Hundreds of security professionals flocked to the RANT conference in June

Acumin has been running its monthly RANT events for the last seven years and it all started from humble beginnings.

IT forums are nothing new, but when attending the ones available at the time, Acumin founder and managing director Simon Hember and the team noticed the real value in these gatherings was found afterwards in the bar where everyone would chat and really get to the hard truths in the industry.

As a result RANT was born, a conference that would create a relaxed atmosphere to allow every attendee to get involved, bring forward their ideas and challenge the views of even the highest ranked security professionals.

Like the IT security industry itself, RANT has grown substantially over that seven year period and now sees hundreds of professionals turn up to network with one another and enjoy a few drinks afterwards – some things never change!

The last RANT conference featured some fantastic keynote speakers including Mark Stevenson from the League of Pragmatic Optimists and it even had some quirky aspects thrown in like a University Challenge competition, which saw the Royal Holloway University bring some of its brightest and best students to face off against the industry’s best professionals in a battle of wits.

Bruce Hallas, information security and risk management specialist at the Analogies Project, was in attendance and spoke of the reasons why he chose to be part of it.

“The whole concept of flipping it around so that you have the bar discussion on the stage I think was innovative, it’s unique, I haven’t seen that before and that was one of the reasons I was compelled to get involved,” he said.

Some of the hottest topics in the information security industry were discussed and debated upon at the event, in what was a wonderfully relaxed setting in London.

Gemma Paterson, marketing manager at Acumin, said: “RANT offers a completely different take on the standard security conference. We want people to feel relaxed, we want people to feel like they have the power to be able to stand up and say exactly what they’re thinking.

“So you might have a panel on stage of the most senior security professionals and you still want the audience to be able to feel like they can challenge those views and put their opinions across.”

The RANT forums and conferences are expanding at a staggering rate and with the sector changing so rapidly there’s always something to rant about. It brings together some of the best thought leaders from around the world and opens up massive networking and learning opportunities for professionals within the industry.

To see more from the event, you can check out the video content from the event here.