Welcome to the KuppingerCole Analyst Chat. I'm your host. My name is Matthias Reinwarth, I'm an Analyst and Advisor with KuppingerCole Analysts. And today is a very special episode because this is episode is taken really almost live at the EIC conference in Berlin, on Berlin Alexanderplatz, at the BCC. And for that I have invited two guests. First of all, I want to introduce, of course, my colleague Mike Neuenschwander. He is, of course, an IAM pro for decades. But it's his first time as an employee of KuppingerCole, being here at EIC. And the second guest is a surprise guest. This is Adam Callen. He is a blogger and he is here to just also have a look at EIC. And we want to talk mainly about, our experiences, their experiences at EIC. And that's why we're here. Welcome, Mike. And welcome Adam.
Thank you.
Hi Matthias.
We really want to start just catching first impressions, starting with you, Adam, you're just here for a few hours. How does EIC look like to you?
I love it. So my immediate first impression: I got dropped off by my taxi at the wrong place, so I had to walk here. So while walking here, I saw the outside area where you have all the food trucks and outdoor area. I think that's probably my favorite part because a lot of times you're stuck inside and stuff. It's nice to be out having a beer with your friends. And then inside, I love the flow of how everything's arranged. Like that was one of the first things I mentioned to you too, right? Is it's like it's not really vendor specific, so you're not being sold all the time. It's more about the talks and the people and the education that's going on. So for me, that's massive. So the fact that there's vendors there, it's cool, but it's very flow. You walk from place to place up and down. I mean a lot of it has to do with the convention center but you guys picked it. So I think overall it's a it's a really great opportunity which you guys put together.
Great to hear that. Mike, your first impression. It's your first time in BCC right?
Yes. I've never been to this venue. I really like it for the reasons that Adam just described. And, the food's been good. You know, you've not been here long.
I haven't been long enough.
Yeah, it's been, I was really impressed with, and the amount of it and things. I think that it brings people together though, which. Yeah, you know, so there's a lot of really good conversations going on in addition to all of the great content. It's well organized and, it's, yeah, it's almost too much to take in. It's not really possible to experience the conference in its entirety, while you're here. You have to kind of come back and watch some of the, some of the recordings that we've made. I will have to catch up on so much after this. Yeah, but it's good. It's, so many people here from the industry that in some cases I've known for a while ..., but, including Adam. So, yeah, it's been it's been great. And I gave two presentations today. Okay. One of them was good. Okay, tell me about the other one. I'm not going to tell you which one. You'll have to go and find for yourself. But, yeah, the rooms are full. A lot of good response. It's a lot of engagement. So that's been really fun.
Yeah. I always think of the EIC as a kind of class reunion of the identity people, because they always meet, they have different business cards or virtual business cards. That's right. But the same people. But the but the group is growing. So I really like that. And this time we have lots of those big names also here. And that's just great. And as you said they're giving great presentations. We have these six tracks in parallel which is just impossible to manage. But yeah, it's really a lot and it's massive. You and I, we usually don't have a choice. We are stuck into one of these tracks and, go moderate, go tell something. So we have to catch up anyway. But for people like Adam and all the attendees, this is really something that yeah, they have to decide first what to see live and where to contribute to, to ask questions, live and then what to catch up later with. So, content wise, when you said it's lots of great content, what struck you most? What is the most important thing for you personally? Not necessarily [...]?
My content.
Yes, of course.
But second to that I would say is, you know, obviously this this conference has been focused primarily around things like decentralized identity and how that's affecting, and all the sort of regulatory things that are happening in Europe that are bringing around, sort of national, digital identification and that kind of thing. And that's clearly, top of mind for a lot of people here. And, you know, you mentioned... like the crowd has been, we're much bigger than we were last year. And when, when people are like, you can only find standing room in most of the rooms that you're in. And then when people are out, you know, for lunches and stuff, it's like packed, you know, it's very, it's been very impressive, you know, and, but it's, it's well enough run that, that doesn't matter. But I would say that we also have a track on the future of identity. Right. And that is also very interesting because, you we've had a lot of really excellent speakers who are thinking, you know, 2 to 5 years out of the future and not just the immediate need to get decentralized identity in place. So I think that's a very important track as well.
Right. And I think from what we do, it's actually exactly between what can you do today. So real takeaways for just going home and implementing that. That's really actionable stuff. And on the other hand we have this future looking stuff. let's look into the next two years with a decentralized identity, hopefully two years maximum.
