SANS Security Awareness Summit

Hi all! I'm Terry, aka Secure, in Style. ☺️

I'm trying to pivot my career from desktop support to cybersecurity, specifically security awareness and education. On this journey, I am trying to learn and absorb as much knowledge as I can from as many experts in the field as possible. I have been fortunate enough to obtain training vouchers from the central university IT group to obtain my SANS Security Awareness Professional (SSAP) certification, which is the most cherished certification I have obtained thus far. SANS holds many summits throughout the year for individuals to obtain valuable knowledge, and listen to many top experts speak. This year, SANS is holding an in-person security awareness summit in Las Vegas, on August 24-25. Attending summits count as credit towards renewing my SSAP certification upon its expiration date.

I approached management to try and obtain approval for some reimbursement so that I could attend this conference, as many duties in my desktop support role are security-related or security adjacent. Unfortunately, they denied my request, citing that my written job description does not list "security" among any of the responsibilities. Even though the summit is available to watch via live stream, I am determined to try and attend the event in person, so that I could learn from some of the leading security awareness, education, and culture experts, as well as meet with many of the people already in the field with whom I interact on various social media, such as LinkedIn. Sadly, I simply do not have the personal funds to attend this event unassisted.

I am seeking to raise about $2,000, which should cover the cost of attending the summit, airfare, and hotel stay.