Rounding It Up

Author: Andi Hindle

Welcome to Identiverse®  2021 – new hybrid format, same breadth and depth of high-quality content!  To help you navigate this year’s agenda with ease, we’ll be running a blog series over the next few weeks leading up to the start of the event. The series will focus on particular topics and themes that will be covered during the conference and will showcase presentations that are especially relevant to those themes. Keep in mind, these blogs aren’t intended to be exhaustive lists, so remember to check out the full agenda as you build your schedule for the coming weeks!

In this final blog, I’ll review a few of the topics we haven’t touched on yet, plus some personal favorites from this year’s agenda.

A few years ago, recognising the increasing importance of Identiverse to the digital identity professional, we added a ‘professional development’ topic to the conference agenda.  For the past three years, that topic has been curated in conjunction with IDPro®,the industry association for digital identity professionals.  This year, IDPro will have some important announcements to make: don’t miss the “Fostering Identity Excellence” keynote, or Sarah Ceccheti’s session “The IDPro Certification”.

It’s easy for busy professionals to focus on the technical topics—after all, there’s a lot going on in the industry!—but the reality is that our identity projects need more to ensure success.  Getting initial management support and approval for a project; driving organisation-wide engagement in a roll-out; helping team members develop their careers… these areas, and so many more, are all necessary to deliver on the promise of better digital identity.

Talks from Espen Bago and from Mike Kiser help get us comfortable with communicating about our profession, even when we get into areas that we’re less familiar with. Sangeeta Ranjit and Stephanie Lio provide helpful guidance about more effective collaboration, especially in stressful circumstances.  Tom Sheffield reminds us of the importance of listening and understanding alternative perspectives when we’re designing solutions.  

Inclusivity is of particular importance to our industry: so many of the systems we design need to be designed with inclusivity in mind lest they fail to work effectively for significant numbers of people. An all-star panel, supported by Women in Identity, will discuss the importance of diversity to the industry; and David Lee brings his own inimitable flair and deep experience to his session on inclusivity.

The diversity topic brings us neatly back to the main keynote stage, where we’re delighted this year to welcome Kay Chopard and Kimberly Sutherland to discuss “Inspired Leadership: How Women Rise”.  You can see the rest of our main stage lineup here.

Identiverse continues to be hugely grateful to all our sponsors: there are a few sponsored sessions and masterclasses scattered throughout the agenda.  Sponsored talks abide by the same ‘no marketing’ ethos as the rest of our agenda, and are subject to the same rigorous review process prior to presentation. The information our sponsors bring to the conference is always timely, practical and actionable; and often informed by research and/or direct customer experience.  These talks are all highly recommended; and don’t forget to check out the expo hall (either in-person, or virtually).

I’ll close out this year’s agenda blog series with some heartfelt thanks.  First, to all our presenters: not only have they put in many hours of work to share their knowledge, experience and expertise with their peers; but they have also put in many hours of work developing that experience in the first place!  Second, to this year’s content committee, who have worked tirelessly to review hundreds of proposals and—subsequently—presentations, and to provide a wealth of input to help guide all our topics.  Third, to all of our sponsors, who help make Identiverse happen every year.  Fourth, to the operations team behind the scenes, who this year have been figuring out how to deliver a hybrid event—virtual, and in-person, operating seamlessly and effectively together.  And last, but by no means least, to Andre Durand and to Ping Identity, for founding Identiverse and for continuing to help the event, and the industry, develop for the better every year.

If you haven’t yet registered… there is still time, and we’d love to see you there.  And if you have already signed up: thank you for joining us this year.  Whether you are attending in-person or remotely, we look forward to your participation at Identivere 2021.  Have a great conference!