Terri-Ann Feindt
One of the more eagerly anticipated sessions at INTIX 2024 next month is “Cybersecurity: A Critical and Imperative Priority,” put on by Double Eagle Consulting. The one-hour presentation is set for 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 31, and will feature company founder and CEO Terri-Ann Feindt and Chief Innovation Officer and partner Robert Tarleton as speakers.
Feindt and Tarleton intend to cover a lot in 60 minutes. Not only will they discuss why it is important for ticketing professionals and venues to prioritize cybersecurity, they’ll also provide practical approach information to enhance cyber safeguards. Attendees will also learn how real-world colleague organizations are doing this to create a culture of cyber resiliency.
Feindt says, “Cybersecurity is relevant and important to all of us in the ticketing space. We have been on the remediation of three ransomware events this year alone. So, it’s a priority that needs to be taken care of immediately.”
She continues, “We want people to know that it is their job to communicate this priority to the executive team — that this is something real and happening in our industry. Because we work in this marketplace, it’s not as expensive as people think it is. We have resources that can make this cost-effective for the organization. Many businesses get put out of business when they get hit. The key is to frustrate the threat actor just enough so that they go someplace else where it is easier. You don’t want to be one of the easy targets that they can get into. But it takes layers.”
Robert Tarleton
Tarleton echoes those sentiments and adds, “Attendees [of our session] can expect real-world explanations of what a cyber event really looks like and the things, in our opinion, you can do to reduce the chances you’ll fall victim to one. There is no ironclad way of keeping yourself a victim of ransomware. There just isn’t. But there are things you can do to make yourself less vulnerable. There are things you can do to make a potential attack less costly and lessen affects to your organization.”
Double Eagle Consulting specializes in cost optimization, cost reduction, scalability and workforce strategy development, employing a cloud-first methodology to increase productivity and reduce risk. The firm’s consulting and research approach has enabled its personnel to deliver IT strategy development and roadmap design that meets the right solutions based on an organization’s business needs and objectives.
So, what’s up with the company name? Feindt and Tarleton both enjoy the game of golf. In golf terms, a Double Eagle — also known as an albatross — is a score of three strokes less than par on a specific hole. It’s an extremely rare score that even the best golfers in the world have rarely achieved. To obtain such a score is an exemplary moment for any competitor. “We at Double Eagle Consulting are committed to providing that same level of excellence to our clients,” the company’s website touts. While never achieving that elusive score of a double eagle, Feindt does take pride in once achieving a 97-yard hole, gaining her the score of an Eagle (a score of 2 on a par 4).
Both she and Tarleton stress that no matter an organization or venue’s size and budget, they will be “going for the green” in attending the “Cybersecurity: A Critical and Imperative Priority” session. “Among our clients, we have organizations that are $3 million a year annual budgets to $200 million a year annual budgets,” Feindt says. “And it takes the same layers for each. The question just becomes: ‘How best do we implement?’ We will talk about, for an organization of a certain size, how many cyber professionals it takes if you don’t outsource it.”
What makes for a good session at an event like INTIX 2024? Tarleton was quick to answer: “A good session will have actionable takeaways that, whether you are the largest of the organizations that are there or the smallest, you will get a list of ‘Please do this. And if you can’t afford to do all of this, start at No. 1.’ We want people to at least be able to go back to their organizations and start an intelligent discussion internally.”
It helps that both executives come from the ticketing and live events industry. Feindt is the former CIO at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and was also once head of IT at the New York Philharmonic. For his part, Tarleton spent 14 years as the CTO of Manhattan’s Lincoln Center. Feindt says, “Rob and I have worked in this industry. A good 80% of our clients are in this industry. We know the challenges that people have, especially regarding resource constraints. We speak their language. We’ve sat in their seats, and we don’t come in with an unrealistic expectation of what can get done.”
While this will be Tarleton’s very first INTIX, Feindt has been attending since she started in the industry in 1989. “I love the community of like-minded people,” she says. “I love that it is such a helpful industry. Everyone is always willing to share and support each other. When there is a ransomware event, I can’t tell you the number of organizations who call us offering to help. It’s quite an inspiration!”
What are you waiting for? Register now to join INTIX in Las Vegas, Jan. 29–Feb. 1.
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