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!

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!

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!

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

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.

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.

‍

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!

‍

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.

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!_x000D_

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!

As AI makes it easier than ever to create content and campaigns, it's also making it easier than ever to sound exactly like everyone else. The more marketers rely on the same tools, prompts, playbooks, and best practices, the more the market becomes flooded with safe, predictable, and forgettable work.

In this keynote, Nathan Burke makes the bold claim that discomfort is becoming a competitive advantage. That being uncomfortable pushes the boundaries of your work towards what’s actually new, impactful, and worth making.

Drawing from lessons learned building high-growth cybersecurity companies, working within cultures obsessed with continuous improvement, and embracing AI as a force multiplier rather than a crutch, Nathan will explore why complacency is the enemy of great work. He'll share practical ways to seek criticism instead of compliments, challenge conventional thinking, and push beyond the ideas that feel safe.

‍

Our industry publishes hundreds of "state of" reports, threat landscapes, and security surveys every year. Practitioners ignore most of them. But there are good news for marketers: The report practitioners actually read, cite, and share is also the one that does the most for your brand and your pipeline. Useful and effective are not opposites. But most security research is just more of the same: Recycled dwell-time stats, leading survey questions, "n=12 CISOs" passed off as data, and a single headline number nobody can map to their own environment.This session is a practical design guide for reports and surveys the practitioner actually wants to read. We'll cover survey design that doesn't generate garbage, metrics that survive a skeptical reader, why segmentation beats a scary average, and how to mine the telemetry you already own instead of running another opinion poll. The goal is produce content practitioners trust — which is the only research that earns the awareness and demand you were after in the first place.

Many marketers view working with industry analysts as a necessary evil and an opportunity to tell them everything about what makes their product or service great. Marketers may only interact with analysts during evaluations, then forget about them until the next one. Getting the most out of industry analysts, however, requires ongoing engagement and listening as much as (or preferably, more than) you speak. Embedding analyst interactions in your marketing roadmap can provide objective third-party insight at crucial points throughout the year. Hear from Recovering Marketer and Forrester VP and Research Director Joseph Blankenship (JB) who was a cybersecurity marketer for 10 years before joining Forrester as an analyst. JB will talk about what worked for him as a marketer, what he sees successful marketers doing as they interact with analysts, and how well-timed analyst interactions can inform your marketing roadmap. Session attendees will learn:•_x0009_Understanding what analysts really do and how they can inform your marketing•_x0009_Creating a playbook for ongoing, successful analyst engagement•_x0009_Embedding analyst interactions to inform your product and messaging launches

A published book is one of the most powerful demand generation and thought leadership tools in cybersecurity marketing, and most people assume it requires a traditional publisher or a massive budget. It doesn't.

I've published four books, including Sounil Yu's Cyber Defense Matrix and multiple books with JupiterOne, through Amazon KDP and consulted on several more, including Ross Haleliuk's "Venture Into Security". In this session, I'll walk through the full playbook: from crafting a manuscript that actually resonates with your target audience (without the heavy lift of writing everything from scratch), to formatting, cover design, metadata optimization, and getting it live on KDP.

But we're not stopping at publishing. The real magic is in how you use the book once it exists. I'll cover how to turn a book into a demand generation engine: pre-order campaigns, early review strategies, launch buzz, and lead capture. Beyond launch, I'll dig into the ways a book keeps working for you as a marketing asset. Book signings at your booth at conferences. Shipping copies to prospects, investors, and customers. Using them as swag and giveaways. Repurposing the content into long-form blog series, pulling excerpts for standalone posts, running webinars on the topic. A single book becomes a content flywheel that keeps generating value long after publication.

I'll also cover the tradeoffs between self-publishing and going the traditional route (Wiley, O'Reilly, etc.). Traditional publishers offer built-in distribution, but they also mean higher costs, longer timelines, and restrictions on repurposing your own content. For many cybersecurity marketers and founders, the in-house route gives you more control, faster execution, and a better ROI as a marketing asset.

