This yeaR's Agenda

The CyberMarketingCon
2026 Agenda

Please note that session times and dates may change.

High Level Schedule: When should I arrive?
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To experience the whole conference, plan to arrive in the late morning on Sunday, November 15 and leave late afternoon on Wednesday, November 18 (or stay over to Thursday if you would like or are attending our CEO-Founder-Investor Dinner!)

Sunday - 11/15

Sunday will be a day of workshops and our opening night reception! Plan to arrive around in the late morning or early afternoon if you don't want to miss our 3 hands-on workshops, which start at 1pm CT. Opening night reception starts around 7pm CT.


Monday - 11/16

We kickoff with a keynote at 8:45am CT. Sessions, workshops, and networking throughout the day, including our GovCon Summit. We end the day with a group outing!


Tuesday - 11/17

Today we have sessions, workshops, and networking, plus our CyberCMO Summit; the day kicks off at 9am CT. Tonight we will have multiple activities and dinners.


Wednesday - 11/18

Our final keynote will kick off at 9am CT. Today we will have a three-quarters day of sessions, workshops, and our closing remarks end at 3:30pm CT. Founders, CEOs, and Investors may attend our CyberCEO Dinner at 5:30pm CT.

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8:00am
9:00pm
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Note on event times

Event times are subject to change and may not reflect the most up-to-date schedule. Please refer to the conference event app VirtualPro for the latest and most accurate times.

Sunday

Registration Desk Open!

Stop by the Registration Desk on the 2nd Floor Foyer and pick up your badge, swag bag, official conference notebook, and official conference t-shirt!

Explore the Expo Hall, the Fun Station, and join one of the workshops that we have set up on Sunday!

12:00 pm
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12:45 pm
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)
Workshop

Claude Beginner Workshop

Curious about Claude but not quite sure what to do beyond opening a chat and asking it questions? This hands-on beginner workshop is for you.

Designed specifically for cybersecurity marketers at CyberMarketingCon, this session will help you get comfortable using Claude for real marketing work — without requiring any technical or AI expertise.

We’ll cover the basics of how to work with Claude effectively, how to give it the context and direction it needs, and how to start using it across everyday workflows like research, campaign planning, content development, messaging, analysis, and more.

You’ll work through practical examples alongside other cybersecurity marketers and leave with ideas you can put to work immediately.

Bring your laptop and your corporate or personal Claude account. No AI expertise required!

1:00 pm
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2:00 pm
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)
Workshop

Claude Intermediate Workshop

Ready to move beyond one-off chats and start building repeatable AI workflows?

This hands-on workshop is designed for cybersecurity marketers at CyberMarketingCon who already use Claude and want to take the next step: turning the work you do repeatedly into reusable systems.

We’ll focus heavily on Claude Skills—what they are, when to use them, and how to build them around real cybersecurity marketing workflows. We’ll also explore more advanced ways to structure Claude around your work, connect context and resources, and create repeatable processes that can help you and your team work faster and more consistently.

Rather than spending the session perfecting individual prompts, we’ll think bigger: How do you teach Claude how you work once, then reuse that knowledge again and again?

Bring your laptop, your personal or corporate Claude account, and come ready to build!

2:10 pm
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3:00 pm
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)
Workshop

Points for Creativity: A Roller Derby Workshop for Cybersecurity Marketers

Cybersecurity marketing is defined by constraint: dense jargon, complex concepts, and audiences who demand precision. The challenge isn’t a lack of creativity; it’s finding space to play, experiment, and make ideas feel truly memorable inside those constraints. This workshop is designed as a creative reset for marketers whose brains have been on “perform under pressure” for a little too long… or those who know they are over-relying on AI for tasks that used to feel fun.

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Using the bold, irreverent naming culture of roller derby as our playground—think Penelope Bruise, Hermione Danger, Momentum Mori—we’ll explore what happens when you step away from AI and lean back pure sporting instinct. We’ll treat derby naming as a proxy for branding; names must instantly signal identity, tell a mini-story, and provoke a reaction, just like the best campaigns.

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The workshop starts with a short individual warm-up to get people out of polished marketing mode and into free thinking. Attendees will quickly jot down the words, frustrations, and ideas that feel most “stuck” or overused in their day-to-day work—terms they’re tired of, value props that feel flat, or product areas that feel impossible to make exciting. This becomes our raw material.

