SANS experience

billyr2009

Hello All,
I have a lot about people who have gone to SANS conferences and have talked about not just the training but, how the whole SANS experience was great. For example, how they liked the presentation. I will be attending my first conference this month so I was wondering what you folks who have gone before have thought of the conference and what you think was the most important stuff to take in.

docrice

I consider SANS to fall squarely into the "you get what you pay for" category, meaning there's a reason why the costs are expensive relative to other training outfits. I've only been to a couple of their conferences but they were both well-organized, the classes/instructors were top-notch, and there's more information thrown at you than you could possibly digest within a week. I'm sure the students who were helping out with conference organizing behind-the-scenes as part of the WorkStudy program make a big difference here.

The evenings also have panels and discussions on different topics which are great to attend, plus there's NetWars at the larger conferences. There's also the lunch-and-learns (sponsored vendor workshops) as well as a vendor room for a day or two. The non-class activities are all optional, but they're good value adds to the live-instruction conferences.

Keep a notepad handy to take notes. You'll get ideas and tips from not just within the class but from discussions (casual or otherwise in the workshops) which you might be able to use when you get back to your day job.