Everyone needs to (attend) RANT

It’s good to RANT.

The Oxford Dictionary definition of a rant by the way is: “speak or shout at length in an angry, impassioned way.”

We like impassioned, there’s a positive in that description. The word angry we don’t like so much.

So, it’s good to RANT.

You might have observed the capitalisation of RANT, which is deliberate. It’s the acronym for Risk and Network Threat, a monthly, informal networking forum held by Acumin Consulting and NGS Secure.

It’s an event where senior end users in the information security and risk management industry meet with other professionals and experts to discuss – or rant if you will – about pertinent industry issues. It’s not only a great platform for debates, discourse and blue-sky thinking, but also an apt, focused and beneficial space in which to network.

Note – there are no security vendors or consultancies in attendance at such events. It’s not about sales. RANT exists as a genuine meeting place for like-minded thinkers to convene, whether it’s to query issues, rant about projects highlight certain topics or simply to listen and be informed. All under Chatham House rules.

If anything is sold, then it would be knowledge, and the price of that is, so long as you’re a member of the RANT community, absolutely zilch.

So why is face-to-face networking important? In a digital age where conversations occur over screens, where we can comfortably ring one another wherever we may be, send a tweet and get a tweet back almost instantaneously, it could be argued that such events are redolent of a bygone era.

Which would be a huge mistake. Human beings are, after all, sociable creatures – actual human interaction, as opposed to virtual relations, is almost innate, part of our DNA. Furthermore, 80 per cent of our communication – in fact, some studies suggest as much as 90 per cent – is non-verbal.

That in itself, without the need for me to elaborate, speaks volumes. An informal chat with one of your peers at an event like RANT, beer in hand, in comfortable surroundings, is conducive to creating a productive environment. Not to mention the invaluable face-time with the Acumin consultants who have their ear to the ground on all industry developments every month beofre RANT.

There’s the classic saying that “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. A classic for a reason, there is, of course, a semblance of truth in the maxim, but we like to go one step further and come up with a modified version:

“It’s what you know and who you know combined that provides you with a strong foundation.”

From which the opportunities are abundant. You just have to look for it, be amongst your professionals and get talking.

Let’s get ranting at RANT…impassionedly of course.