BSides Vancouver Island 2025 Opening Remarks

Okay. So, uh good morning everybody and welcome to Bides 2025.

So before I begin, I want to acknowledge that we are gathered here in the traditional and unseated territories of the coalish peoples uh including the Kowats Esquyimalt Songhes Malahhat and Wasanic nations. Uh we're grateful to share this place to learn together and uh on these lands. So uh I raised my hand in Hitchka to them. Um I also want to recognize that right now uh we have the ongoing uh BCGU strike for the BC government workers. Uh many of you here or your family members uh are directly affected. Some of you are standing on the picket lines and uh we just want to say we see you, we support you guys and we stand with you um in solidarity.

So, uh, before we dive into the heart of today's event, I just want to give a very special thanks to our title sponsor this year. It's the first time we've had a title sponsor in many years, and that is WebSack, a local company. Uh, and Roberto and team have been with us uh since day one. Um, >> yeah. and and their their ongoing support is a huge reason um why we're you know able to maintain our our our growth and building this community here in Vancouver Island. So why does besides matter? Um when it comes to conferences it's really easy to get caught up on the big stages. Um we didn't realize that we were

competing with Sector this week. Um, but you know those big stages have flashy demos, polished vendor showcases. Um, but we're different, right? We all know that we exist because the community matters. Um, because we want to have open honest knowledge and sharing amongst us. And because sometimes the most important lessons come from not only this main stage, but from the hallway conversations you have out there, from the lunch maybe meetings or dates that you're going to have later or having coffee in the coffee room. That's what really matters in our uh community. Um so here on the island, we're we're building something really unique. We're not like any other bides around. Um it's just not another stop on the bides map.

If you're like me, you like to go to a lot of bides. Um, it's a place where we really try to bring in local talent to kind of shine. Uh, we're newcomers. We've got two new speakers this year. I've never spoken before. That's another big reason. Um, but where we can learn, build, and create opportunities for everybody. We've got 30-year pros in the industry. We've got new graduates. We've got high school students. We've got a middle school student doing registration. Um, so it's the whole gamut. Um but let's not just forget like the work that we do has massive impact in the world not only locally our province um a lot of us are working

protecting the province protecting the nation reflecting the globe right that's what we do and here to loan so um every skill you bring every idea you share every challenge you tackle contributes to something bigger than ourselves so as today as we start today I have to write this down because I can't ad hoc it anymore I'm getting too old for that. Sorry. Maybe next year we'll have like money for a teleprompter or something like that. That'd be great. So, I'm going to ask you to do these things. So, we want you to a learn something new. Step into a talk um that challenges you. Maybe it's something that you don't know about. Uh connect with somebody new.

Like this community is the reason why I know so many people. Like I don't know if Kyle's in here. Where's Kyle? Kyle's over there. I met Kyle at Bides a couple years ago and that like now we hang out like every week and we go to the bar together. It's great. >> Come to >> Yeah, come to Cowin. Yeah, come to the beat up in Cowin. That's what we do. Um but we're always we're always like for him and I we we connected here. We're now trying to build a big tech community in the valley up north, a big cyber community and it's been great. Um share something, share your insights, questions, your story. You never know

who you might inspire. So that takes me to the next point. And she's hiding behind the pole right now. I don't know what she's doing over here. So when we did Besides the first year 2019ish, I can't remember now. It's been a long time. Um we did it at the university and we had a university student who WebSack actually gave a ticket to and it drove her kind of career into this industry. Um, and I think that's part of why we build this. And that's Sonia, who now is the president's advisors, you know, I I met Sonia at Bsides uh when I was leading the team at the credit union at the time and I'm like, "Hey, we've got

an internship coming up. You should apply." So, she applied and we hired her and she was awesome and then we gave her a permanent job and now she's like a senior analyst at the credit union like rocking it out running this. But like that's why Bides matters, right? like opportunities for people who may not necessarily see those opportunities. So, uh, and I'll close out, none of this happens without our our energy of our volunteers. We're always looking for volunteers. Stay tuned for more information on that. Uh, the organizing committee, it's a lot of work, but we do it because of passion. Uh, our speakers, we can't do it without our speakers. We get great speakers. Our sponsors,

we really can't do this without the sponsors, but most importantly, all of you. So, I just checked the stats before we we came on stage. This is again our biggest event we've had. We outpaced last year uh in in numbers coming in. So, we're getting bigger every year. It's great. So, uh let's explore, connect, enjoy the day, and together we're just not going to learn. Uh we're building a community that grows, supports, and uh protects uh our country. So, welcome to Besides Vancouver Island 2025.

I swear we know how to use a computer >> sometimes. >> Okay.