On the security of our processes and infrastructure

In this case you could make the OS on the internal hard drive to do "interesting" things if somebody ever happens to boot it, like:
* Log anything the user does (URLs, passwords etc), take photos with the webcam
* Scan for WLAN networks & connect to network
* If that fails, use few dollar/euro prepaid SIM to do cellular connection instead
* "Call home" to log close-by WLAN & phone base stations etc info needed to locate the laptop and identify its thief
* If "Home" tells that the device should do something, first disable volume & power off keys
* Then start blinking the screen & blasting from the tinny speakers something like "I'm stolen, please call police" etc.

Whoever steals that device, will probably remember it for a while and maybe even avoid geek conferences in future...