The 2025 RSA Conference in San Francisco, California, is one of the largest internationally attended conferences in the world, located less than an hour north of Silicon Valley. For the past 20 years, it has been a “must-attend” event for the Frost & Sullivan security team. This year, our team of analysts will once again be meeting with security vendor teams and strategically attending sessions that align with our research focus for 2025.
At the 2024 RSA Conference (LinkedIn® post), our international team from Argentina, Austria, Canada, Malaysia, and the USA had 95 meetings with over 150 executives. These interactions strengthened current relationships and built new ones; thanks to the in-person meetings the conference facilitates. However, achieving a positive ROI for the RSA Conference requires forethought and strategic planning that begins months in advance. While many security vendors understand the importance of coming to meetings prepared, there were instances at the 2024 RSA Conference where vendors arrived unprepared, asking what we wanted to discuss or why we were meeting, despite their AR or PR team requesting the meeting.
To help vendors put their best foot forward, this blog post provides updated guidance to make the most of meetings with us at the 2025 RSA Conference. Below are links to our 2024 tips on LinkedIn®:
Our RSA Planning Process
As an analyst firm, our focus at the RSA Conference is to schedule meetings with security vendors that:
- Specifically fall within our research focus areas.
- Fall into areas that are adjacent to our research focus.
- Participate in important emerging areas of security, such as securing AI for example.
To understand our research focus areas, it’s essential to be familiar with our research agenda for 2024 and 2025, which we openly share via our monthly Security Newsletter. If you don’t receive our monthly one-page opt-in Security Newsletter, please contact us to request it.
After reviewing Frost & Sullivan’s research agenda, use the decision tree we’ve created for analyst relations departments. This will help your organization focus on the market research firms to set in-person appointments with at the 2025 RSA Conference.
Planning for Success at the 2025 RSA Conference
The cornerstone of every successful meeting at the RSA Conference is having a detailed slide deck on your solution that you can reference during your discussions with analysts. The slide deck should add color to your conversation and not be the sole focus. Here are some key do’s and don’ts for your meetings with analysts at the RSA Conference:
Do’s:
- Have a detailed analyst deck ready so you can reference 3-4 slides.
- Make your meeting a bidirectional, interactive conversation.
- Provide additional qualitative and quantitative data to back up your points.
- Have a prepared package of materials to send to the analyst immediately after the meeting, including:
- A granular analyst deck about your solution with technical details.
- Explanation of your R&D roadmap and core areas of focus.
- Customer wins and case studies.
- Revenue growth guidance.
- Revenue breakout guidance by industry and geography.
- Sales and marketing strategies that will ensure future growth.
- Details on any regional focus.
- Details on your industry focus and where you have significant traction.
- Offer to put the analyst in touch with customers as part of their research process to help them fully understand the value of your solution.
- Discuss the hurdles you face, as the analyst may have ideas that convert your challenges into future revenue.
Don’ts:
- Attempt to give a 20-30 slide deck briefing at RSA.
- Make the meeting a one-way conversation.
- Ask the analyst why you are meeting; you should know why the meeting is scheduled.
- Disparage your competitors, as it signals that you are afraid of their potential.
Final Thoughts
Many professionals we speak with have admitted that there are many aspects of analyst firms they don’t fully understand, which has inhibited their ability to maximize their relationships with them. The Frost & Sullivan Security team is transparent about our focus, processes, custom research, and marketing content capabilities. So, if you have questions about these issues or about how participating in our research process benefits you, please feel free to ask us.
Lastly, remember that in any industry, whether it’s security vendors or analyst firms, when someone disparages the competition, it signals that they are afraid of something the other company has to offer. Avoid mudslinging, stick with the facts, bring data to support your views, and rise above your competitors through in-depth professional discussions that highlight the thought leadership and technology your company is proud to stand behind.
Authors: Jarad Carleton, Danielle VanZandt, Adrian Drozd, Lucas Ferreyra, Martin Naydenov, Anh Tien Vu, Brian Cotton, Vinay Biradar, Francisco Tossi
