The Good

- The INL training courses are the highlight of this event. They are well attended and generally very well received. Some people new to SCADA and from the IT Security side of the shop are attending because they know SANS. This is a USG/INL success story and maybe a model. The price to the attendees $0 (like our SCADA IDS signatures). It seems one way the USG can push things out broadly to the community is to pay for something that can then be given away. (Full disclosure: INL is a client, and INL is a competitor in consulting and training).

- The format of 10-minutes from each panel member and 30-45 minutes of Q&A worked. Especially effective was taking questions in writing. This actually spawned more questions. It does give the moderator a lot of power and responsibility. Other venues should consider using this as part of the program.

- The panel members were strong. The audience was big.

The Not So Good

- The purpose of the Summit was to get ‘what works’ out to the asset owners in a way that other events have not or could not. In the end, there was about as much new information or help in this area from the conference portion as any large SCADA security event. The presenters were largely the same. Many of the attendees were the usual suspects. It was no better, no worse. I would have preferred SANS put their considerable clout behind an existing event. The community did not need another summit. (Again - the exception would be the INL training as part of a SANS training event. That was a big win.)

- The panel format was good, but it got a bit repetitive. It would be nice to see a little variety. The day was a bit long too (8AM to 8PM), or maybe I’m just a wimp.