RSAC, Rituals, and One Very Serious Burger

There are a few things you can guarantee every year at RSA Conference. The crowds. The noise. The energy. The sense that for one week, the entire cybersecurity world compresses itself into a handful of streets in San Francisco.

And then there is John and his burger.

Not just any burger. A proper, no compromise, super duper burger. It has quietly become a tradition. Five years in the making now. No matter how packed the schedule gets, no matter how many sessions, meetings, or late nights we have, at some point during the RSA Conference, there will be a pause. A reset. A moment where John asks me, ‘Lunch?’ and with a smile back in agreement, off we go. This year it happened twice!

It is part fuel, part ritual, part comfort. And if we are honest, part superstition at this point.

The Calm Before the Storm

Before RSA properly kicks off, there is a window. A quiet one. The Sunday before everything begins. We have come to value that d ay more and more each year.

This time, we kept to another tradition. We met at 10 am. No rush, no chaos yet. Just two people who know exactly what the week ahead is going to look like. This is the calm before the storm.

From our hotel by Fisherman’s Wharf, we took an Uber to the Moscone Center. There is something surreal about that moment every year. The place is not fully alive yet, but you can feel it coming. This year had an extra layer to it. We dropped our book off at the bookstore. Even writing that sentence still feels strange. Something even a year ago that just didn’t seem possible. But it was real. We had it in boxes, ready to sign it for people at a book signing. Just wow.

We then headed over to registration and picked up our badges. Took it in for a moment. Then turned around and headed back toward the Wharf, where we were staying, before everything accelerated. We walk. We needed the air, the time to talk, to catch up, to prepare for what was to come.

Back to Where It Started

Then it was time for lunch, but it was not just lunch. It was a return.

We went back to New Thai Elephant, the same place we sat five years ago when this all began. The first time we met face-to-face. Before the book. Before everything that has happened since.

Same kind of table. Same kind of conversation. The exact same dishes. Just a very different context. Thai food has a way of doing that. It slows things down. Makes you sit. Talk. Reflect a little.

There is something grounding about going back to the exact place where you first met, especially in a world that moves as fast as ours does. It reminds you how far things have come without needing to say it out loud.

Views, Steps, and Perspective

After lunch, John had a great idea. We grabbed an Uber out toward Battery Spencer.

If you have never been, it is one of those places that makes you stop mid sentence. The view of the Golden Gate Bridge from there is unreal. Not just a photo opportunity, but the kind that resets your head a little before a busy week.

From there we walked. Across the bridge. Down toward Golden Gate Beach. Just taking it all in. No agenda. No meetings. No slides. No sessions. Just steps, views, and conversation.

Eventually, we made our way back toward the city, knowing full well that this was the last stretch of calm we were going to get.

The Burger Always Comes

And somewhere in that week, without fail, the burger will happen.

It always does. It might be after a long day on the show floor. It might be late evening when the legs are gone, and the brain is fried. But John will find it. Or it will find him.

Five years in, it has become part of the RSA story for us.

Because while RSA is about security, technology, and big ideas, the bits you remember most are often simpler.

A walk before the chaos. A familiar restaurant. A ridiculous number of steps.. And a burger that somehow matters more than it should.

That is the real rhythm of the week. And honestly, I would not change any of it.