licensing might change, will they be able to speak to that?

Originally Posted by BarryStiefel

I'm confused on all this also. We're working on getting someone from Check Point to answer these bigger picture questions and provide a road map for products (and their names) going forward.

I think everyone's confused on this. Probably a larger sign of Check Point's directional shift / expansion, which they appear to be in the middle of...we'll be lucky if we can get much info on this.

Originally Posted by BarryStiefel

This would be interesting. How about a breakout session on integrating Check Point products into a mixed infrastructure? Anybody want to lead this?

I see there's a pre-conference discussion on this "VPN Interoperability Workshop". Too bad it can't be a regular sessions.

Originally Posted by BarryStiefel

I'm trying to make the conference as Check Point friendly as possible. I'd really like them to attend and contribute. Everybody knows technical support needs improvement; I'm hoping we can make improvements collaboratively.

I would imagine the conf will be full of Check Point supporters, given the audience you're inviting. I am a little vocal about their support but overall I'm very pleased with Check Point. I've always wondered why Check Point hasn't done something like this before, however they don't seem to be a very "open" company as far as collaborative efforts go so that may be why.

My main question was to ask why the pre-conf sessions cost so much. Then to ask when you'll have instructors for them. Seems like you're doing a lot of work, thanks for taking the time to put it all together.

[BarryStiefel]

Originally Posted by melipla

I thought this was already confirmed?

Well, not yet. Culturally, I think it's going to be a little hard for them to provide "free" technical support, even though just about everyone who would attend would have a support contract. I'm working on it with them.

Originally Posted by melipla

I heard a rumor that the SecureClient licensing might change, will they be able to speak to that?

If it's been announced, there's no reason they couldn't talk about it. The licensing speaker in Jim Holmes who is a good guy. He knows his stuff.

Originally Posted by melipla

I think everyone's confused on this. Probably a larger sign of Check Point's directional shift / expansion, which they appear to be in the middle of...we'll be lucky if we can get much info on this.


I see there's a pre-conference discussion on this "VPN Interoperability Workshop". Too bad it can't be a regular sessions.

Maybe we can also make it a regular session. I'm still talking with the instructors.

Originally Posted by melipla

I would imagine the conf will be full of Check Point supporters, given the audience you're inviting.

The goal is for Check Point users and customers to get together and help each other out. I'm not a Check Point employee and this is an independent conference; I have no expectation that everyone attending will be a Check Point "supporter".

Originally Posted by melipla

I am a little vocal about their support but overall I'm very pleased with Check Point. I've always wondered why Check Point hasn't done something like this before, however they don't seem to be a very "open" company as far as collaborative efforts go so that may be why.

Yes, there seems to be some sort of cultural thing there. They seem very interested in Sales and Marketing, but when it comes to actually supporting the user community I see an opportunity for us to fill this need.

Originally Posted by melipla

My main question was to ask why the pre-conf sessions cost so much.

If you choose one, it's $800 for the day, the second is $700 and the third is $600. $800/day seems to be consistent with the normal cost of Check Point training classes.

Originally Posted by melipla

Then to ask when you'll have instructors for them. Seems like you're doing a lot of work, thanks for taking the time to put it all together.

Yes, it's a lot of work, but I'm enjoying doing it. I really want it to be a big success.

What role would you like to play at the conference?

Barry

[melipla]

Originally Posted by BarryStiefel

Well, not yet. Culturally, I think it's going to be a little hard for them to provide "free" technical support, even though just about everyone who would attend would have a support contract. I'm working on it with them.

I see the dilema, maybe you can spin it as "15 minutes of free advice". If you were able to get a few really good people you'd have a good selling point.

Originally Posted by BarryStiefel

Yes, there seems to be some sort of cultural thing there. They seem very interested in Sales and Marketing, but when it comes to actually supporting the user community I see an opportunity for us to fill this need.

Their approach does seem odd. It'll be interesting to see what level of interest they show vs what is actually given.

Originally Posted by BarryStiefel

If you choose one, it's $800 for the day, the second is $700 and the third is $600. $800/day seems to be consistent with the normal cost of Check Point training classes.

My initial thought was if the pre-con sessions were cheaper you could draw a larger crowd for the conference as a whole. Seeing as how this is the first CPUG CON (that I know of) it would've been good incentive to get people to come. For example, SANS is an excellent training conference which now-a-days costs less than 700$ a day. That price is up from a few years ago where it was around $500 a day. My other concern is that if I do another more established conference I'll get more bang for the buck so to speak.

Originally Posted by BarryStiefel

Yes, it's a lot of work, but I'm enjoying doing it. I really want it to be a big success.

What role would you like to play at the conference?

Still giving that some thought. :) I'd love to go and meet some cpug'ers and participate in some of the sessions, just not sure if that'll actually happen.