October conferences

People ask when all the conferences seem to be for the IT industry, and I can answer that by saying that October here in Toronto is a busy month for IT shows and conferences.

In October, there were two IT conferences/shows that we attended, and they were SecTor and iTech Downtown.  SecTor is a multiday conference with sessions, and an expo floor, and iTech is a one-day show with some vendors and a few sessions.  Both of these conferences/shows are entirely different, and the cost is just one of the factors.

SecTor is an IT security conference with multiple high-level sessions that are happening over two days.  The sessions are done by experts in the field, and each person must submit a paper before they are even considered to do a session.  Yes, there are vendor sessions, but those are the extra sessions and not the core of the conference.  The expo hall is full of vendors, and it is a great location to find out about what is new and available for companies that are looking for the various IT security software and training.  The cost of this conference for the two days is around $1,800 if you don’t get the early discounts. The cost of the expo hall is $50 if you don’t have the discount code that is normally on the website.

iTech Downtown is a one-day show with a few vendors and some talks.  Most of the talks are offered by the vendors, so you are looking at a more selling presentation than an informational/knowledge talk.  Yes, there are some of these talks, but not as many as at SecTor.  This show is very small, and you will get a large difference in the booths at this show from Backup solutions, telecommunication, and equipment recycling.  The cost of this conference for the day, if you have to pay, is $50.

Both conferences/shows do offer a free expo pass if you are in the industry and look for the discount code or the offers that you get via email.  We do attend both conferences and normally will do more sessions at SecTor than we do an iTech.  Also, with iTech, they offer a spring show in the west end of Toronto, so the sessions in the fall are quite often the same as were in the spring.

These are just two of the conferences that are available for the IT industry, and I know that there are more.  A lot of the conferences are based on a product or core area, so it depends on what you are involved in, which conferences are best for you.  Sure, there are always difference conferences that you can go to and the price of attending various depending on what the conference actually offers.  There are some conferences/shows that are general IT, and then there are conferences/shows that are quite specific, so check to see what you want out of the event you attend.

If you are looking to attend IT conferences in Toronto, there will be events in the spring from March through June, and then there are the various other conferences in September through early November.  The best way to find some of these conferences is to talk to people in the industry as they will know of some of them as well as doing some research yourself. You could spend a lot of your time going to various shows/conferences, but you need to figure out what you want to learn and what is important to you.