Blue Team Con 2026

Name: How to Do Just About Anything (Including Security): Turning Curiosity and Creativity into a Career
Start: 2026-09-12T10:30:00-0500
End: 2026-09-12T11:30:00-0500

How to Do Just About Anything (Including Security): Turning Curiosity and Creativity into a Career

Saturday September 12, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am CDT

Swissôtel Chicago

Learning something new, for me, often means figuring it out myself. While we have tutorials and AI on demand, experimentation and a willingness to get things wrong is still required. My story started with a book called “How to Do Just About Anything” and a realization that, with enough curiosity, you actually can.

This talk shares a non-linear path from breaking computers as a teen to understand them, creating within extreme constraints, and turning trial and error into a career that spans from high school dropout to security leadership, all while staying true to my art-tech-geek roots.

Rather than focusing on specialization, I’ll break down the practical patterns behind building strong fundamentals, both technical and human, combined with curiosity, creativity, and ownership can open doors and get you into conversations you weren’t “qualified” to be in.

I’ll connect these ideas directly to real-world security work: learning new domains quickly, navigating organizational complexity, and building the relationships needed to drive change. We’ll explore how incremental improvement compounds over time, how to operate in environments where “this is how it’s always been done” is the default, and how community involvement accelerates growth.

If you’ve ever felt like your path doesn’t fit a traditional mold, or you just know you can do more, this talk offers a practical perspective on how building beyond your core strengths can help you create opportunities, influence outcomes, and define your own path in security.

Speakers

Dan Browder

Director, Information Security Portfolio, First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO)

Dan has over 25 years of experience working at the in technology and security spanning roles of graphic design, help desk and security risk. He leads strategic cybersecurity initiatives that shape FNBO’s security posture, with a focus on strategy, risk reporting, AI governance... Read More →

Saturday September 12, 2026 10:30am - 11:30am CDT
Swissôtel Chicago 323 E Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60601, USA

Talk

Company First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO)
Audience Early Career
Subject Career Matters
global Y

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Blue Team Con 2026

Dan Browder

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