Two Worlds, Two CISOs: Why Tech and Brick-and-Mortar Buy Security Similar, but Nothing Alike

2:00 pm
-
2:45 pm
CT

Most "how to market to CISOs" advice treats security leaders as one audience. But not so fast. The CISO at a cybersecurity vendor and the CISO at a retailer, hospital, or manufacturer live in different worlds with different budgets, different boards, different threat models, different reasons to trust you or tune you out. Run the same campaign at both and one may lean in while the other deletes it on sight.

This panel puts that gap on stage. Two sitting security leaders, one from a cybersecurity technology company and one from a traditional brick-and-mortar enterprise, react in real time to the marketing aimed at them every day. No slides, no vendor pitch, just the buyers telling you where your messaging lands and where it dies.

I'll get into where these worlds diverge and where they quietly agree: how each evaluates a new vendor, what earns a meeting versus what gets ignored, how "AI-powered everything" actually reads from the buyer's chair, how budget and board pressure differ when security is your product versus a cost line, and why the tactics that win a tech CISO can backfire with a traditional one.

Session Agenda

  • Attendees leave able to segment security buyers by industry context, not just by title. The audience will leave with:
  • 1) A practical framework for segmenting security buyers by industry context, not just job title
  • 2) The specific signals that earn a meeting versus get you deleted, and how they differ by sector
  • 3) How board and budget dynamics reshape messaging when security is the product vs. a cost center
  • 4) What "AI-powered" marketing sounds like from the buyer's side, and what to say instead

Speakers

Tony Thompson

Life-Long Cyber Marketer & Chief Marketing Officer

Seemplicity

Tony Thompson

Life-Long Cyber Marketer & Chief Marketing Officer

Seemplicity

Tony is the CMO at Seemplicity, bringing more than 25 years of experience scaling global B2B technology and cybersecurity brands. A seasoned marketing leader with a business-first, data-led approach to brand building and demand generation.

Throughout his career, Tony has built a proven, repeatable track record of value creation, category leadership, and brand transformation. Prior to joining Seemplicity, he served as CMO at Swimlane, where he successfully established the company as the AI security automation category leader, driving 4x revenue growth and an 800% expansion in the active sales pipeline, engaging more than 75% of the Fortune 500.

Before Swimlane, Tony was the CMO at Kemp Technologies, where he repositioned the company as the pioneer in “always-on application experience," driving nearly 100% revenue growth and paving the way for the company’s successful acquisition by Progress Software.

Tony’s extensive leadership background is rooted in deep domain expertise across the cybersecurity and networking landscapes. Earlier in his career, he held senior marketing leadership roles at marquee technology companies including Silver Peak (now part of HPE), McAfee, Solidcore (acquired by McAfee), Juniper Networks (now part of HPE), SS8 Networks, and Blue Coat (now part of Broadcom).

Known for cutting through the noise in highly competitive markets, Tony excels at building brands that not only perform but lead among customers and partners. At Seemplicity, he is leveraging his expertise in demand generation and category creation to propel the next phase of the company’s global expansion in agentic exposure management.

Mike Lyborg

CISO

Swimlane

Mike Lyborg

CISO

Swimlane

Michael Lyborg is the Chief Information Security Officer at Swimlane. Prior to taking his current role, Michael was Global Vice President of Advisory services, a highly sought-after expert by the world’s largest Fortune 500 companies and global government agencies to advise on the creation and operation of industry leading security operations programs in North America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia.

Before joining Swimlane, Michael was a head of security for the Fortune 100 fastest growing pharmaceutical company Heska (HSKA), where he held multiple responsibilities for global security operations, engineering, and compliance. His roles at Swimlane and Heska built on decorated US Marine Special Operations career supporting both cyber and physical response and the mitigation of emerging threats.

Sameer Sait

CISO

Stanley 1913

Sameer Sait

CISO

Stanley 1913

About this Session's Track

Demand Gen & Digital, GTM Engineering & MOPs

Dive into the latest demand gen, digital tactics, and marketing operations frameworks that drive pipeline growth, from innovative and automated campaigns to AI-driven GTM engineering.