What would make this community useful to you after today?

We’ll close the CyberCMO Summit with an open conversation about the support, connections, and shared learning marketing leaders want throughout the year. Bring your ideas for topics to tackle, ways to exchange advice, and opportunities to help one another.

Your input will help shape what comes next for the community.

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.

Demand Generation Marketers Mixer

Bring together the marketers focused on building pipeline and creating sustainable growth. Connect with demand generation peers to discuss campaign strategy, buyer journeys, lead quality, sales alignment, measurement, and the constantly evolving challenge of reaching cybersecurity audiences.

Join us for an awesome comedy set to start off the Marquee Awards where we celebrate marketers doing amazing work in the cybersecurity industry and we close off with a raffle of our Passport to Prizes giveaways.

Apply to the Marquee Awards by Sept 15th! https://www.cybermarketingconference.com/marquee-awards

In this quick comedy session by a marketer for marketers, let’s laugh at everything from sales made slides to having our budget cut for the 100th time.

Let's celebrate the best of the best in cybersecurity marketing in the fastest awards ceremony you have ever attended. That's right, no 4-hour long, drawn-out event.

We are going to celebrate and give out trophies to winners in the categories of brand marketing, field marketing, funniest marketer, mentorship, best partner, best vendor, and more, all in less than one hour. This fun, fast, and high-energy event is a great start to your evening!

Plus, the Marquee Awards is where we hand out our raffle prizes for the Passport to Prizes. Make sure to drop off your ticket at the reg desk by 4pm and then attend this raffle (you have to be there to win!) to win fabulous prizes including high-end video equipment, Amazon gift cards, and even tickets to next year's CyberMarketingCon!

An exclusive evening bringing together CyberMarketingCon VIPs, industry leaders, speakers, and senior cybersecurity marketing and GTM professionals. Graciously sponsored by Informa TechTarget.

Over dinner, connect beyond the conference agenda, exchange ideas with peers, and build meaningful relationships with some of the people influencing where our industry goes next.

Advance RSVP is required to attend. Space is limited.

About Informa TechTarget

Informa TechTarget informs, influences and connects the world's technology buyers and sellers, and aims to be an indispensable partner in driving clients’ go-to-market success. With a vast reach of over 220 highly targeted technology-specific digital properties—including leading cybersecurity brands Dark Reading, TechTarget Security and Cybersecurity Dive—and approximately 58 million permissioned first-party audience members, Informa TechTarget has a unique understanding of and insight into the technology market.

As a leading provider of market intelligence, industry journalism, brand and demand marketing solutions, content strategy and creation, and exclusive buyer intent data, we deliver expert-led, data-driven, and digitally enabled services that create significant impact and measurable outcomes for our clients. All of this is underpinned by a unique audience data ecosystem and fueled by buyer insights and expertise.

Learn more: informatechtarget.com 

‍

RSVP REQUIRED: Official AR/PR/Comms Dinner Sponsored by PAN 

A dinner built for the people shaping how cybersecurity companies are seen, understood, and talked about. Request a seat at that dinner here! Advance RSVP is required to attend. Space is limited.

Join fellow analyst relations, public relations, communications, brand, and corporate marketing leaders for an evening of candid conversation and peer connection. Talk shop with people navigating the same challenges—from building credibility and managing narratives to earning attention in an increasingly crowded cybersecurity market.

About PAN

PAN is the brand-to-demand agency forged from PR. Independent and global, we help B2B tech and healthcare brands get seen, believed, and chosen. Trusted by mid-market and enterprise leaders, we bring 30+ years of experience and award-winning work across earned, owned, and paid media.

Website: pancommunications.com

‍

Antu Buck, who built the customer marketing function from the ground up at Gigamon and previously led programs at McAfee and Intel, challenges the common misconception that customer marketing is merely a content function. Instead, she positions it as a core growth driver that directly influences revenue, retention, and product direction.

