September is going to be a long month. By the time we get to the season finale, on its last day, we will have got through thirteen of the fourteen amazing events that make up this year’s #CyberFest. It’s right to try and bring #the North East’s biggest cyber security festival to a close with a retrospective look at the year that has been and a gaze towards the future. Of course, nobody can know what is going to happen, yet after these turbulent times it wil be fun to at least guess.
This is going to be another hybrid event though we’re hoping that many people will turn up and make it a bit of a celebration. Once again we will be drawing upon the kind hospitality of Breeze Creatives which has moved out of the centre of Newcastle to its new location at the John Marley Centre in Denton. This former school building will give us plenty of room to congregate and mingle amongst real people again. The vent will be held in one of the two old school halls.
What can you expect from the event then? After the usual introductions we will hear from Danny Wright at Amazon Web Services, who will talk to us about ‘Where next for cyber security’. It is always good to hear from local companies at #CyberFest but it is also good to hear from the national and international players as well. They can bring a global perspective to the audience and AWS is up there with the biggest.
We’ll then get a chance to look at the artworks created through the Cyber Eyes Wide Open project. Following their showing at Breeze’s other site in Sunderland for a week, the artists and their work will be on hand to view before heading off to the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. This project has been about collaboration between art and industry, something I feel will be of growing importance in the future of cyber security.
The last official part of the evening will be a roundtable discussion with representatives of the cyber security training, certification and meetup groups, (ISC)2, ISACA, OWASP and the North East Ladies Hacking Society. The subject? A review of the year, looking forward and the future of work.
Finally, there will be time to mix and chat, share a drink and chew the cud with colleagues old and new. What better way to end this season and to start thinking about #CyberFest22.
The event will be held on 30 September 2021 18:00 – 20:00. Tickets are free and available from here.
I hope to see you there!
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 