It's not every day you get invited to give a TED Talk. So when the students at Elon University asked me to come speak at their TEDx event — an independently organized, officially licensed TED conference — I packed my bags and hopped on a plane to North Carolina.
The trip up was an eventful one. I sat next to a Dentist and a Nuclear Engineer on the plane, and we talked about technology in general and, of course, the subject turned to cyber security. They really seemed very interested and we agreed to keep in touch. Then, in the Lyft on the way to the university, my driver Diallo and I talked about his experience in the IT industry. He even let me practice a little bit of my talk with him and gave me some great pointers.
At Elon, the students had prepared a very professional setup, from the TED-esque staging to the efficient tech crew helping with the slides and the mics. It was a fun, intimate conference, and I even got some laughs. I spoke about the cyber security industry's skills gap, how we can solve it, and how we can learn lessons from the hacker mindset for success in other disciplines.
I'm so glad I got to share the stage with some amazing speakers. Many thanks to the student coordinators and sponsors of TEDxElonUniversity for the invitation.
Watch the talk:
Flip through the slideshow for some pictures from the conference: