🚨 COMMS ALERT: When Security Speaks a Thousand Languages
RSAC 2025 is coming, and while everyone’s polishing their demos and scrambling for booth space, they’re missing what actually moves markets: a coherent story that sticks.
I watched it happen last year—security companies with groundbreaking tech wandering the halls with messaging so fragmented it looked like it had been through a shredder. Different team members told different stories. Booth graphics contradicted website messaging. Sales decks highlighted features the CEO never mentioned.
Let’s be clear: Your brilliant innovation means nothing if no one can explain why it matters.
Your narrative at RSAC needs three essential elements:
🧩 Coherence: One story that everyone—from CEO to sales engineer—can tell consistently
🔍 Clarity: A message simple enough that a sleep-deprived CISO can understand it between coffee breaks
đź’Ą Distinctiveness: A point of view that doesn’t sound like the 3,000 other companies at the conference
When a VC partner or analyst walks away from your booth, they should be able to immediately articulate your main customer success story and how it connects to your company’s vision. Anything less is a waste of your six-figure investment in being there.
đź“Ł THE AUDACIOUS TOOLKIT: THREE PROVEN RSAC NARRATIVE WINS
1. The Pre-Conference Narrative Audit
Gather your key customer-facing staff. Ask them to write down your company’s core message in one sentence. Compare the answers. If they don’t align (they never do), you’ve identified your first problem to fix before RSAC.
2. The 8-Second Coherence Test
How long does it take your team to explain your value proposition? If it’s over 8 seconds, it’s too complex for the RSAC floor. Refine until someone who’s never heard of your company can repeat it back accurately.
3. The Narrative Command Center
Designate one central digital hub where your team can access the approved RSAC narrative elements, customer stories, and talking points. Update it daily during the conference based on what’s resonating. (I use Slack for this).
🔄 FOUR PILLARS ASSESSMENT: RSAC EDITION
🔥 Ignite
- Does your pre-RSAC content strategy create anticipation for your conference presence?
- Have you identified the specific conversation you want to own at the event?
- Is your ignition message controversial enough to cut through the noise?
đź“Ł Amplify
- Have you armed your speakers, booth staff, and executives with the same core narrative?
- Are your customer success stories packaged for easy sharing?
- Does your social strategy amplify your physical presence or operate in parallel?
🔄 Sustain
- Have you planned content to maintain momentum post-conference?
- Is your follow-up strategy personalized based on different engagement types?
- How will you measure narrative retention among prospects you met?
🚀 Propel
- Does your RSAC narrative connect to larger industry trends?
- Have you created clear paths from conference conversations to sales discussions?
- What’s your strategy for leveraging any media or analyst meetings beyond the initial coverage?
đź’¬ ASK CARM
Q: “How do I make my security company stand out when everyone at RSAC claims to use AI and have ‘comprehensive’ solutions?” – Frustrated in Fintech
A: Stop trying to stand out by saying you’re different—be different by focusing on what you won’t do. “We don’t do X, because we believe Y.” Constraint creates clarity. Pick the one problem you solve extraordinarily well, and let competitors exhaust themselves claiming to solve everything.
đź“Š GOT AUTHORITY?
RSAC Metric to Track: Message Consistency Score
At last year’s RSAC, we tracked 25 security companies and found that only 18% maintained message consistency across their booth, website, and executive interviews. Those with 90%+ consistency saw 2.3x higher meeting conversion rates and 40% more earned media mentions. Before RSAC 2025, record your executives explaining your value proposition, then compare it to your marketing materials. Score alignment on a scale of 1-10, then fix any discrepancies.
📡 SIGNAL FOCUS
I’m observing a troubling pattern in security communications: companies are adding complexity to seem sophisticated. The most effective RSAC performers I’ve worked with do the opposite—they ruthlessly simplify until their message is impossible to misunderstand. Remember: confusion is never impressive. Clarity is your competitive advantage.
The hard truth about RSAC: the companies that win aren’t those with the biggest booths or the most sophisticated technology. They’re the ones that tell a story so compelling and coherent that people carry it with them long after the conference ends.
While your competitors crowd the Moscone Center with jargon and technical specs, you have an opportunity to connect through story—to make people feel something about the future you’re building.
A booth can be forgotten (unless you’re Wiz or Jupiter One – those were AMAZING booths!) A demo can blur into the dozens of others seen that day. But a powerful story told consistently across every touchpoint? That’s what turns conference attendees into customers and advocates.
So before you finalize your RSAC plans, ask yourself: Is our story coherent enough that a stranger could retell it accurately? If not, that’s your real work between now the end of the month.
Hope this helps make your RSAC prep easier. Let me know what you think.
