Infosecurity Europe Day 2: Keynotes, Clients, and New Connections

Natalie Young – Senior PR Executive

If there’s one thing I can say about my first time at Infosecurity Europe: it didn’t disappoint!

I attended Day 2 and was pleased everyone concurred it had just as much of a buzz as Day 1. The morning started with locating the team, having a quick catchup, and discussing our plans for the day. After that, it was straight to the first briefing of the day for my client, Egress, and cybersecurity-focused publication, IT Security Guru.

IT Security Guru is championing wellbeing in cybersecurity and the briefing was centred around the psychological impact of phishing and the wellbeing policies Egress implements. I felt very lucky to attend and hear these insights first-hand, all participants’ passion shone through – I can’t wait to read the article!

This leads me to the next part of the day, the talk, ‘Managing the Current Demands of a Cyber Workforce whilst Looking to Secure the Workforce of the Future’ on the keynote stage. This talk was all about how companies can meet cyber recruitment needs, the varied paths into the industry, and current struggles and opportunities. The speakers noted the shift in candidates’ expectations, now that it is increasingly evident candidates want to work for a company making positive contributions in the world. It was interesting to hear about the array of career opportunities, such as the role of cyber psychologists who map out the minds of cybercriminals (my homework is to dig into this more). From a PR perspective, it really presented some food for thought in terms of how we frame our spokespeople. It’s vital we highlight non-traditional routes into the industry to help inspire young people into cyber.

I loved seeing my clients in person and having a good catch-up, it felt great to be at the ExCeL with so many friendly faces.

There were too many highlights to pick just one – must I choose?

John Vignaux – Senior PR Executive

As I walked around my second Infosecurity Europe event, I was struck by the buzz and engagement in the air – thankfully because the event avoided the train strikes that affected last year’s attendance. The hustle and bustle expected from the largest cybersecurity show in Europe was definitely there, and it was a pleasure to see journalists and analysts alike back out and ready to mingle.

My morning kicked off with the first keynote of the day from ex-Olympian, author, and journalist Mathew Syed, titled ‘Workplace culture: Developing and Sustaining High Performance in a Complex World’. It was an incredibly insightful talk covering the importance of cognitive diversity and mindset to productivity and one that had me leaving the keynote stage feeling motivated with a smile on my face. The talk was a full circle moment for me, Mathew previously spoke at my school when I was 12, so to hear him talk again 10 years later in a professional environment added to the experience and capped off a great start to the morning. The talk also provided elements of deja vu to my first insights session with Ken Deeks, MBE when starting at C8. His key message was to stay curious, matching the growth mindset championed by Mathew, and I have found it an invaluable piece of advice that is particularly pertinent to my career in PR.

But the highlight of the day was getting the chance to catch up with clients in person, some for the first time. There is truly nothing like a face to face meeting (maybe VR will get us there one day, but for now I remain sceptical). It was great to finally meet up with the Xalient team after over a year working on the account and with 11:11 Systems, who had a lovely stand and trucker caps which I was fortunate enough to snag; my one and only piece of stash, or swag, as it is more commonly known.

I can’t wait till the next event and the countdown to Infosec 2024 has already started.