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
Crema apprenticeship effort aims to decode a more inclusive talent pool
Crema’s recent growth means more than an additional Crossroads office space for the startup, said Gabby Brotherton. It provides bandwidth for the firm to supplement Kansas City’s tech talent with a new apprenticeship program. “[Crema is] very much a company that values collaboration and innovation learning,” said Brotherton, marketing specialist at the software development firm.…
Biopesticide AgTech building toward RNAissance with TechAccel cultivation
KC-based TechAccel endeavors to guide startups through “the valley of death” stage that emerges after ideation, but before traction, said Brad Fabbri, noting the firm’s new venture, RNAissance Ag, is expected to disrupt the ag tech industry with environmentally-safe biopesticides. “We try to find products and help develop them to make [farmers’] lives easier and…
Digital Sandbox charges three new startups with its proof-of-concept challenge
An effort to elevate Kansas City’s creative minds, Digital Sandbox KC is digging deeper in its sixth year of acceleration — adding three new startups to its portfolio, the proof-of-concept program announced this week. “Our initial goal was to find 10 early-stage concepts that had high-growth potential and help them secure follow-on funding,” said Jeff Shackelford,…
KCultivator Q&A: Donald Hawkins chews on sage advice, blood sausage, ‘circle of giving’
Editor’s note: KCultivators is a lighthearted profile series to highlight people who are meaningfully enriching Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Founders should rally around Kansas City’s startup ecosystem like fans rallied around the Chiefs, said Donald Hawkins. “If you look at a lot of the companies that have scaled — there’s a huge connection gap between…