Let's face it—cyber product marketing is more chaotic than ever. Constant launches, events, messy messaging, and content chaos leave most PMMs ready to throw in the towel as we're asked to do more with less. After 12 years inside the storm—across startups, scaleups, Splunk, and now Cisco—I realized something had to give. So I started building something new.

In this talk, I'll introduce Narrative to Audience (NTA)—a practical, narrative-first system designed to radically simplify the PMM experience. We'll cover:
• Part 1: The Journey — My story navigating through the cyber maze for twelve years and seven vendors.
• Part 2: The Complexity — Lessons from orchestrating messaging across massive portfolios and ever-shifting orgs.
• Part 3: The Shift — Why I started building a new system powered by AI to put narrative—and sanity—back in the PMM's orbit.

AI isn't a threat to product marketers if we harness it. It's an opportunity to escape the grind and focus on what matters: crafting stories that land and building trust with our audience.

Top 3 Takeaways:
1. A practical framework (NTA) to simplify your role as a Cyber PMM - Learn how Narrative to Audience brings clarity and focus to messaging, content, and buyer engagement—without burning you out.
2. Survival tips from inside the GTM machines of Dell, VMware, Splunk and Cisco - Get real-world insights on navigating messaging complexity at scale, and how to survive (and lead) without authority.
3. How AI can become your ally, not your replacement - Discover how AI can help Cyber PMMs fight digital chaos, cut through the hype, and do more with less.

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Security buyers are overwhelmed by tools, vendors, and noise. In a market leaning toward consolidation and simplicity, the message is clear: make it easier. This session explores how cybersecurity marketers can lead the way by collaborating.
We'll unpack how "better together" storytelling, co-branded events, and aligned go-to-market plays are reshaping the way buyers discover and trust new solutions. By joining forces, we not only meet buyers where they are, we offer clarity, community, and value. Learn how to build strategic alliances that reduce marketing costs, expand reach, and, most importantly, deliver a unified experience for the overwhelmed security buyer.

Key Takeaways
- Real examples of successful cross-vendor campaigns, events, and programs
- Tips for amplifying reach and pipeline without multiplying spend
- Why buyers are craving simplicity and how joint marketing efforts deliver it

The term "zero day" is well recognized and well defined by security practitioners. The cybersecurity marketing landscape increasingly misapplies it. As the founder of a scrappy startup, this puts me in a tenuous position. This presentation dives into my personal dilemma navigating this distortion. In this presentation I cover the motivations behind the linguistic metamorphosis, both the pitfalls and rewards. Ultimately this session aims to be an interactive exploration where presenter and audience grapple with this linguistic injustice together, and seek a path forwards towards clarity.

‍Key Takeaways
1. The audience will see an example of a founder's GTM struggles in a world where some stakeholders think an unsolved problem is solved.

2. The audience will grasp the potential danger in misleading security teams about actual protections

3. The audience will actively participate in lively discussion to address this problem

4. This session will empower the audience to question terms used in cybersecurity marketing and demand precision moving forwards, particularly in critical concepts like "zero day"

Everything in cyber is moving at once—threats, buyer needs, competitors, products, and marketing itself. CMOs belong on the frontline of AI‑driven change, turning noise into signal by creating the system to ingest all of this change and deliver a coherent strategy backed by the right tactics. This session will deliver a framework to manage the change and practical approaches to be ahead of the curve, not in a constant reactive mode.   Cyber CMOs are in a unique position to lead... let's unleash this power.

Topic: launching a product that isn't real, and might not be for N months.

How many of us have been asked to have a big product launch for a feature that won't actually get to customers for 6+ months? And then get equal attention once it's actually live? (Answer: Every single person here who is in product marketing or communications.) Receiving this mandate swirls with questions, like:
- How do I launch something now and still make it cool when it's GA in 8 months?
- How do I hype up collateral, the media, sales, customer success when it's not real yet?
- What are success metrics now vs at GA?

Let's turn these stomach-churning fire drills into wins for your marketing team, your company, and most importantly, the security teams who will (eventually) use your product. In this session, we'll use case studies of (not quite yet) product launches to uncover:
- A framework to decide what to do now vs at GA
- Enablement steps to win hearts and minds today and at GA
- KPIs to continually measure success
- Bonus: Ways to align your broader organization on the benefits of launching an available product

One "S" Managed Service Providers are often overlooked or misunderstood by cybersecurity companies. This session will go through the do's and don'ts of working with and marketing to the outsourced IT Department of Global SMBs: Managed Service Providers. 

Join this session to learn:
- What is "NFR" and why it's the only CTA that matters to MSPs
- What's the best way to reach MSPs
- What events do MSPs attend

Brand is still misunderstood. It’s seen as a campaign, a logo, or a line item in the budget. In reality, brand is the multiplier behind trust, pricing power, market differentiation, and long-term growth.

As a seasoned creative director and brand strategist, I'll explore the growing disconnect between executive leadership and the true value of brand equity. Drawing from real-world experience building brands in cybersecurity, B2B SaaS, and high-growth tech, I'll break down how companies unintentionally erode their brand and what it takes to rebuild it as a strategic asset.

- The Real Definition of Brand
- Brand is not your logo, your tagline, or your campaign. It’s a system of trust and perception that influences how people choose, pay, recommend, and stay.
- The Brand Equity Blind Spot in the C-Suite
- 71% of CEOs conflate brand with reputation. Less than 10% come from marketing backgrounds. The result? A disconnect that leads to reactive marketing, misaligned KPIs, and weak differentiation.
- Why Brand is a Business Strategy, Not Just a Marketing Function
- Learn how brand equity impacts pricing strategy, qualified leads, retention, talent attraction, and customer confidence.
- The Hidden Cost of Underfunding Brand
- From short-sighted campaign cycles to positioning, you'll see how underinvesting in brand creates problems across the entire business.
- What Great Companies Get Right
- Examples and case studies of companies that treat brand as a moat, not a megaphone and the returns they see because of it.
- Reframing the Brand Conversation
- Practical tactics for CMOs, VPs, and marketers to communicate the value of brand in ways that resonate with finance, product, and executive leadership.

In today’s fast-paced security market, understanding how buyers choose tools and services is more critical than ever. Beginning in 2023, ActualTech Media surveyed hundreds of security professionals and decision-makers to uncover how they evaluate, select, and purchase new solutions.

This December, ActualTech will release the highly anticipated third edition of the Security Buyer Report—revealing 2026 buyer behavior, highlighting shifts since 2025, and equipping security marketers with insights to sharpen their messaging for an evolving market.

The report will debut live at CyberMarketingCon 2025 in Austin, where ActualTech Media will break down the findings and engage with attendees on how to better support busy security professionals in making informed decisions.