When Brand Marketing Gets Its Hands Dirty: Painting Paradise (and Vulnerabilities) at Indo-Pacific 2025
Day 3, Booth 1342, Hawaii Convention Center, Oct 30, 2025
Or: How a Live Illustration Became the Most Memorable Thing at a Federal Technology Conference
There's a moment that happens at every technology conference. You know the one: inside the exhibit hall, walking past booth after booth of identical pop-up banners, branded stress balls, and enthusiastic sales engineers ready to demo their platforms. Everything blurs together into a sea of shades of blue, san-serif fonts, and promises of "revolutionary" solutions.
And then you stop dead in your tracks because someone is painting a tiki guy holding network infrastructure in a flaming cauldron while skeletons dance in a Hawaiian paradise.
Welcome to Indo-Pacific 2025, where we decided that the best way to communicate continuous network verification was through continuous art verification—creating a piece that evolved throughout the conference, just like the networks we help secure.
The Concept: Why Live Art at a Federal Tech Conference?
The opportunity wrote itself: an overseas event the very last week of my fiscal year [read: running on budget fumes] and live-painting is an ability that I have in my proverbial backpocket [read: zero-cost]. But moreover in federal technology circles—particularly in the Indo-Pacific region—relationship building and memorable presence matter more than the slickest booth setup or the most aggressive lead capture strategy.
The Indo-Pacific conference is unique in the federal landscape. It's the only government-focused event specifically geared toward this critical region. As one Army CW2 from Japan told our team: "This is the only show that [we're] allowed to come to." That specificity creates an environment where depth of engagement matters more than breadth of impressions.
So then the next challenge was: How do I create something over the course of 3 days, in the booth, that embodies our Forward Enterprise's core value proposition—continuous verification, end-to-end network visibility, and making the complex comprehensible—while also honoring the unique cultural context of Hawaii , and acknowledging that the conference taking place during Halloween-week?
I called in help from a true professional illustrator, Resy Purnomo, who helped hone down the ideas into a cohesive composition: a Hawaiian tiki figure as the guardian of network intelligence, surrounded by network topology visualizations, all rendered in a style that blended traditional tiki art with spooky aesthetics and iconography from our network digital twin software.
The Execution: Torching Network Vulnerabilities in Data Intelligence Paradise
The centerpiece featured a commanding tiki figure—traditional guardian of the Pacific—reimagined as a sentinel of network security. In Hawaiian culture, tiki figures represent protection and power. What better metaphor for a network visibility platform that stands watch over critical infrastructure?
But we didn't stop at cultural homage. The artwork integrated:
Network topology visualizations spreading like vines around the composition, representing the interconnected nature of modern infrastructure
Halloween imagery (skeletons, skulls) acknowledging both the timing of the conference and the very real threats lurking in unmonitored network blind spots
Tropical elements (monstera leaves, island flora) grounding the piece in its geographic context
Data intelligence motifs woven throughout, making the abstract concept of "digital twin" tangible and visual
The headline? "Torch Network Vulnerabilities in a Data Intelligence Paradise."
It was bold. It was colorful. It was completely unlike anything else at a federal technology conference. And that was exactly the point.
What We Learned: The ROI of Unconventional Marketing
Here's where marketing gets interesting. Our booth didn't generate the highest volume of leads at Indo-Pacific 2025 (thanks, federal government shutdown :/ ). But what we created was something far more valuable in the federal space: memorable relationships and strategic visibility. Yes, I said "we" because 2 of the 4 of my engineers were brave enough to pick up a brush towards the end of the show.
Kevin Kuhls, fearless Federal SE Leader, is pretty handy with a paintbrush
Sean Deveci cannot tolerate messy edges: networks OR typography
The local AFCEA Committee Couldn't Stop Coming Back
The AFCEA Hawaii VP of Cyber visited our booth repeatedly throughout the conference to check on the progress of the artwork. He loved it so much that he sent two associates to wait the final half-hour for the piece to dry so they could take it back to hang in their office.
Think about that for a moment. A senior cyber leader wanted our company-branded artwork in his office. I've designed some pretty sweet product brochures and technical datasheets in the past, but I don't think any of them ended up on someone's office wall.
That's brand presence you can't buy with any amount of programmatic advertising.
When Government Shuts Down, Relationships Still Matter
Indo-Pacific 2025 took place during a government shutdown. Attendance was significantly impacted. Contractors and civilians were furloughed. The usual bustle of a federal conference was hobbled.
But here's what didn't shut down: relationships.
As our team noted, "This show is not just about selling to customers—it's keeping a pulse on the Pacific." In an environment where military personnel rotate frequently ("who's here today may not be here tomorrow"), maintaining presence and being memorable becomes strategically critical.