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From there, we’ll move into guided prompts such as:* “If this product or problem were a derby skater, what kind of troublemaker would they be?”* “If you could lean into FUD as a joke, what would you really call this thing?”Participants will then work in small teams, remixing their raw material into surprising combinations: pairing technical jargon with unexpected metaphors, fusing emotional states with security concepts, and bending industry clichés until they become something stranger and more interesting. The focus is less on “getting it right” and more on seeing how far they can stretch a concept without compromising accuracy. Teams will, for example: - Take a word from someone else’s list and combine it with their own to create a new character or brand.- Build a “family” of three related derby names that could all be features of the same product.
Additional playful constraints will push their creativity further: limiting word counts, forcing a quick pivot from serious to absurd, or asking teams to defend a ridiculous name as if it were going into a boardroom deck. Each round builds on the last, moving from silly and safe to sharper and more deliberate.

As the workshop progresses, teams will converge on a brand concept and tagline born from this chaos—something that still nods to the original cybersecurity idea but now feels alive, specific, and ideally, fun to scream out loud.

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Throughout, we’ll surface the meta-lessons: how constraints can unlock creativity instead of shutting it down, and how embracing a bit of discomfort or a “bad idea” often leads to better ones.

Attendees won’t leave with a rigid framework or a perfect campaign. They’ll leave with at least one absurd-but-delightful concept, a renewed sense of creative confidence, and a reminder that even in a jargon-heavy, high-stakes industry, there’s room to play for points.

3:15 pm
-
4:15 pm
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)
Workshop

Workshop: Business Networking Pickup Lines

There will be NO NAPPING during this workshop, where everyone will stand up, talk, move around, and learn how to be a professional business “flirt.” We challenge both extroverts and introverts to come to this session and learn how to make in-person cold connections, find *the* person in the room you need to talk to, and qualify someone for a potential business relationship. Check out this video from our workshop at Cyber Marketing Con 2023. If you attended the 2023 workshop, come back again! This brand new workshop is loaded with new exercises.

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4:30 pm
-
5:30 pm
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)

Opening Night Welcome Reception

CyberMarketingCon 2026 Welcome Reception: Choose Your Own Character

Every adventure starts with a character. Who will you be?

We’re kicking off CyberMarketingCon 2026 and our theme, Create Your Own Adventure, by inviting you to dress as your favorite character—from literally anything. Anything!

Here's some ideas: Indiana Jones, a medieval knight, an enterprising elf, Taylor Swift, the CISO at the last company that you sold into, Steve Jobs, Skyrim guards, a boxer, or someone entirely of your own creation.

Go all out or come as yourself (if you’re your own favorite character, that's totally fine)!

Join us to meet fellow adventurers, reconnect with friends, and get the CyberMarketingCon conference started!

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7:00 pm
-
9:30 pm
CT
Moontower Hall - Expo

Monday

Single Speaker

The State of Federal Cybersecurity Purchasing: What GTM Teams Need to Know

For cybersecurity companies selling into the federal government, understanding how agencies buy is essential to deciding where to focus your go-to-market efforts.

Hillary Coover will explore the state of federal cybersecurity purchasing, including agency priorities, budget pressures, and the procurement realities shaping buying decisions. The session will examine what these dynamics mean for cybersecurity vendors and how marketing and sales teams can better align their messaging, outreach, and planning with federal buyers’ needs.

You’ll leave with a clearer understanding of the federal buying environment, the questions to ask when evaluating opportunities, and how to set realistic expectations for pursuing business in this market.

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10:45 am
-
11:15 am
CT
Waterloo 4 Summit Room
Single Speaker

From Scrappy to Serious: Maturing Your Startup Brand Without Losing Your Edge

You've got product-market fit, a growing pipeline, and a sales team that needs air cover yesterday. But your brand still looks like it was built on a weekend and a free Figma trial. So how do you evolve — without blowing up what made you credible in the first place?

This candid fireside conversation between a VP of Marketing who's navigated this exact journey inside a high-growth cybersecurity startup, and the founder of a brand agency that specializes in B2B tech, digs into the messy, high-stakes process of brand maturation — when to do it, how to fund it, and how to bring your skeptical executive team along for the ride.

No brand theory. No agency pitches. Just the real frameworks, hard decisions, and lessons learned that marketing leaders need to hear before they walk into that rebranding conversation.

11:30 am
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12:00 pm
CT
Waller AB Breakout Room (Virtual Room 2)
Single Speaker

The PLG Playbook For Early Stage Cyber Marketers

Product-led growth isn't just viable in cybersecurity, it's one of the most powerful tools available to resource-constrained teams looking to find product-market fit and build pipeline. Drawing on lessons learned from scaling Intruder to 3,000 customers with a PLG-first strategy, we'll cover how PLG accelerates demand gen and generates the kind of organic social proof that resonates in a sceptical buying environment, where the strategy genuinely falls short, and how to blend PLG with a sales-led approach as you grow. You'll leave with a practical lens for evaluating the role PLG can play in your business.

