CALL FOR SPEAKERS

The 4th Software Security Summit is soliciting proposals for speakers for tutorials and technical class sessions.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2006
SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED

The 4th Software Security Summit is a technical conference that helps software development managers, software architects, applications programmers and other IT professionals understand the specific security weaknesses in their software infrastructure and learn how to fix them or prevent them from being present in the first place. Conference attendees should gain the skills to combat existing security problems and learn how to develop new systems that are architected from the ground up to resist exploitation.

Classes and tutorials will teach software security techniques and strategies across the entire application development life cycle. Emphasis is on practical, hands-on information that conference attendees can put to work in their organizations today.

The 4th Software Security Summit features a two-day program:

Monday, April 16: 60-minute technical classes featuring practical education for software security evaluations, planning strategies, tactics and techniques. Classes will be tracked as technical or managerial in focus.

Tuesday, April 17: A selection of concurrent full-day tutorial sessions.

Sample Topics and Areas of Interest

• Building More Secure Software
• Boring From Within: Understanding Internal Threats
• Test the Security of Your Software
• Mastering Java/J2EE Application Security
• Managing Security of Web Application Platforms
• How to Measure and Value Software Weaknesses
• Secure Software Configuration and Delivery
• Managing the Software Development Security Process
• Best Practices for Securing Linux or Windows Applications
• Understand Software Security Vulnerabilities
• Fundamentals of .NET Framework Security
• Developing Web Security Expertise in Your Organization
• Implement a Layered Approach to Application Security
• Architect Security into the Development Life Cycle
• Security Metrics That Matter
• Hunting Down Web Application Vulnerabilities at the Source
• Practical Ways to Build Security Into Web Applications
• Security Management Within a Development or QA Team

You may also download the Course Listing for the 3rd Software Security Summit, to use as a reference. If you have questions about the content of technical classes for the Software Security Summit, please contact Ted Bahr, Conference Director, at ted@bzmedia.com.

Description of Tutorials and Technical Classes

Tutorials are intensive full-day workshops. They provide in-depth, practical technical training for conference attendees.

Technical classes are 60 minutes in length. Longer topics can be proposed to spread across two consecutive sessions in a “Part 1, Part 2” format.

Event Schedule

Monday, April 16, 2007
9:00 am – 5:00 pm: General Sessions, 60-minute classes

Tuesday, April 17, 2007
9:00 am – 5:00 pm: Full-Day Tutorials

Speaker Deadlines

SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED

• Abstract submissions including speaker bio by September 15, 2006
• Notification of speaker acceptance by September 22, 2006
• Final class hand-outs and presentation material by January 31, 2007

Preparation of Submission

Your speaker proposal requires the following elements:

• Title of class or tutorial.
• Detailed abstract, 150-200 words, describing specifically what the attendee will learn in the class. Presentations on why software security is important are unnecessary at a focused event like this. Please focus on practical knowledge and what attendees can use to help improve software security when they get back to their office.
• A list of any prerequisites for taking the class.
• New for this event will be a Manager’s track. Please indicate whether your class is better classified as part of the technical or managerial track. There are more technical class slots then manager classes available. Please note that IT managers attending the Software Security Summit are presumed to have a solid technical background, and we are still looking for more advanced material for this group.
• Please indicate whether this class is at a beginner, intermediate or advanced level. Intermediate and advanced classes are preferred.
• Speaker bio, 125-150 words, including current position and job title, key published works and academic credentials, if applicable.
• Speaker photograph, high resolution suitable for printing in the conference catalog if the proposed session is accepted. See www.bzmedia.com/photo.htm for our photo guidelines.
• Speaker name(s), mailing addresses, telephone, mobile phone number and e-mail.

Submit this information electronically as a text e-mail or as a Word document to Kathy Bruin, Conference Manager, at kbruin@bzmedia.com. Incomplete submissions may not be accepted.

Important Notes

The 4th Software Security Summit does not compensate speakers or reimburse travel or hotel expenses. One speaker from each class will get a full conference pass, however, worth $995.

Speaker/class evaluation forms will be handed out, and your scores will be important in determining future speaking engagements with BZ Media. As such, if accepted, please prepare and submit your slides by the required deadline of January 31, 2007, and practice your presentation beforehand. Showing up and “winging it” benefits no one. We will share the results of your evaluations with you after the conference.

Speaker evaluations and attendee satisfaction are influenced by the quality and timely presentation of course materials and handouts. Materials must be submitted by the above deadline in order to be duplicated and handed out at the conference’s expense. Speakers submitting materials after this deadline will be assessed a $200 per-course fee for late materials handling.

Submissions from experts and practitioners in the field will be favored over submissions by vendors. Attendees react negatively to thinly veiled product pitches, and they will tell us about it. Such presentations reduce the credibility of the 4th Software Security Summit as well as the number of future attendees. There is ample time to meet with attendees in the demonstration hall, which is the appropriate place to sell products and services.

Submissions are accepted from people, not from companies, and all agreements with the Software Security Summit are with the speaker, and not with the speaker’s employer. As such, if a speaker changes employer, that speaker is still expected to teach the class. The speaker’s employer may not substitute other speakers without approval from the 4th Software Security Summit.

Experience has shown that classes taught by more than one individual suffer in evaluations and in attendee satisfaction. We strongly recommend that you choose the best presenter among you and have that person teach the class alone.

The 4th Software Security Summit reserves the right to edit class titles, abstracts and speaker bios to best present the course content to prospective conference attendees.

Contacts

Questions about the technical conference program should be addressed to

Ted Bahr, Conference Director
+1-631-421-4158 x101 or ted@bzmedia.com

Speaker materials should be sent to

Kathy Bruin, Conference Manager
+1-415-642-6108 or kbruin@bzmedia.com

General questions about the event should be addressed to

Donna Esposito, Director of Events
+1-415-785-3419 or desposito@bzmedia.com