The live art installation gave people a reason to stop, stay, and have real conversations. Not cheap sales pitches. Conversations about:
The Base Infrastructure Management (BIM) project, modernizing multiple bases in the next year
The MPE (Mission Partner Environment) contract connecting multinational networks across Pacific region
The consolidation efforts happening across DOD networks
The real challenge federal customers face: analysis paralysis when dealing with vulnerability data
The Question That Kept Coming Up
Our team reported that the most common question they heard was: "What exactly does a network digital twin have to do with security?"
This is the fundamental challenge in marketing complex B2B technology: the gap between what your solution does and what your customer already understands.
The live art installation became a conversation starter that bridged that gap. It demonstrated, rather than explained, several key concepts:
Continuous verification (the art evolved continuously, just like network states)
Visibility (making the invisible visible, making the complex beautiful)
Context (showing how network intelligence operates within specific environments)
The Broader Implications for B2B Marketing
Let's zoom out from tiki figures and Halloween skulls for a moment and talk about what this means for tech marketing, particularly enterprise software in federal and enterprise spaces.
1. Attention is the New Currency
In an environment saturated with digital ads, email campaigns (SO MANY EMAILS), and content marketing, physical presence and creative execution stand out. But not just any physical presence—memorable physical presence.
Anyone can rent a booth and pay an agency to deliver a backdrop. Not everyone can give the conference organizers a reason to keep checking in on your progress.
2. Cultural Intelligence Matters
Federal technology sales, particularly in specialized regions like the Indo-Pacific, require cultural awareness. The Hawaiian tiki aesthetic wasn't just decoration—it was respect. It acknowledged that we understand the region we're serving.
Full disclosure: Despite my my best efforts to avoid any offensiveness within my illustration, I quietly carried anxiety that I had overlooked a problematic detail UNTIL I was greeted early on Day 1 by a local Hawaiian culture representative who hugged me and gave me his real-flower lei because of how we were honoring his culture with the artwork (!!!) Yes, I sniffed back happy tears and was awash with relief.
3. B2B Doesn't Mean Boring-to-Boring
There's a pervasive myth in B2B technology marketing that federal buyers—military personnel, government IT leaders, defense contractors—don't appreciate creativity or unconventional approaches.
This is demonstrably false.
The federal customers who stopped by our booth weren't put off by the creative approach. They were engaged by it. They asked questions. They took photos. They requested we do it again next year.
Federal buyers are still humans. They still respond to novelty, beauty, and memorable experiences. They're just not used to seeing it at their conferences.
4. Long Sales Cycles Require Long Brand Presence
Federal technology sales can take 12-18 months or longer. You're not closing deals on the show floor. You're building relationships, establishing credibility, and ensuring that when the procurement process begins, your company is in the consideration set.
The artwork that now hangs in the AFCEA Cyber VP's office? That's 365 days a year of brand presence. That's conversations with colleagues and visitors. That's a physical reminder of our company every single day.
That's marketing that works after the conference ends.
The Messy Middle: Why Marketing Directors Should Get Their Hands Dirty
Here's my personal takeaway as a marketing leader: we need to be willing to get uncomfortable. If an idea doesn't fit neatly into a marketing automation workflow, it's probably gonna get your brand noticed.
I spent three days at a conference painting. My hands were covered in acrylic paint at the end of each day (miraculously the lead scanner remained clean). I answered the same questions about technique and concept dozens of times. I didn't generate a single MQL through a form fill.
Brand marketing isn't just about lead generation metrics and conversion funnels. It's about making your brand mean something to the people who matter. It's about creating moments that people remember and stories they tell.
The Bottom Line
In a world where every technology company promises better, faster, smarter solutions, differentiation doesn't come from your product roadmap. It comes from how you show up, how you engage, and whether you're brave enough to be memorable.
Federal technology buyers are navigating complex procurement processes, managing critical infrastructure, and dealing with real security threats. They don't need another predictable elevator pitch. They need partners who understand their context, respect their challenges, and bring creativity to the problem-solving table.
Sometimes that means painting a tiki guy holding network topology while skulls look on in a tropical paradise.
Sometimes effective brand marketing means getting paint under your fingernails and creating something beautiful that helps people understand why your work matters.
And sometimes, the best way to torch network vulnerabilities is to light up a conference with something no one expects.
My artwork from Indo-Pacific 2025 now hangs in AFCEA Hawaii office, serving as a daily reminder that technology marketing can be both strategic and stunning, both effective and unexpected. Here's to more marketing that breaks the mold—and more tikis standing guard over the networks that matter.