In this session, Antu breaks customer marketing into three strategic pillars: customer advocacy (testimonials, case studies, and reference programs), community engagement (executive briefings, advisory boards, and social channels), and customer lifecycle management (onboarding, renewal, and expansion in close partnership with customer success). She shares how maintaining authentic voice-of-the-customer requires resisting over-scripted narratives—favoring open-ended questions that surface real insights and credible stories.

Through real-world examples, Antu demonstrates how customer feedback reshaped Gigamon’s messaging from public cloud to hybrid cloud, and how a customer advisory board directly influenced the launch of precryption. She also introduces her “credibility loop,” powered by transparent internal communication and executive dashboards tied to business outcomes.

Attendees will walk away with a practical starter playbook: align to business goals first, implement foundational tools within 30 days, establish advocacy and reference programs early, and progressively layer in win-loss research and advisory boards. This session is ideal for marketers looking to elevate customer marketing into a measurable, strategic growth function

Want to build your founder brand? It starts with knowing how to communicate your story, expertise, and vision with clarity, confidence, and consistency.

In cybersecurity, a strong founder brand can establish trust, create market visibility, attract customers and talent, and position both you and your company as credible industry leaders. But turning deep technical expertise into a compelling public presence requires more than simply knowing your subject—it requires thoughtful messaging, memorable storytelling, and media readiness.

In this interactive workshop, founders will learn how to define the ideas and perspectives they want their founder brands to represent—and communicate them effectively across interviews, podcasts, panels, and other high-visibility opportunities. Participants will explore how to develop concise, audience-focused messaging, translate complex cybersecurity topics into engaging narratives, and respond confidently to difficult or unexpected questions.

Through guided exercises and real-world scenarios, attendees will practice staying on message, delivering memorable sound bites, and connecting each media appearance to their broader founder-brand and business goals. They’ll leave better prepared to build executive visibility, strengthen market credibility, and become trusted voices for their companies and the cybersecurity industry.

‍

Cybersecurity buyers don’t want to be sold to- they want to validate, learn, and hear from people like them before they ever take a meeting.

So they turn to community.

Whether it’s private Slack groups, Discord servers, niche forums, or in-person conversations, the real buying journey is happening in places most marketing teams don’t control and often don’t participate in effectively.

This session breaks down how to turn those community spaces into a deliberate, scalable growth motion without killing the trust that makes them valuable in the first place.

I’ll share how we’ve approached community-led growth in cybersecurity, including what actually drives engagement (and what quietly kills it), how to activate practitioners as advocates in a way that feels natural, not transactional, and how to connect community efforts to real business outcomes like pipeline influence and deal acceleration.

This is not a “start a Slack group” talk. It’s a practical look at how to meet buyers where they already are and earn your way into the conversation.

Most cyber founders I meet think analyst relations is something you do "later": a tax you pay once you can afford Gartner, run by marketing, aimed at getting a distinct dot on a chart. That belief costs them one of the cheapest, fastest sources of market truth a startup can get.

In this session I'll reframe AR for CEOs and founders as a growth and traction tool, not a marketing or PR line item, drawing on a decade running AR across tech, VC, and cybersecurity and 300+ analyst engagements with significant outcomes in terms of number of mentions, category creation, and influence over pipeline and revenue. The analysts who write the reports also take inquiry calls from hundreds of your buyers and every one of your competitors. Engaged well, they become a feedback loop that provides upfront feedback on your positioning and category, a credibility signal that adds confidence and removes friction for a CISO betting on a startup, and an influence channel that touches deals and shapes how investors see you.

I'll show you what AR actually does for product-market fit, traction, and revenue; when to start (earlier than you think) and with whom; an MVP cadence a small team can run; and the moves that only founders can make. I'll separate the real impact from the expensive theater, so you spend scarce time and money where it yields results to your growing startup.

Join us as we close out this year's CyberMarketingCon with final thoughts, key takeaways, and a look ahead to next year.