My friend and StillSecure VP of product strategy Andrew Grealy heard an interesting hypothesis today. It goes like this, you can judge the health of the US economy by the size and extravagance of the RSA show. The theory has these rules:
- The better the chotchkies (booth handouts) the better the economy. I can buy that one. This year the best give away I have seen is the bicycle that RSA is giving away. Other than that, I didn't see great giveaways.
- The more booth babes, the better the economy. I disagree with this one. I think sex is a recession proof business and in hard economic times, people sell sex more. So the more booth babes, the worse the economy is in my mind.
- The size and extravagance of the conference gala. A large party at a first rate location with top shelf booze and food is a dead giveaway to a booming economy. Andrew has a corollary to this theory that you judge the economy by the size of the cocktail shrimp. Being from Australia, home of giant prawns I think has a lot to do with that. BTW, this years party is at the Marriott and I hear it is not a "a" rated venue.
So though this years RSA is the biggest one ever, I would have to say based upon the Grealy law of economics we are in for a rough year.
