When I was four, my mom bought me a little red tricycle. I distinctly remember the bounce of joy I did about my grandparents’ living room when I opened it. I can also vividly look back at the painstaking process it was for my grandfather to assemble the darn thing. Socket A and wrench B and tassel C and blah blah blah. I just wanted to ride, to feel the wind in my hair at a whopping .010 miles per hour, and see the, um, driveway. I was even OK with the ugly flowered helmet I would be forced to wear.

This was my first true lesson in the concept of fruits of labor. I’ve had thousands of lessons or experiences since, however the most recent came in the form of the Security Bloggers Meet-Up at RSA Conference last week. While it was an event borne of a blogger brainstorm a few years ago, this year it became my baby – though I was certainly not alone in parenting it. We grew the event from around 50 attendees in 2007 to 100+ this year and we even added live video streaming (most of which was recorded). But in the end it still held true to its mainstay as an event designed by the bloggers for the bloggers to provide them a (fairly) marketing-free zone in which to discuss whatever was on their minds.

And speaking of the bloggers, here’s a list of most of the bloggers in attendance:

Thanks again to the security blogger community and the wonderful committee of sponsors and supporters (Alan Shimel, Martin McKeay, Rich Mogull, Richard Stiennon, Jeff Jones, Dave Berkowitz and Sonya Caprio) for not only joining in what turned out to be an amazing event, but trusting me enough to steer it in the right direction. It wasn’t quite the same feeling as the glee of zooming about on my little red trike, but it was still one heck of a fun ride. And this time, I didn’t even need a helmet.

(Soon to be cross-posted to the official event blog)

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