Just got back from a security show in New York. These New York shows are completely different than other shows that we do in terms of the attendee draw. West coast (including Vegas) shows draw from all over the country and also pull pretty good internationally. New York shows really only draw locally. I think this has a lot to do with 1) hotel costs in NYC are expensive, 2) traffic is a pain to deal with - even for locals. Show organizers don't seem to get it in terms of marketing, but they're trying.
The show organizers for the Infosec show this week didn't plan well - The first day of the event was on 9/11 and the second day was the start of Rosh Hashanah. Very poor planning. Sure, having a "security show" on 9/11 might sound compelling, but its bad for attendees to travel with the events going on in the city to honor the fallen. The cultural differences between both coasts and especially for the NYC area is one that organizers need to be aware of.
I'm back again next week in the Big Apple for a small, targeted security/tech event that I'll bet will outperform the one we just left. We also have Interop in NYC in October and it will be interesting to see how each of the three events compare for NYC shows.
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