Thursday, April 10, 2008

Clever way to survive

Before I get into the real story here, I just have to say that as miserable as it was getting up at 6am this morning and getting on BART at 7am, I do love the less crowded, tamer trains...with open seats! I enjoyed the calmer commuter train atmosphere in the very early morning, versus the post-8am rush that I'm usually involved in. Although, I probably wouldn't voluntarily get to work this early daily.

OK...the point of the title...here it comes. I attended RSA Conference today at the Moscone Center. Aside from all the work responsibilities and schmoozing, I made an interesting observation. In the late afternoon, I started noticing homeless people inside the Moscone Center, with badges around their necks! A couple of them were lining up for free popcorn (provided by exhibitors), a few had cookies that were being given out at booths, and one of them grabbed a handful of mints, also available at booths. These homeless men were smart-- why? Well, as RSA Conference attendees started leaving in the mid-afternoon, tossing away their badges as they left the conference, the homeless pick them up from the trash bins, and wear them around their necks while walking right onto the show floors. Since Moscone is a weekly conference machine, these homeless men KNOW when to start going in to get themselves some food!

It was pretty evident they were homeless but show floor security didn't stop them from walking in, or just didn't mind them. I found that pretty ironic considering how strict they were about attendees going into track sessions, but here goes homeless folks, one by one, to the show floors, grabbing snacks to fill their stomachs.

Anyway, just an interesting observation. I guess being homeless, they learn how best to survive out there! Clever.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully this clever tact isn't picked up by someone with evil intentions.

bartmusings said...

Very good point. I should probably add that my use of the word "clever" does come with a hint of sarcasm....also, what I wrote about the conference security staff...why were they so OK with homeless people rolling into RSA?

Anonymous said...

What is even more ironic to me? That being an RSA conference, the whole tone of the event is "security-centric"... seems awful secure to me eh?

bartmusings said...

hahaha, you're so right! very ironic indeed!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh... me thinks you were probably mistaken.... what you interpreted to be "homeless" people were probably highly paid Information Security techies!