11:30 am
-
12:00 pm
CT
Waller CD General Session (Virtual Room 1)
Single Speaker

Securing Water Infrastructure: Cyber Defense Strategies for the Modern Threat Landscape

Municipal water infrastructure has become a prime target for cybercriminals, nation-state actors, and insider threats, making cybersecurity not just an IT concern, but a critical public health imperative. The 2021 Oldsmar, Florida incident, where a hacker attempted to poison a city's water supply by manipulating chemical levels remotely, and the Maroochy Shire breach that released millions of gallons of raw sewage, serve as stark reminders of what is at stake when water utilities remain unprotected.For cybersecurity professionals working on the go-to-market and business side of the industry, water utilities represent one of the most compelling and underserved market opportunities today. Thousands of municipal water systems nationwide operate with aging infrastructure, limited security budgets, and minimal OT specific expertise, creating both significant risk and significant demand for scalable, practical cybersecurity solutions.This session draws from real-world implementation experience securing water infrastructure for the City of Dallas, covering freshwater treatment plants, wastewater facilities, and flood control systems serving 3.5 million residents. Attendees will gain firsthand insight into how defense in depth strategies, including network segmentation, zero trust architecture, AI powered anomaly detection, and secure remote access, were successfully deployed across legacy operational technology environments without a single moment of unplanned downtime.Beyond the technical framework, this presentation unpacks the unique challenges of selling and marketing cybersecurity solutions to water utilities: navigating procurement cycles, communicating risk to non-technical municipal executives, and aligning solutions with regulatory mandates such as NIST SP 800-82 and ISA/IEC 62443.Whether you are crafting go-to-market strategy, building sales narratives, or developing content targeting critical infrastructure clients, this session delivers actionable intelligence to help cybersecurity organizations position their solutions effectively in one of the most important and fastest growing verticals in the industry.

11:30 am
-
12:00 pm
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)
Panel

AI-Driven Security as a Competitive Advantage

AI adoption in cybersecurity is accelerating, but many organizations struggle to translate technical innovation into clear business value. Based on real-world enterprise deployments across regulated industries, this session explores how AI-driven security automation improves resilience, strengthens brand trust, and supports executive-level risk narratives.

In this session, we will examine how agentic AI frameworks in modern SOC environments affect customer confidence, operational maturity, and strategic differentiation. Attendees will gain practical insights for aligning AI-powered security initiatives with marketing, trust, and growth objectives.

11:30 am
-
12:00 pm
CT
Waterloo 4 Summit Room
Single Speaker

When Creativity Meets Revenue: Designing Events That Perform

In this session, you'll learn how to create unforgettable event experiences that capture attention, spark meaningful conversations, and drive measurable business outcomes. Through real-world examples and practical frameworks, we'll explore how creative concepts, booth experiences, customer engagement, and content strategy can all be intentionally designed to support pipeline generation and revenue goals.

Whether you're planning a flagship conference, executive event, or customer experience, you'll walk away with actionable ideas for balancing bold creativity with data-driven decision making, proving the impact of your programs, and turning every event into a growth engine for your business.

11:30 am
-
12:00 pm
CT
Waterloo 3 Breakout Room
Single Speaker

A Time to Scale: The Competitive Advantage of Marketing Across Cultures

Let's talk about the operational reality of marketing across cultures. As cybersecurity companies grow globally, marketers must do more than simply translating messaging. They need to understand how different cultures build trust, collaborate, and come to an agreements. Drawing from years of experience leading international marketing initiatives from Norway across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, Anne Simpson shares practical lessons on how cultural intelligence can strengthen cybersecurity marketing, global collaboration, and brand growth.

11:30 am
-
12:00 pm
CT
Waller EF Breakout Room (Virtual Room 3)

Lunch & Free Time

Refuel, connect, and keep the energy flowing! Lunch will be served in the Expo Hall, giving you time to explore the booths, meet sponsors, catch up with new connections, and continue the search for your conference buddy.

Looking for people who share your interests? Grab a seat at one of our Birds of a Feather tables, organized around specific topics and areas of interest. It’s an easy, informal way to exchange ideas and enjoy lunch with even more folks who truly “get” your world.

12:00 pm
-
1:15 pm
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)

Virtual Networking

Connect with fellow virtual attendees from around the world! Grab your favorite beverage, turn on your camera, and join an interactive networking session designed to make meeting new people easy.

Swap marketing ideas, discuss your favorite conference takeaways, and build lasting relationships with peers who understand the world of cybersecurity marketing and GTM.

