Member Article

Celebrating success of inaugural #CyberFest

THE organisers behind an inaugural cyber festival have talked of its success in raising awareness of the North East as a place to address cyber resilience and to educate people about the threats and opportunities from cyber.

The first #CyberFest event was organised by regional IT champions Dynamo North East and held throughout the month of September. Six events were held throughout the region which featured 40 speakers and were attended by more than 500 delegates.

Phil Jackman, Dynamo Cyber Security Lead and one of the organisers of #CyberFest, said: “#CyberFest highlighted the region as a place to address cyber resilience and to educate and inform of the threats and opportunities from cyber.

“We were delighted with the success of this year’s event - our first #CyberFest went fantastically well, with loads of engagement and enthusiasm.

“#CyberFest isn’t just about cyber security and resilience, it’s about the huge opportunities presented and how local businesses can grow their businesses. Cyber security is an area of growing expertise in the region, and #CyberFest aimed to expand it further.

“Obviously the majority of people attending this year’s event were from the tech sector, but there was also a lot of interest from non-tech people and companies wanting to know about cyber security and the opportunities involved.”

Events were held throughout the region, but the two main events were held in Northumbria University and Teesside University.

“Our main event was a full-day event at Northumbria University’s Business School, hosted in partnership with Accenture. However, our breakfast event down at Teesside University was also really important as it was Dynamo’s first event on Teesside, and we were delighted at how many attended and how well it went,” explained Phil.

Speakers at the Northumbria University event included Jonathan Darby, Head of Cyber Growth and Innovation at the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; Andrew Pannell, Head of Security testing at Starling Bank, and Robert Price, CTO at Cisco. Interaction sessions included Game of Threats, presented by PwC and practical sessions run by Accenture and Waterstons.

The highlight of the Teesside University Cyber breakfast event was a live ‘ethical hack’ run by students which demonstrated how vulnerable businesses are to hackers.

Phil leads on Dynamo North East’s cyber resilience cluster, which is supported by Accenture, and aims to champion the region’s cyber-security and resilience sector; work with universities to develop increase cyber research and development; to enhance skills in the sector and to work with law enforcement and other agencies to meet regional and UK-wide cyber security objectives.

Phil confirmed that the organisers of this year’s #CyberFest, BeaconHouse Events, are working on an event for next year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dynamo .