The agenda is subject to change. To experience the full conference, we recommend you arrive to attend the first workshop (12pm CT on Sunday, Dec 7) or at least the Opening Night Reception (7pm CT on Sunday, Dec 7) and leave after 3pm CT (CyberMarketingCon) or 8pm CT (CyberCEO Summit) on Wednesday Dec 10. Save the sessions you like on the conference app!
Justin Mingo: Milking your Meeting Suite: How to Make the Most out of Major Conferences
We all know that the booth and leads are just the tip of the iceberg, and that the real value - from a revenue marketing perspective - lies in getting your team in front of their prospects and business partners. Brand awareness is great, but sales leaders and executives also want to see ROI. The problem is that getting those meetings booked is hard.
The purpose of this session is to share tactics and strategies that I've used successfully in booking meetings for those big events like RSAC, Gartner, and Black Hat that help build (and maintain) revenue for the business. This includes getting all relevant groups in your organization to work as a team towards this goal, as well as providing them the tools and resources they need to succeed.
Michele Zappulla: Giving Your Free Community Tool an Identity : From Logo to LinkedIn to Live Events ‚ How Purple Knight Went from Download Link to Real-World Brand
Free tools can spark incredible community value, especially in cybersecurity, where visibility and speed matter. But publishing a great tool is only step one. The real challenge is building something that‚Äôs not just useful, but recognizable, respected, and remembered. In this session, we'll explore how Semperis transformed Purple Knight, a free Active Directory security assessment tool, from a quiet download page into a community-driven identity, seen at conferences, cited by security professionals, and trusted by defenders around the world. We'll walk through the practical, replicable steps of giving a free tool a voice, a look, and a life — not just online, but in the real world.
Oscar Burns: Sales or No Sales? Mastering Trade Show Follow-Up Strategies
Marketing often raises concerns about the absence of sales motions in both pre-event and post-event cadences.
But what if you didn't need them at all?
In my talk, I will guide you on how to make your events successful without relying on sales, whether you're collaborating with your BDRs or operating as a one-person team.
When working with sales on field events, whether digital or physical, marketing often feels like prepping a meal for a toddler. We go to the store, pick the ingredients they said they love—ingredients that last year brought "loads of pipeline." From there, we take the time to prep the meal, ensuring everything from the dino nuggets to their favorite spoon is in order. Despite all this love and attention, it's only natural to feel frustrated when our "toddler" demands a double platinum sponsorship at RSA with a VIP meeting room at the W. In this session, we'll cover a playbook to maximize the value of major trade shows by learning how to scrape and gather information on speakers and attendees, then leverage LLMs to match it with your existing CRM. This will not only impress your CMO but also provide sales with precise answers like " what percentage of attendees are in my target account list."
VulnCheck is a seed-stage cyber startup in the vulnerability management and threat intelligence sector. This executive Q&A will explore the early-stage marketing strategies that catapulted the company from sub-$2M ARR to $6M with a path to $15M ARR - in under two years with minimal headcount and two straight quarters of profitability with under $8M invested.
Tom Bain, the CMO at VulnCheck, will unpack the strategic and tactical shifts that scaled to power VulnCheck's exponential growth.
Tom will join Nina Korfias, Managing Director, U.S. PR for Marketbridge, to discuss which integrated marketing and communications strategies are essential for startup success, establishing brand credibility and positioning team members as industry experts from day one.
The session will educate attendees on how VulnCheck aligned GTM priorities and marketing's role across growth stages, focusing on integrating PR, content, and demand-gen for efficiency and competitive advantage. Drawing from real-world examples in the cybersecurity sector, the talk will advise on how to balance immediate pipeline needs against long-term brand development.
Tom will share specific frameworks for measuring marketing ROI against aggressive growth targets to attain competitive advantages, secure large contracts, and get more funding as needed for scaling.
This session features a real-world case study for founders, marketers, and investors showing proven strategies to accelerate business growth while avoiding costly marketing mistakes.
The duo will advise on the following:
In today's rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, the ability to scale a product from concept to customer requires more than just innovation—it demands a well-structured go-to-market (GTM) strategy, leveraging strategic partnerships. Partner Led Growth is a critical accelerator for cybersecurity companies, allowing them to navigate complex sales cycles, expand market reach, and establish credibility.