Yeah. We can't take it more than that.
Yeah, but also as you said, the future looking stuff really saying what happens in five years. What can you prepare today with the identity fabric to say, okay, what can we prepare for the future?
Yeah. And that's heavily influenced by AI, you know, because that's where... We've talked about this like in... and that's kind of an area... you're not just a blogger, right? I'm saying, do you want to say what else you do?
Yeah. It's just like, yes. So you know, our background, we do IAM implementations like everyone else does at these conferences. But, the fact that you bring in like, your the future conversation, or where IAM is going in the future, that's what our company focuses on, the most is the future tech more than anything else. So like DID, decentralized ID, self-sovereign ID, AI integration. To me, that's where everything is moving forward to and seeing the panels and all the talks that are going on here, that's what drew me on here, 100%, it was everything that we are 100% about back in the States that no one is talking about. That they don't even know is even really like, oh, [...]
So Europe’s ahead.
Yeah. I honestly think Europe is at least three years ahead of the States right now when it comes to identity. Okay, that's surprising. I'm here to figure out what is going on. I've been interviewing a lot of the people that are talking here and giving talks ahead of time coming up to this, and I've been learning so much. I had... like, digital product passports, digital twins, data spaces, all this stuff I've never even heard of. It's amazing. So I'm full fledged. I want to learn as much as I can while I'm here.
Okay and when it comes to your favorite topics for the upcoming days. So is this something that you're really looking into when it comes to
what do you really not want to miss for the next days?
Well, That's a little bit problematic because first of all, I don't want to miss sleeping because I'm still working that out, okay? So if I can get that done tonight, then, you know, then, of course, there are some really important... the thing is I get, pulled into interviews all the time and stuff like this, so. But I will miss some of these topics. But we do we will continue to talk about how, how much the regulatory environment in Europe is, you know, sort of moving the industry along, which I find, you know, fascinating. But it's also very difficult to keep up on some of those things. There's a lot to know. It changes often. Every, every country kind of has its own way to do that. So we have we have a number of things, the session names I can't remember exactly, and hopefully I'll put them in the comments or something. But those around eIDAS and, things that really informs me as well, because it's so difficult to keep up on that stuff. But it's relevant at the moment. Right.
So one thing I gotta say is, which ... tech, right. So your app that you have to keep track of what's going on. Like if you look at my calendar, it's completely packed with plus one plus two. It pretty much every hour. Like there's so many things I want to visit. So this has been super beneficial for me to keep track of what's going on. And almost everything is about AI and decentralized ID, but the ones that I found the most interesting that I'm really looking forward to, is those that are talking about AI and really breaking down kind of the authorization levels of users. So therefore only users have certain levels of access within the LLMs of returning data. Like, I think that's going to be really pertinent in the future. So I'm really interested in seeing those talks. So those are pretty big. And then the other thing is, aren't the talks at all. It's actually like the camaraderie just meeting people and meeting new people. To me, the networking aspect here is huge and is worth just coming out a little.
Yeah, it's a good point.
Right. And when you say, the interaction part of people with each other, that's the same that we see also in the industry that the technology is getting much closer together. We are talking about interoperability. We're talking about integration about as you said, what is what is identity allowed to do in which ecosystem and this transferability of an identity from A to B into say, okay, I have this level of, of assurance here and this level of assurance here. And I cross over from one use case, banking, to another use case, travel. So this integration, this is just currently happening there are standards and the people are here, they are talking to each other because these working groups are working together here, presenting their results and taking the next steps. This is really all something to see them working together and to see if things evolve. And that's just great.
Well, that was like the talk with the Australian Bank, with the Japanese tourism on how they are using the decentralized identities to promote the tourism around Japan. Like that's crazy. Like then it's not an idea. It's happening right now. Yeah. So that's the kind of stuff I think it's huge to be able to see firsthand.
It's funny you mention this because I was talking to somebody who, comes from a security background like, you know, cybersecurity. And this was his first identity conference. He's like, the people here are so happy. And, you know, he's like everybody at the security conferences, are all just trying to tell everybody, know everything. Yeah, but there's a lot of doers out here, right? There's like, no, we really want to get this digital passport working, I was talking to someone else who is doing payments and things that does, and did a lot of work in London and also in, the eastern region, you would probably know this because you're from New York, right? New Jersey?
No, New York.
