A Day in the Life at Catalyst ‘07

Blogger: Mark Diodati

Many of our customers tell us that their Catalyst experience is jam-packed, enjoyable, and satisfying.  At Burton Group, we feel exactly the same way.  We also experience a little euphoria after the conference, as we have been preparing for months for the event.  Thursday, June 28, was a satisfying day for me.

7:00am – 8:15am. Lori, Kevin and I have a breakfast meeting with the participants of our Policy and Privilege Management (PPM) session.  Burton Group is trying a new time-compacted, multi-speaker format.  Because there are six participants (excluding Lori, Kevin, and I), we want to review the logistics of the session.  We also want to re-emphasize the virtues of brevity as we are concerned about running over schedule.  The PPM session has three subtopics (role management, entitlement management, identity audit), with a customer and industry participant for each subsection.  Lori and Kevin are a pleasure to work with.  The IdPS analyst team gets along very well, and works well together.  I have three Diet Cokes before the PPM session begins.

8:35am – 10:20am.  The PPM session goes well.  Debbie Cuadros provides an engaging story about DIRECTV’s roles deployment that is well-received by the audience.  For the entitlement management subtopic, I briefly present an overview on entitlement management, then host Timothy Moore (First American) and Brendon Unland (Jericho Systems), who provide the customer and industry perspective.  To our amazement, everyone sticks to the schedule, and we have time for questions at the end.  Overall, I am pleased with the session format, and I document some session-improving thoughts for the IdPS analyst post-mortem meeting in July.  I have another Diet Coke during the session.

10:40am – 11:50am.  I listen to the presentations from Joe Long (Microsoft) and Ranjan Das (SAP).  I also review my PowerPoint slides for my afternoon presentations.

12:10pm – 1:40pm.  I meet with Diana at the local Starbucks for a final review of our PCI-FFIEC session.  It’s not all work and no play.  Diana and I are good friends, so we have a few laughs and catch up a little.  The walk between the Hilton and Starbucks seems particularly refreshing, and I realize that I have not set foot outside the Hilton in two days.  Before Diana and I head back to the hotel, I order my second Venti Mocha and quickly dismiss the passing thought that I might have issues with the demon caffeine.

2:05pm – 2:25pm.  Jamie gives the keynote presentation for the Infrastructure Services Model (ISM) sessions.  These sessions cut across our Application Platform Strategies and IdPS services.  Jamie does a great job of speaking to this diverse audience and setting up the upcoming ISM sessions.

2:25pm – 2:50pm.  I deliver my identity services presentation, and then call up the identity services panelists.

2:50pm - 3:50pm.  I host the identity services panel.  We have great panelists, and our dialogue goes very well.  Don Bowen (Sun), Bill Dettelback (BEA), Phil Hunt (Oracle), Nick Nikols (Novell), and Andy Rappaport (CA) all do a great job.  The dialogue is insightful, free of vendor market-speak and sniping – due in no small part due to the expertise and professionalism of the panelists.

4:10pm - 4:45pm.  Diana and I deliver the PCI-FFIEC presentation.  She’s a great speaker.  Before we present, I have a sugar free Red Bull.  I reasonably conclude that I have a caffeine problem.

4:45pm – 5:50pm.  I listen to Bob’s panel on compliance orchestration.

6:20pm – 9:45pm.  I run into Trent, Eric, and Pete early on at the hospitality suites.  Trent, Eric, and I are friends and share a similar sense of humor.  Pete is relatively new to Burton Group, but I think he’ll fit in just fine.  I have my first of a few alcoholic beverages since arriving at Catalyst.

10:00pm.  I head back to my hotel room after a very satisfying day.  I play guitar for a little while, then go to sleep.  I have four customer meetings tomorrow, starting at 7:00am.