What a difference a year makes. In June 2020, the world was in a pretty dark place. Cybersecurity professionals, like their colleagues across the industry, had been isolated at home for several months. Things we’d all taken for granted, like meeting up for a drink after work, were increasingly and frustratingly out of reach. In many cases, mental health was suffering as a result.
This was the backdrop to our very first Cyber House Party (CHP). It was launched to coincide with what would have been Infosecurity Europe – a highlight in the calendar for many of us in the industry, and a traditional date for informal networking. We promised online chat, competitions, informative output and some late-night DJs – all while raising money for some very worthy causes.
Well, one year on, we’re back again, and this time with the blessing of Infosecurity Europe as its official after-show event on July 14. We’re looking forward to seeing you there.
From Strength to Strength
A lot has changed over the past year, and we’ve been absolutely amazed with the response to CHP. Over several seasonal events since the first show on June 3, 2020, we’ve raised over £14,000 for charity, and hosted more than 1000 attendees. Over 100 industry speakers have shared their insight with us, including McAfee’s Raj Samani, Oxford University’s Victoria Baines and National Cyber Security Centre CTO Richard M.
We continue to promote causes close to our hearts: including mental health, skills shortages and inclusion and diversity in the industry. That’s what makes CHP a winning combination - it’s not just about networking with your peers and laughing at the antics of some of our presenters. It is also about providing some genuinely thought-provoking and hopefully useful content to help promote some of the day’s most important issues and bring us closer together.
What’s Happening Next?
While Infosecurity Europe sadly couldn’t make this year’s show a live edition, the country has finally started opening up. It surely won’t be long before we are meeting up in person again. And who knows, maybe CHP will leap from virtual to real life as a result?
In the meantime, we’d like to thank the Infosecurity Europe team for supporting us this year. Next week’s CHP will be the best yet, with all your old favorites plus some new faces and some new issues to discuss. For example, we’ll be picking up the theme of harassment in the industry that recently exploded on Twitter. Still, aside from that, after a long hard virtual session at Infosec, we will be providing some more light-hearted content for you to enjoy.
As we have always done, we will be supporting Childline as the de-facto industry charity. Yet, for this event, we are glad to be supporting Young Minds, a children’s and young people’s mental health charity whose work has helped some of our children get through these very strange times.
The success of CHP over the past year has truly shown the remarkable strength and solidarity of the cyber community in the UK. Perhaps it was always there—it just took a global crisis to show us all.