They did all the all the payments on the rail systems like they were involved in, deploying all that. Wow. Yeah. And that was a this was a major portion of what they're doing. So they're doing these real things that people observe every day. Yeah. But, but you don't necessarily see all the names behind it, but, you know, the people that are here are creating that kind of world for us.
Right. We're not only doomed, but we're also looking forward to make things happen. Yeah. So that's maybe really a different aspect. So we really try to, to change things for the better. And I think that's what you're doing in your job as well, right?
Yeah. and a lot of it is education. Because especially now when we're transitioning from this old, you know, centralize everything getting breached day to day and moving into this decentralized identity world here. Because of the regulation, it's moving way faster, For the states, there's nothing like that. So therefore it's constant education. Is anyone even doing that? I don't even know if that's even out yet. It's like, yes, is 100% happening everywhere day to day. Right now.
It's strange to say, right, that because regulation back in our day, let's put it that way, was usually getting in the way of progress a lot of times, and it just felt they were slowing the industry down all the time.
Definitely.
But we've moved forward into this place where it's like in order to get the kind of consensus that you need and kind of the focus on something like creating digital identities, like for passports and other kinds of documents, and then also being able to use that not just in a public space, but, you know, for enterprises and things. That's weirdly being driven through the necessity to do that through, the EU and other and other sort of mechanisms here.
Right. So we're just halfway through this conference when we're recording this. So we don't know what will happen tomorrow or the day after Friday. But when you're seeing that recording, it will be Monday, I assume. So you, ask the audience, you have the chance to catch up with everything that we did before, and there will be lots of free content provided. And I know that the team, and Susanna, who's recording that episode just right now, they are really keen on putting out lots of content. And of course, you can rewatch EIC afterwards. And of course, the there will be an opportunity for those who did not have the chance to be here to catch up with that. So I highly recommend to catch up with that through everything between future looking and the crystal ball for the next ten years of identity, but also just doing things right just right now with partner management, with B2B identity and access management, which is still not a fully solved issue. Yes. So there are lots of topics that that we should look into. Any final thoughts when you have a first look at EIC for a few hours just right now, that you expect from such an event in Berlin, in Europe, in this different kind of setting?
I'm looking forward to afterwards the nightlife. I'm looking to get out.
Yeah, there's a little bit of that.
Talk to people in the beer halls. Berlin is one of my favorite cities in the world. I've been coming here for about 20 years now. Right. So a lot of friends. But it's definitely a center in Europe. So I'm super excited to be able to all the people I'm meeting here and the new friends I'm making to really go out and hang out and have dinners and really just enjoy the company of everybody.
But Mike what are you looking forward to?
What am I looking forward to? I, I think...
Sleeping.
Yeah, sleeping mainly. That's my night. No, I, you know, I am looking forward to, I really do enjoy the conversations. Like, you can't walk 20ft in the hall without, you know, striking up a great conversation and that those kind of connections end up being lifelong, for the most part. And, like you say, people change companies when, you know, whenever the sort of the situation requires. But they all tend to sort of, you know, be a very close knit group anyway. And then wherever you are, that's really cool. So I do really look forward to the networking opportunities.
Absolutely. And actually, one final thing that I'm really looking forward to is we're currently stuffing Martin Kuppinger with all the input that we gather during these four days for his closing keynote, and I'm looking forward what he will, or what will make it into the closing keynote. That will be an interesting, point of view. Before we close down, of course, we give you a chance to promote your outlet. You're a blogger. You're showing your stuff. And what what's your URL? Where should we look?
So I would say you can find everything we do at Nyedis IAM, so N Y E D I S IAM on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Spotify, audible. I mean we're everywhere.
Okay, that was...
Tell the name of your...
So the podcast is called the Nyedis Anarchy Series. Yeah, I, I try to keep it very informal and I mean, look at me. Yeah.
I like to say it how it is. I'm pretty blunt and honest with everything. And I like to talk with really industry leaders and what's going on.
Great. Thank you very much for being here today. Thank you very much, Mike, for sharing your first hand experience at EIC, and thank you very much for your attention. Looking forward for the next episode. Then back at the usual setting. There will be a break after this episode. But we restart our podcast with all the free content from EIC is out there, in early July. So thank you very much for being my guest today.
Thank you.
Thank you. If you're in identity, you need to be at this conference more than any other conference. Trust me. This is the new... everything in the future of identity is here, I promise.
Wow.
Thank you.
