Author: Graham Long Business Development Director at CAE
I have spent many years working with, and alongside teams that deliver exceptional customer-focused events, providing insights that enable customers to take their IT and technology landscape to the next level. As the Business Development Director at CAE, part of my focus is to ensure our customers can get the very best out of our face-to-face events, building our customer intimacy and creating memorable moments.
When I joined CAE a little over a year ago, we had a real opportunity to deliver to our customers exactly what they wanted, real IT insights, real-life customer challenges and experiences, along with having direct access to our top specialists and experts in the room. So, what did we do? Exactly that.
CyberXperience Summit
During the months of March and April, we hosted our first CyberXperience Summit, in both London and Manchester. Held at iconic landmark buildings, Landing Forty Two and Cloud 23, it was a milestone in CAE history and has set the foundation for what our customers can expect from us moving forward. 
Our London event was the first CyberXperience Summit on the 21st March, and our team pulled out all the stops to ensure the day went off without a hitch. A truly iconic moment for CAE hosting over 50 of our customers, that was amplified by the landmark space at Landing Forty Two.
As our customers entered the building and took flight in the lift (the fastest in Europe I was told as we zoomed above London), it was fantastic to see the space filling up with a buzz of excitement and anticipation for the cybersecurity focused afternoon ahead. As the first session started, it was clear to see that our customers were ready to absorb how we could support them in their cybersecurity challenges.
After introductions by our Chief Corporate Development Officer Richard Behan, and a showcase of our new sustainability focus; CARE, Cisco’s Director of Cyber Security Scott Manson, took to the stage to deliver a key message, simplify your security with CAE and Cisco.
It is often found that with a partner and vendor, the relationship is quite transactional. We believe that by developing a real partnership with Cisco, we deliver exceptional outcomes to our customers, ensuring they get the very best from both us and Cisco technology. Scott’s discussion around this topic, really solidified to me how important our partnership is and from speaking to colleagues and customers afterwards, they felt the same.
Two of our own highly skilled cybersecurity specialists, Chief Technologist – Network & Security Gisli Helgason and Senior Security Solutions Architect Anthony Owen, shared the technical opportunities available to secure organisations against cyber threats and explored the future landscape of cybersecurity with a live demo of Cisco’s Secure Access. This included how to protect against email threats and extended detect and response for your business, XDR.
Real-life customer experiences
The highlight of the afternoon, was the real-life experience of Head of Information Security at B&M, Rupert Topp, who lead the team with the ground-breaking XDR project. Hosted by our Business Consultant Rob Georgeson, 
Rupert shared the challenges B&M faced and reasons why the XDR project was undertaken with key takeaways.
During our Q&A session with Rupert, one question stood out “ What do you think the future of retail & cybersecurity looks like.” It is often reflected in these types of Q&As, the questions top of mind for people and this question you will likely be familiar with in your own sector, what does the future of cyber threats and cybersecurity look like?
Before we closed for the day we heard from the brilliant Declan Hadley, Healthcare Lead UK&I at Cisco. Declan spoke about his transition from the NHS to Cisco, how technology is transforming the healthcare world for both clinicians and patients through connecting the hospital to home & his own experience of the WannaCry Ransomware attack. A real eye opener of how to manage a high scale crisis in the midst of continuing to save lives.
As we come to a close…
Reflecting on our CyberXperience Summit and the success of customer conversations, along with the education for us all on cybersecurity, I am confident we will continue to deliver what our customers ask for; smaller exclusive round tables to larger scale events focusing on transforming people’s experiences and people’s lives through technology.
