CHICAGO — The 15thth annual Billington Cybersecurity Summit will be held September 3-6, 2024 in Washington, DC, bringing together cybersecurity professionals and experts from the public and private sectors for a first-of-its-kind event in the industry.
With over 20 years of experience in the cybersecurity industry, Billington Cybersecurity cultivated an impressive sense of trust at its events, along with a trade mission focused on protecting the United States from abuses.
The annual summit, founded in the wake of the infamous 2008 cyberattack on the Department of Defense, has seen impressive growth (more than 30 percent each year) as cybersecurity continues to move from a side issue to the forefront of public consciousness. The Net Promoter Score of the last two summits has been at least 67.
“I felt there was an opportunity to create a public-private dialogue that would bring together the public and private sectors to discuss cybersecurity, both defensively and offensively,” said Tom Billington, CEO and founder of Billington CyberSecurity. “So we became a mission-driven company and have remained that way ever since, focused on this singular vision of securing cyberspace for ourselves and our allies. These events are one of the few places where government and the private sector come together to build trust.”and to discuss cybersecurity in a public setting.”
The company has even tripled in size due to COVID. Billington CyberSecurity also hosted its first sold-out national/local event in March, which focused on how to protect the United States, cities, towns, and critical infrastructure, such as the energy, oil/gas, and water sectors.
A high-level audience
Attracting senior government and military officials, as well as corporate and small business leaders and academic leaders, the Billington CyberSecurity Summit fosters a unique dialogue among stakeholders.
The team also recognised the need for participants to hold small group meetings outside the public summit and established the Leadership Council, which offers informal breakfasts, carefully organised and vetted through official channels, in accordance with Chatham House rules. These are the venues where senior government and private sector officials discuss key issues and contribute in a more private setting.
“The reason these events have really grown is because there needs to be a trusted space where all of these groups, whether it’s government, industry, academia and our international partners, can come together,” Billington said. “The media is also very present at these events. That’s another key element: the government has a platform to share its messages, not only with the different groups that are there, but also with the media that then disseminate them more widely.”
Create an environment of trust
Much of the ability to create an environment of trust comes from the clear educational mission of the event itself.
“Sponsors are the lifeblood of our business and make everything possible,” Billington said. “They are our partners. We maintain complete editorial control and gain valuable insights by interviewing our sponsors’ subject matter experts.”
Billington said sponsors appreciate the trade show portion of the event because they share more in-depth company and product information with attendees, but during the educational sessions, they help inform and educate by participating.
“It’s a much better way to build trust, which is the foundation of how Washington, D.C. is built. The way trade is conducted is based on trust, not direct sales, to begin with. That’s why they like the international component of our summit; we have partnerships with all five Eye countries, including Australia and Canada, and we host receptions at both of those embassies.”
While the event is not ranked, top speakers can check the registration list to see who will be in the audience. Billington CyberSecurity requires attendees to be U.S. citizens or allies, and verifies IDs and badges of those who enter.
“It’s that level of speaker and that high-level engagement – year-round engagement – that really attracts our clients and their customers,” Billington said.
High-level content curation
Billington CyberSecurity is very selective when it comes to scheduling its events. With an in-house team focused on selecting training sessions featuring the right speakers talking about the right topics, the event was deemed “the greatest cyber show on Earth”, by Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“The training is largely curated by the team, by our sponsors, by our speakers and by our international experts,” Billington said. “We also interview our attendees in depth. We are in constant dialogue with our speakers and we follow the trends that impact the industry and our audience.”
The team also works with several advisory committees to obtain input on educational content.
Lessons from the cybersecurity industry
“The MGM cyberattack in 2023 was a wake-up call for Las Vegas and cities across the country, and businesses,” Billington said. “And it really should be for the trade show industry; it’s a significant issue and a financial burden. I’ve learned that it’s very important for businesses to build trust before a cyber crisis. The last place you want to share a business card with a federal official is during a crisis. Our event is a space where business leaders can build trust with government officials before a crisis.”
“We all need to find ways to be more proactive in deterring our adversaries. Some of them are currently lurking in our digital ecosystem, biding their time and ready to do harm,” Billington said. “More needs to be done to find and eliminate bad actors. AI is one of the big game changers in both offensive and defensive cyber operations.”
The implications of AI in the world of cybersecurity are twofold: AI will help make defensive systems more robust, but it will also help bad actors create more sophisticated offensive attacks.
“The attack has to be effective once, and the defense has to be effective every time,” Billington said. “That’s why cyber hygiene remains the best defense against malicious actors.”
Billington describes cyber hygiene as teaching your team not to click on unknown links or websites, using multi-factor authentication and employing a virtual private network when using the internet at the airport or at an event.
Contact Tom Billington at tkb@billingtoncybersecurity.com