12:00 pm
-
1:15 pm
CT
Virtual Conference

Tuesday

Mighty Team of One Mixer

Find your people at CyberMarketingCon. Held in our dedicated lounge in the Expo Hall aka Marketing Land, these hosted mixers bring together attendees with shared roles, challenges, and interests. Your host will help spark introductions and conversation, making it easy to form meaningful connections within your corner of the cyber marketing community.

Mighty Team of One Mixer

Doing the work of an entire marketing department...often before lunch? This mixer is for solo marketers and lean-team leaders balancing strategy, execution, technology, content, campaigns, and everything in between. Connect with people who understand the challenge, swap practical ideas, and find peers you can call on long after the conference ends.

2:00 pm
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2:55 pm
CT
Mixer Space in Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)
Single Speaker

Keeping The Brand Alive After The Deal Closes

For many startups, an acquisition is seen as the finish line. But in reality, it marks the beginning of a different kind of challenge: learning how to grow inside a much larger organization without losing the qualities that made the company successful in the first place.

In this session, I will explore one of the most overlooked risks in post‑acquisition (cyber) marketing: Brand Dilution.

The conversation will also look at brand autonomy through a business lens, particularly how decisions around brand voice, digital presence, and go to market execution are often tied directly to customer engagement, pipeline performance, and revenue growth. Eighteen months after the acquisition, Cyberint still maintains parts of its own digital presence because those channels continue to generate meaningful inbound activity and business results.

The session will highlight the balance required between structure and flexibility inside large organizations and the importance of creating enough alignment to scale effectively while still giving teams the ability to move quickly, experiment, and continue doing the things that proved effective in the past.

2:55 pm
-
3:20 pm
CT
Waterloo 3 Breakout Room
Single Speaker

The Cybersecurity Newsroom: How OX Security Built a Category-Defining Brand Through Earned Media

Building a recognizable brand in cybersecurity is hard. The space is noisy, buyers are skeptical of ads, and most companies end up looking and sounding the same. At OX Security, we made a deliberate bet: instead of outspending competitors, we'd out-publish them.We built an internal newsroom — a dedicated research and PR team producing original, timely cybersecurity intelligence — and used it to drive earned media coverage, establish genuine thought leadership, and grow our brand presence in ways that paid media simply can't replicate.In this session, OX CMO Idan Gol shares the strategy, the structure, and the real campaigns behind how OX went from unknown startup to a brand that journalists, analysts, and buyers actually seek out.

2:55 pm
-
3:20 pm
CT
Waller EF Breakout Room (Virtual Room 3)
Single Speaker

How to win over sales

At my core, I am a product marketer. But, there is only one golden rule in my playbook and that is to win the trust of your sales team above all else.

For an enterprise buyer, the AE and the SE are the primary source of truth. When product marketing builds a deck, and the sales never uses it, it leads to fragmented and confusing messaging. The buyer sees one thing on the website and hears a different story from the seller. Fixing this alone can increase the impact to 100x.

Most product marketers tend to operate at a very high level. The sales decks they build sit in Google drive while sales builds their own versions. John -- are you using this deck from 2022??

In this talk, I will share a set of hard-earned principles that have helped me get invited to customer meetings, QBRs, EBCs and ensure sellers actually use what I build for them.

PS: This talk is not about version control on Sharepoint although we could all use a lesson on that.

2:55 pm
-
3:20 pm
CT
Waller AB Breakout Room (Virtual Room 2)
Single Speaker

CMO Wins and Fails - Transforming a Cyber Marketing org with AI

As a CMO in an AI-forward cybersecurity software company, we unleashed the AI floodgates early, mandating our teams learn the tools and ramp adoption to accelerate projects and improve outcomes.

What is uninteresting is that we’re using AI: what marketer isn’t these days?

What’s perhaps more interesting is we were adopting AI while we rebranded the company, moved to a new tech stack, and accelerated our transformation from product to platform. Along the way we had some spectacular failures, as well as some meaningful contributions we could not have achieved without AI. Join the session to gain a CMO’s perspective on AI for cyber marketing across all critical marketing functions.

2:55 pm
-
3:20 pm
CT
Waterloo 4 Summit Room
Speed Session

5 Moves to Strengthen Demand Performance in 30 Days

Most demand teams have what they need: content, buyer signals, measurement, sales processes, and qualification. What's hard is knowing what to prioritize to make the biggest pipeline impact.In this fast-paced session, we’ll walk through five practical ways to improve demand performance.This isn't your grandma's five-point checklist to take home and forget. You'll have receipts.As we go, you’ll size up your own demand program, choose the area you want to put to work first, and map out one change you can test over the next 30 days, including how you’ll know if it’s helping.Finally, put your instinct to the test with a five-question Demand Performance Assessment to take a closer look at your overall performance and see where you may want to focus next.

