ISACA South Africa Conference attracts international speakers

The ISACA South Africa 2006 conference to be held at the Sandton Convention Centre on 11th and 12th September 2006 is set to be a huge success, according to Max Blecher, the President of the local chapter.

"We have been able to secure four leading international presenters on IT governance, IT security and IT assurance and there is a very strong contingent of speakers from local industry and professional services firms as well. We have also extended the bring-a-colleague-at-half-price early bird special for ITWeb readers until 31 July 2006," said Blecher. "This is extremely attractive pricing at an average rate of R2 962.50 per delegate and has been very well subscribed indeed."

Blecher confirmed that the two keynote speakers at the conference would be:

Howard A Schmidt, President and CEO of R & H Security Consulting LLC, an information security specialist with a distinguished career in defence, law enforcement and corporate security spanning almost 40 years. Among his many achievements, Schmidt has served as VP and Chief Security Officer and Strategist for online auction giant eBay, as well as Chief Security Strategist for the US CERT Partners Program for the National Cyber Security Division, Department of Homeland Security.

Erik Guldentops, advisor to the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) and an Executive Professor in the Management School, University of Antwerp in Belgium. Guldentops initiated and has headed the development of COBIT since the early 1990s and is the head of the ITGI COBIT Steering committee. He also serves on the ITGI Committee and is a key driver of the ITGI`s Val IT Initiative. Guldentops is a retired Director of security of SWIFT.

"In addition to Howard and Eric, we have two other fantastic international speakers," added Blecher. "We are very excited that Barry Lewis, the President of Cerberus ISC Inc based in Toronto, will be presenting at our conference. Barry lectures, consults and has co-authored several books, including Wireless Networks for Dummies and Computer Security for Dummies. Also, we welcome Jerome Hardy, the EMEA Director Quality Solutions for Compuware based in France, to the ISACA South Africa 2006 Conference."

"The ISACA SA 2006 conference offers incredible value to delegates," said Blecher. "This is because ISACA is a non-profit organisation and we invest a large proportion of our funds back into the events that we organise. It is almost unbelievable that we are offering a two-day conference with four international speakers, a host of top class local presenters and at a top class venue - all for R3 950 - and this excludes the early bird registration discount!"

Blecher indicated that ISACA would be extending the early bird registration deadline for ITWeb readers until the end of July 2006 and that information on conference registration as well as up-to-date information on the conference programme was available on the ISACA South Africa Web site (http://www.isaca.org.za/other.asp?page=Event&eId=26). Readers may contact Juanita Trutter on (011) 469 4352 (mornings only) or admin@isaca.org.za for further information.

As an additional benefit, ISACA South Africa will be holding the following two training courses after the conference. Training course details are in the process of being finalised and special rates will be applicable to all delegates that attend the conference.

Wireless Network Security and Audit:

Barry Lewis (see resume above) will be holding two one-day courses covering a variety of wireless network security and audit aspects.

ISACA International CobiT Implementation Course:

Gary Hardy (founding member of CobiT Steering Committee, Technical Coordinator ITGI and Director of IT Winners) and Max Blecher (ISACA South Africa Chapter President and Managing Director of Virtual Alliance) will be presenting the two-day official ISACA International CobiT Implementation - IT Management and Governance course.