The CyberMarketingCon
2026 Agenda
Please note that session times and dates may change.
High Level Schedule: When should I arrive?
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.
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!
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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!
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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!

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.
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.
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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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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!
Monday

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.

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!_x000D_

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!

Resist Comfort: How to Block Your Caveman Urge to Be Boring and Do the Best Work of Your Life
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.

Virtual Conference - Room 1

Virtual Conference - Room 2

Virtual Conference - Room 3

Nobody Read Your Threat Report. Designing Security Research Practitioners Want to Read
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.

Embed Analyst Interactions In Your Marketing Roadmap
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
Tuesday

DemandScience Speaking Session

Marketing Leaders Roundtables: What’s Keeping You Up at Night?
Bring the challenge you’re still figuring out. Join fellow marketing leaders for an open conversation about the pain points of leading a marketing function—from budget pressures and team capacity to proving impact, aligning with sales, and managing executive expectations.
These roundtables are a chance to compare notes, ask honest questions, and hear how peers are tackling similar challenges. Come ready to share what’s working, where you’re stuck, and what you could use another perspective on.
Attendees will be invited to submit their pain points in advance to help shape the discussions. You’re also welcome to bring a challenge to the table that day.

CyberMarketingCon-fessional: What's Hot and What's Not in 2026
Shhh. Come on in. Drop your 2026 campaign confessions into our “phish” bowl. No names, no judgment. Just a year in review of what's working and what's not, with some fun along the way.One of your hosts, William Jardine, spent a decade pentesting and running offensive security teams before pivoting to creative strategy. His co-host, Courtney Chatterton, has spent four years running full-funnel demand gen and writing the copy that actually sells in cyber. Together, they're putting cyber marketing campaigns on trial: real stories, anonymous audience confessions, slightly techie breach breakdowns, what works on cyber practitioners, and verdicts on what worked, what flopped, and what should've stayed in the drafts folder in 2026.Would your campaigns survive scrutiny from someone who's lived the other side of the claim? Come find out or just come for the cringe and the laughs!

Beyond Events: How Top Field Marketing Teams Become Revenue Growth Engines
For years, field marketing has battled a perception problem. Too often, teams are viewed as event planners, swag managers, or execution resources rather than strategic contributors to revenue growth.
Having built and scaled field marketing organizations across multiple cybersecurity companies—from startup environments to publicly traded organizations—we’ve seen firsthand what separates transactional marketing teams from those that become trusted revenue partners.
In this session, we’ll share the lessons, frameworks, and hard-earned experiences from building field and partner marketing functions that earned credibility with sales leadership, aligned cross-functional teams around pipeline goals, and demonstrated measurable business impact.
Attendees will learn:
• How to establish trust and influence with sales leaders from day one
• The operating principles that help field marketing move from reactive support to proactive revenue generation
• How to align field marketing, partner marketing, customer success, and sales around shared business outcomes
• The metrics and reporting strategies that demonstrate real business value beyond activity-based measurements
• Common mistakes organizations make when scaling field marketing teams—and how to avoid them
• Practical examples of integrated regional campaigns that drove pipeline and strengthened executive confidence in marketing
Whether you’re building a field marketing team, leading one, or looking to increase your strategic influence within your organization, you’ll leave with actionable frameworks that can be immediately applied to your own business.
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Orchestrating Outcomes: How product marketing needs to evolve to support AI-first buyer's journeys
Cybersecurity deals don't start when a buyer discovers your product. They start when something goes wrong — a competitor breach, a failed audit, a board question nobody could answer. Risk realization is the actual trigger. And from that moment, buyers aren't shopping for a product. They're buying risk reduction, internal credibility, and the ability to defend their decision if something fails anyway.
By the time cybersecurity buyers reach your website, they've already oriented in AI search, validated shortlists with peers, and formed opinions you can't easily change. Your content isn't introducing them to you. It either confirms or disproves what they already believe. Deals then range from 3 to 18 months, and they stall most often not at technical evaluation, but at procurement and CFO sign-off, where business justification is everything.
Product marketing needs to evolve to support the new journey and new buying committee. Learn how product marketing can impact the deal outcomes with the right AI stack.

Cited vs. Recommended: What We Actually Know About Winning AI Search
In this fifteen-minute talk, Kerry Guard walks you through what we know today, what's proven to work, and the hypotheses still being tested for you to keep an eye on. She'll share first-party research and tests she and her team have run to date, how to (and how not to) measure performance, and her predictions for the future of AI Search.
Wednesday

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.
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Lunch + Birds of a Feather Tables
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.
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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.
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Lunch for 60 minutes

Positioning & Messaging Workshop for Cyber Founders
[Lunch will be served during this workshop]
Struggling to explain what makes your company different? Strong positioning gives your business a clear place in the market—and strong messaging turns that position into a story customers, investors, partners, and employees can understand and remember.
In this interactive workshop, cybersecurity founders will learn how to define their ideal audience, identify the problems they solve, clarify their unique value, and distinguish their companies from competitors. Participants will examine how positioning shapes every aspect of communication, from a homepage headline and sales pitch to investor conversations, media interviews, and thought leadership.
Through guided exercises and practical frameworks, attendees will begin translating complex products and technical capabilities into clear, audience-focused messages. They will also learn how to connect their company positioning with their founder brand, creating a consistent narrative that builds credibility and trust.
Founders will leave with a sharper market position, a stronger messaging foundation, and practical language they can apply across marketing, sales, fundraising, recruiting, and media.

Workshop: Every Event Is a Content Studio: How to Reach Beyond the Show Floor
Your company just spent $30,000 on a conference and you sent three people to the show. They worked the booth for two days, scanned a couple hundred leads, and came home with one blurry photo and a LinkedIn post no one saw.
After the event, the only people who knew you were there were the ones who happened to walk past your booth. Your conference presence doesn't have to end on the show floor.
Instead, picture this: every event you attend is a packed content studio. The conversations are flowing, the energy is electric, the candid moments are plentiful, and the community is engaged. If you’re walking out of it empty-handed, you’re leaving value on the table.
Event content drives higher engagement and more follower growth than almost any other content type on LinkedIn. The opportunity is sitting right there, but most teams just don't have a system to capture it.
In this session, you'll learn how to build a field content engine that turns every event you attend into weeks of high-performing organic content, without a dedicated media team or production budget. We'll cover how to plan your content before you leave, what to capture on the show floor, how to turn it into multiple pieces of content, and how to activate your team's personal profiles to maximize your reach.
You'll leave with a process your team can run at the next event on your calendar, and a way to measure how far your presence actually extended past the show floor.