CISO Masterminds - A Presenter's Perspective

In late February, the CISO Masterminds met for the Spring Summit Event in Hollywood, Florida.  Founded by Jason Starr, CISO Masterminds gathers CISOs from across the nation to provide opportunities for deep conversation and exchange that ultimately allow CISOs to better serve their organizations.  Appalachia has been honored to be afforded the opportunity to participate in events and serve as expert speakers.

Yoel Alvarez, CISSP and vCISO, attended the Hollywood (FL) event and presented “Third Party Risk Management – Program and Incident Response.”  With a smaller group setting than many large, ballroom-sized conferences, the participants actively engaged in conversation, often sharing experiences and struggles alike.  The CISO Mastermind events seem to have this aspect unlocked and value the smaller, exclusive conversations.  For Yoel, he found that the conversations from the sessions on day 1 helped him to fine tune his presentation to provide a greater value to the group.  After the event, an attendee shared a news article among the group that aligned with the risks presented by Yoel, highlighting the importance of his message.

When asked about the audience feedback and participation during his presentation, Yoel found that several had questions on how to involve MSPs directly in tabletop exercises.  For those unaware, a tabletop exercise is a simulation of realistic risks or events that could impact a business.  A business would then work through the situation to practice their responses, which can often be used to identify areas that are lacking in policy and procedures. 

Beyond Yoel’s own presentation, there were several other sessions and labs for attendees.  Session topics ranged from the mental load of a cybersecurity team, cloud security, incident response, and of course conversation about AI.  Throughout the two-day event, it was obvious that small events have an important place among the large, several hundred attendee and vendor events.  The level of exchange and collaboration is unmatched. 

Appalachia is honored to be invited to attend and speak at events such as CISO Masterminds.  If you have an interest in a member of our team participating as a speaker at your upcoming event, let us know – .

For more information on CISO Masterminds, visit https://www.cisomasterminds.com/