This presentation explores the key principles of building a successful partner-led growth model, including selecting the right partners, structuring channel programs, and aligning incentives. We will examine the various sales partner models—from resellers and VARs to OEM and PaaS marketplaces—and discuss critical success factors such as demand generation, partner enablement, and ongoing engagement.
Attendees will gain insights into best practices for channel recruitment, performance measurement, and avoiding common pitfalls in partner management. By the end of this session, cybersecurity leaders, founders, and GTM professionals will be equipped with a structured framework to assess their readiness for a channel-based approach and implement strategies to accelerate revenue growth through partnerships.
Most cybersecurity companies struggle to get noticed. But if your threat research team finds something real, something with impact, you've got gold. The question is: what do you do with it?
This session is about turning one research finding into a strategic marketing engine that drives attention, influence, and pipeline for months. I'll walk through how we transformed a single vulnerability discovery into a multi-channel campaign that lasted over a year: headlines, analyst briefings, CISO webinars, inbound leads, outbound hooks, and press quotes that wouldn't die.
We didn't just launch a report. We launched a narrative—and we stayed in control of it long after the initial splash. Even the manufacturer with the vulnerability threatened to sue us for "destroying their reputation." (They didn't.)
If you've got a threat research team, this talk will show you how to use it. If you don't, you'll want to build one.
Advertising on social media is expensive and most cybersecurity companies struggle to turn their leads into revenue. Fortunately, it does not have to be that way. From Wiz to SentinelOne, we have cracked the code on how to drive performance for cybersecurity. In this session, you will learn how to use LinkedIn advertising to turn your dream accounts into sales ready leads that not only result in pipeline growth;but also, millions of dollars in bookings.
Key Takeaways:
The media landscape isn’t just evolving—it’s being completely rewritten. In the wake of the Trump administration, the rise of hyper-partisan platforms, a growing distrust in traditional institutions, and shifting media business models, the rules for engaging with the press have changed dramatically. For PR and marketing professionals in cybersecurity—a field where trust, credibility, and authority are everything—understanding how to navigate this new environment isn’t optional, it’s essential.
This panel, moderated by a PR veteran with deep experience in cybersecurity communications, brings together seasoned marketers and communicators from leading cybersecurity companies to unpack how today’s media ecosystem works—and how to make it work for you.
We’ll explore how legacy media no longer monopolizes the narrative, and why your next media “hit” might come from a journalist’s Substack, a LinkedIn influencer with 100,000 followers, or a podcast host with niche authority over your exact target buyer. The media gatekeepers have multiplied. Newsletters, podcasts, and personality-driven platforms now command audiences that rival—if not surpass—those of traditional outlets. Meanwhile, influencers with credibility in tech and security circles can drive just as much impact as journalists.
We'll examine how this shift is impacting cybersecurity coverage specifically. Traditional outlets are shrinking their security desks or folding them into broader tech beats, while independent creators are gaining traction by offering deep-dive coverage and opinion-driven analysis that resonates with technical audiences and decision-makers alike. We'll also look at how the mainstreamization of cybersecurity news—fueled by nation-state hacks, ransomware headlines, and election interference—has raised the stakes for how brands show up in media conversations.
From there, the discussion will turn tactical: How do PR and marketing teams in cybersecurity adapt to this fragmented, personality-driven ecosystem? What should outreach look like when targeting newsletter writers, LinkedIn voices, and podcast hosts? How do you balance relationships with traditional reporters versus new media creators? And what does success look like when impressions aren’t the only metric that matters?
Panelists will share firsthand examples of media strategies that work in this new environment, from co-creating content with influencers to rethinking media training to prepare spokespeople for non-traditional formats.
Attendees will walk away with tips on:
This session is designed for those interested in launching a Customer Marketing Pillar within their company, or for those looking to revitalize an existing program that isn't growing. The focus will be on Building and Launching a Customer Marketing Program: Your 30, 60, 90-Day Action Plan, providing actionable steps to drive success.
Program Success Essentials: Key elements for program success include strong leadership support, goal setting, and alignment, as well as consistent program measurement and reporting to track progress. Customer-Centric Focus: Prioritizing customer engagement, advocacy, and rewards ensures a customer-driven approach that aligns with overall program goals. Sustainability & Education: Program sustainability is crucial, alongside providing value through education to ensure long-term effectiveness and continued customer loyalty.