2:55 pm
-
3:10 pm
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)

Wednesday

Book Your Complimentary Extras & Activities

Make the most of your CyberMarketingCon experience with these complimentary experiences. Reserve your spot in advance—or stop by to see if a walk-in time is available.

Podcast Studio

Record a podcast, interview, or video in a private, professional studio. Four microphones and an AV technician are included, so all you need to bring is your idea. Walk-ins are welcome when the studio is available.

One-on-One Expert Consultations

Get complimentary, personalized advice from experienced professionals—including cybersecurity industry analysts. Book a session to discuss marketing, channel strategy, graphic design, career strategy, your LinkedIn presence, or the cybersecurity market.

Professional Headshot

Refresh your LinkedIn photo, speaker profile, or professional bio with a polished new headshot. Visit the headshot studio in the Expo Hall, located behind the Fornix Marketing booth. Walk-ins are welcome when space is available.

Fun Station & Postcards

Add some personality to your conference badge with stickers, supplies, and badge ribbons—or write and mail a postcard to someone back home. Stop by the Fun Station in the Expo Hall aka Marketing Land whenever you’re ready for a creative break.

7:30 am
-
8:15 am
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)

Registration Desk Open!

Stop by the Registration Desk on the 2nd Floor Foyer and pick up your badge, swag bag, official conference notebook, and official conference t-shirt!

8:00 am
-
8:45 am
CT
Expo Hall (Moontower Hall)

Complimentary Coffee, Breakfast & Expo Hall (Marketing Land) Open!

Good morning, CyberMarketingCon! Join us at 8:00 AM for complimentary coffee and breakfast, catch up with fellow attendees, and explore the booths in the Expo Hall, aka Marketing Land!

We’ll have a set number of breakfasts ready to welcome you, available first come, first served while supplies last.

There’s plenty to explore: send a postcard from our fun station, drop in for a fresh headshot, catch content on the Expo Hall stage, or settle into a seat for networking and meetings. Come grab a bite and start the day with us!

8:00 am
-
8:45 am
CT
Waller CD General Session
Keynote

Social Engineering 101: Scam Your Way Into Anything

How do you get someone to open a door, bend a rule, or trust a stranger? Magicians, con artists, and social engineers have spent generations figuring it out.

In this funny, interactive keynote, Brian Brushwood (host of Discovery's Scam School and National Geographic's Hacking the System) takes you on a fun, funny tour inside the attacker's mindset. Through stories and demonstrations, he explores how trust, urgency, authority, and familiarity can be used to steer decisions, and why smart people are still vulnerable to a convincing story.

For cybersecurity marketers, it's a look at the human behavior behind the headlines: how believable deception gets constructed, why it works, and how understanding those mechanisms can help us recognize manipulation. Expect a talk that's fun, funny, and just a little bit dangerous.

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8:45 am
-
9:15 am
CT
Waller CD General Session (Virtual Room 1)
Single Speaker

MQLs, Memes and Building a Growth Team

Most growth marketing sessions focus on channels, tools, or that magic campaign that'll solve everything. This isn't one of them.

In this session, Nicole Gates, VP of Global Growth Marketing at Varonis, shares the three things she found actually determine whether your growth team scales or stalls: the metrics you choose to optimize for, the people you hire (and why), and the culture that makes growth at the center of everything you build.

Because real growth happens when your strategy becomes shared thinking and your team can carry the vision without you in the room.

This session is for marketing leaders at every stage of building - whether you're making your first growth hire, restructuring a team that's outgrown its design, or trying to figure out why a talented team isn't producing the results the strategy promised.

9:25 am
-
10:10 am
CT
Waller AB Breakout Room (Virtual Room 2)
Single Speaker

Zero to Flagship: The Campaign Architecture Behind 96% Engagement in One Quarter

In Q1 2026, CIS launched its first-ever flagship campaign, Secure by Design, and the results rewrote our marketing playbook. In one quarter: 96% engagement rate to our campaign landing page, 85% audio completion rate, 3,000+ guide downloads, 1,400+ leads, and 900k+ paid media impressions. None of it happened by accident. This session is a candid, step-by-step breakdown of how we built an integrated paid, owned, and earned campaign around a single idea and made it work for two completely different audiences simultaneously. You’ll leave with a replicable framework, the lessons we learned, and the one number that surprised us most.

9:25 am
-
10:10 am
CT
Waller EF Breakout Room (Virtual Room 3)

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