Camp Cyber reboots conference format with top-security KC Tech Council retreat
July 30, 2018 | Austin Barnes
From cyberspace to the great outdoors, the KC Tech Council is using past success to develop a one-of-a-kind professional development experience: Camp Cyber.

Traditional conferencing rebooted, the two-day retreat is expected to provide Kansas City’s top information security leaders with exclusive access to industry insiders, said Ryan Weber, KC Tech Council president.
Camp Cyber – set for Sept. 12-13 – aims to break through the mundane with an outside-the-box approach to professional development and networking, he said. It offers participants a resort-style retreat at the secluded Maple Ranch south of Kansas City, rather than stale bagels and cold coffee in a corporate conference room.
“Besides, camp is always fun,” Weber quipped.
Development opportunities like Camp Cyber could be the wave of the future, he said.
“As the role of CISO [chief information security officer] becomes more central to our organizations, it became apparent to us there was a need to connect this leadership group and provide them relevant programming and relationship-building in an exclusive yet relaxed setting,” Weber said.
Downloading an interest in attending Camp Cyber? Beware the firewall.
Participants are required to hold the highest cyber security rank within their company — a decision Weber defined as critical to the inner workings of Camp Cyber.
Major Kansas City companies such as Cerner, Garmin, and AMC Theatres have thrown their support behind the tech council’s latest endeavor. The three companies are among a select group that rounds out the Camp Cyber steering committee.
“The content is derived from a steering committee comprised of our core audience. Therefore, content will be focused on the audience,” he said as he offered an overview of Camp Cyber’s objectives.
“We rely on industry leaders to drive content for our events,” Weber explained. “That’s why we’ve created a steering committee to ensure we are delivering a high-value event that is relevant to our audience, comprised of their industry peers.”
Click here to learn more about Camp Cyber or register for the event.

2018 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Royal Street Ventures, Kauffman Foundation announce KC University Venture Program
The early-stage capital scene in Kansas City is getting a youthful shot in the arm. Designed to give Kansas City-area university students interested in entrepreneurship and private finance deep and real-world experience, the newly announced Kansas City University Venture Program aims to create a pipeline of experienced, young early-stage investors. Led by Royal Street Ventures…
Random act of kindness fueled by KC’s startup community goes viral
Openness, willingness, humility, diligence and kindness. These are the words that Donald Carter would use to describe Kansas City’s startup community, which he said had a profound impact on his life perspective. “(These values) are prevalent among all the people from the startup community I’ve met, which made a deep impression on me,” Carter said.…
Listen: From Brazil to Kansas City, furniture entrepreneur shares journey
Editor’s note: In partnership with the KC Greats podcast, hosted by Scott Parman, Startland News hopes to offer its audience more avenues to learn about entrepreneurs in Kansas City. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. In this episode, host Scott Parman welcomes the founder of Freedom Companies Carol Espinosa. Hailing from Rio…
Report illuminates Google Fiber’s commitment to bridging the digital divide
In 2016, Google Fiber provided 36,000 digital training hours in Kansas City— that’s one-third of the national sum. This information comes from the tech giant’s inaugural Community Impact report, which was published earlier this month. In the report, Google Fiber assessed the progress the firm has made toward closing the digital divide nationally. “From the…
