It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of an industry conference. Salespeople and Executives are often quite accustomed to the hyped-up environment of trade shows. But as an employee, there’s a good chance you don’t go to more than one trade show a year.

So, it can be a big break from your daily routine. Whether it is a “more” stressful or “less” stressful break depends on your job. But this is not an excuse to let down your guard when it comes to information protection.

I remember the first trade show I attended after 9/11, which featured a pre-show briefing from a security professional. The intent was obviously to sensitize everyone to the possibility of terrorist activity in such a large gathering.

But it is absolutely a good idea, especially these days, to remind people of the ever-present dangers of information loss when attending conferences. This is an environment where individuals with varied interests and motivations spend significant time in close proximity with each other. Many people assume they are either out of earshot, or don’t have anything of interest to the strangers nearby.

In addition to normal office security measures, here are some tips to think about, many of which were inspired by an insightful notice I found on the Web site of the Vancouver Board of Trade (HERE):

  1. Remember what your organization’s intellectual property is, and what your approved public messages are. There may not be privacy in any room or vehicle, so be careful what you say and to whom you say it. You need to be aware of what types of information might be of interest to other parties at the conference. You also need to know when to “shut up”. Comparing notes with colleagues from other companies may seem therapeutic, but things you say after a few drinks can come back to haunt your organization at the most inconvenient times. Your Marketing department probably works hard to create publicly consumable messages. You don’t usually have the right to circumvent that message.
  2. Don’t leave any information of value, whether paper or electronic, in hotel rooms (even safes or safe-deposit boxes), restaurants or conference rooms. In the same way that it’s easier if you “travel light”, it’s also easier to stay secure if you don’t carry too much information. Try not to carry gigabytes of information on multiple media devices, and reams of company paperwork carried in briefcases, laptop bags or luggage. Try to keep track of all information you bring. After all, how much work are you really going to get done? (I never got as much real work done as I thought I was going to when in “show-mode”)
  3. Keep an eye on materials handled by hotel or conference staff who may be convinced to retain copies. Hotels may be vigilant in enforcing their security policies, but there is no point in risking an encounter with a rogue hotel employee.
  4. Use encrypted media, and if possible encrypted “removable” media, for all tradeshow equipment that must remain on the show floor. While most tradeshows have security guards at entrances, there is usually no way to keep an authorized show floor worker (eg. a competitor) from wandering into any booth on the floor when no staff is there. For highly valuable booths, full-time dedicated security guards are not out of the question.
  5. Hold sensitive meetings in random, private locations chosen at the last minute. This minimizes the chances that competitors may be able to learn of the location and show up “by coincidence”.
  6. Turn off Bluetooth and wireless connections when anywhere on the conference property. These connections are easily tapped into. Address books can often be downloaded from Bluetooth devices without your knowledge. If you aren’t using a VPN connection when using your laptop Wi-Fi card, you may become an easy target of an attacker who knows there are a lot of targets in a small area at conferences.
  7. Use security cables to physically secure all valuable equipment. If you can’t carry a laptop with you at all times, make sure you secure it with an industry standard cable attached to a fixture that can not be easily removed, broken or cut.
  8. BONUS TIP (as if 7 tips aren’t enough!) - For many professional reasons, don’t drink too much. Not only do Loose Lips Sink Ships (see Item #1 above), it makes you a target for information miners and can give your whole organization a bad reputation… among all the other problems that excessive alcohol consumption can obviously cause.

If this seems like paranoid activity, think again. The world is a more competitive place, and competitors may see attendance at these events as having a high return on their investment if they can obtain an advantage by the availability of information. Does your salesperson’s laptop have price lists, customer lists, orders, or proposals on it? Is its hard disk encrypted? It is important to make your tradeshow attendance an investment rather than an added risk.

In recent years, the risk of information loss at industry events has clearly become more evident, largely due to the capacity and size of media storage and devices. A 10 minute briefing is a small price to pay if it helps any number of attendees to thwart a breach of their organization’s intellectual property or competitive information. Even Salespeople and Executives will benefit, especially if these events have become routine for them.