Posted 9:47 AM

Gartner IAM Conference

I'm in LA for the Gartner ID conference, an event which I skipped last year. So far, I think I should have skipped this year, also.

The kickoff keynote was by Gartner VP Toby Bell. He's not, though, a VP in their identity practice, or anything close to it. According to his bio, his "key areas of coverage include vendors and trends in the enterprise content management (ECM) marketplace, business process management (BPM) as it applies to enterprise content (CEVA/WEBA), and content strategy, valuation, mining and analytics." He spoke about "reputation" but his biggest takeaway was "Reputation is useless in an anonymous world." I guess whistle-blowers aren't allowed in his reputation universe.

Right now I'm listening to "Financial Crimes Expert" (does that mean he's a former criminal?), Robert Rebhan. Actually, he's a former LA cop. He's talked about Shakespeare, the bible, and Batman while telling stories about "identity theft", that cringe-inducing term. 20 minutes into his talk, "Advancing Your Fraud Prevention Tactics: A Unique Look into Identity Theft and Financial Crimes" we've yet to hear the first tactic. But we have heard about how waiters & hookers steal credit card numbers.

And the internet access is spotty, too.

Labels: Gartner, trade show