RSA Conference 2023: Your Ultimate Survival Guide

It’s that time of the year again, with the RSA Conference right around the corner! Whether it’s your first time attending, or you’re a seasoned attendee who’s interested in what to expect, this guide is here to help.

• What is the RSA Conference?
• When is the RSA Conference 2023 being held?
• Where will the RSA Conference 2023 be held?
• Is the RSA Conference 2023 an in-person event? Will there be digital options?
• What accessibility options are there at the RSA Conference for attendees?
• Registration and fees: How much does RSAC attendance cost?
• What’s this year’s theme for RSA Conference 2023?
• Finding hotel accommodation
• Health and safety measures at RSAC 2023
• Deciding what to attend at RSAC 2023

The RSA Conference (RSAC) is one of the largest cybersecurity conferences in the industry, annually attracting over 42,000 attendees, 620 exhibitors, and 650+ keynotes and sessions. At RSAC, global cybersec experts converge to discuss current and future concerns, share knowledge, and empower professionals to stand up against the latest cyberthreats. 

The first RSA Conference was held in 1991, as a user conference for customers of RSA. Back then, it consisted of just one panel discussion (it’s safe to say things have gotten a bit bigger). 

The “RSA” is made up of the first letters of the last names of the three co-founders of RSA: Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman. And needless to say, it’s also a public-key cryptosystem.

The RSA Conference 2023 will be held on April 24-27 in San Francisco. Below are the hours of the conference:

Welcome Reception: Monday, April 24 | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM PT

Expo Day #1: Tuesday, Apr 25 | 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM PT

Expo Day #2: Wednesday Apr 26 | 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM PT

Expo Day #3: Thursday, Apr 27 | 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM PT

This year, the RSA Conference 2023 will be held at the Moscone Center at 747 Howard St, San Francisco, California. For information on getting to the conference, RSA offers details on rideshare, driving directions, and parking spots.

You can find floor plans of the actual venue (including where the vendor booths are) here.

Yes, the RSA Conference 2023 will be an in-person event. However, the RSA Conference will be making recordings of keynotes available for demand shortly after the conference finishes, and you can also access things like track session captures (audio and slides). Content will be available approximately four hours after the live event.

It's worth noting you can view all the recordings of the guest and special keynotes with a Full Conference pass, but that might seem overkill on your wallet if you're not going to be attending in person. If you want to save some cash, you can buy an “On Demand Pass” which allows you to watch select keynotes and track sessions after the event.  Select is the keyword here, since it's entirely up to the event organizers what you get.

A full conference pass ranges between $1845 and $2945 USD, depending on how early you get in. Here are the prices for attendance at RSA Conference 2023. We’ve excluded “Early Bird” and “Discount” pricing, as these are not available as of the time of posting.

Group passes are also a way you can cut down on costs, but these only exist for Full Conference and Expo Pass tickets. For more details about the ticket prices and what’s included (as well as register for the conference itself), check out the RSA passes and rates page.

The RSA Conference 2023 will have the following accessibility options:

• Handicapped accessible counter at registration

• Handicapped seating areas in all track and Keynote rooms

• Scooter or wheelchair accommodations upon request during registration

• Closed captions on all on demand videos

• Open captions and an ASL interpreter for RSAC Innovation Sandbox Contest, West and South Keynote stages

• ASL interpreter requests

• Dietary restrictions and requests are also available during the registration process

Attendees using a wheelchair or scooter are welcome to move to the front of the session line at RSAC. Each room will be equipped with a designated space for wheelchairs and scooters. For any information or special requests, the conference organizers encourage participants to email them on information@rsaconference.com.

Every year, RSAC has a different theme to guide the conference. Sometimes they’re quite out there, like “Egyptian Scarab Seals” (1995) to “Modern Codes in Ancient Sutras” (2006), though the RSAC themes for the last decade have been much more down to earth. 2023’s theme is “Stronger Together.” Here’s the official statement by RSA on the theme:

“We are a community of many. No one goes it alone; we build on each other’s diverse knowledge to create the next breakthrough—exchanging ideas, sharing our success stories, and bravely examining our failures. With a world of evolving threats to stop and solve, only by working as a team and continually adding new perspectives will we be able to affect the kind of progress that can shape policy, establish new best practices, and ensure our defenses become more diverse, more resolute, and far more effective. When collaboration is our foundation, the future is bright. RSA Conference 2023. Stronger Together.”

This year, RSA has partnered with onPeak to offer discounted rates at a range of San Francisco hotels. Note that you can’t get these discounted rates until you’ve completed your conference registration! You can check what discounted rates are available here. That said, because it’s less than a month until the event, finding booking at this stage for the full period from the 24th to the 27th may be a bit difficult.

There are also shuttles that will be running from selected hotels to the Moscone center every 15 minutes during peak service hours, and every 30 minutes during mid-day service hours.

There will be 140 sanitizing stations around the Moscone Center building, and the facility has optimized the HVAC systems to provide the maximum number of air exchanges per hour in each space. Facility organizers strongly urge anyone to stay at home if you’re feeling unwell (which, honestly, is just good life advice). 

While there’s a limited amount of face masks available in the lobby, you should probably bring your own mask if you’re worried about catching anything.

This is such a big question that we’ve written a whole separate article on it! You can check it out here: “How to tackle the RSA Conference: Deciding what to attend.” Whether it’s your first time or you’re a RSAC veteran, we recommend giving it a read!

Being in cybersecurity is like drinking from the firehose — you’re always trying to keep on top of everything that’s out there, whether it’s tools, techniques, or the latest threats. Attending RSAC is a great way to keep your finger on the pulse, and bring that value back to your organization.

Register now, whether it’s in person or on demand, and if you do head to San Francisco, be sure to visit the Pluralsight booth and say hello! If you’re a current student, we’d love to hear about your experience, and if you’re not, we’d love to chat about what training opportunities and workflow solutions we have to offer.