Yorkshire Cyber Security Event

A couple of weeks ago I was wondering whether I had done the right thing – help to organise and run a cyber security event at the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre.

Last year I became acquainted with someone I soon decided I’d say yes to everything they offered me.  One of these opportunities was to attend a meeting at the Barnsley Digital Media Centre.  I didn’t know what I was expecting; I just knew to turn up.

The meeting was for the Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster and three meetings later I was still asking myself what the heck I was doing there – For those of you that know me, you will know although I use technology constantly, I am the least techie person ever and techie talk is not a language that I am familiar with – However the objective of working with small businesses and enabling them to be more secure online kept appearing and I wondered whether this was why I was there.

At the next meeting, the Cluster was discussing the idea of putting on an event and so I stepped up and offered my experience, knowledge and time.

It was difficult to organise; being a collaborative group with the greater good as the goal, it is hard to ensure that everyone’s perception is the same, or at least complements each others.

Another obstacle was time; the timescale we had given ourselves was short (to say the least), and we are all busy business owners and before you know it, even with the best of intentions times slips past quickly.

Cluster members were asked how they might like to participate in the event and many chose to provide a presentation or be an expert in one to one sessions.

All along I was urging for the promotion of the event to be content led, explaining to potential attendees why they needed to come and what they would learn, however as mentioned above time was not on our side to enable us to do so, especially as we didn’t receive and confirm the presentations until the week before.

Without boring you of the trials and tribulations of organising an event all I can say is that it was an excellent day with wonderful feedback and it has given us a blueprint to work with in the future. But even better than that there seems to be lots of enthusiasm within the cluster to hold another event!  Details to follow!

I have uploaded photos of the event to my Facebook page, why not come and have a look.

Whilst I say that organised it, I was only part of the team and the event would not have been possible without the tireless effort and input of many people including Melanie Oldham of Bob’s Business and her hardworking team of assistants and the Antisocial Engineer Richard De Vere among many others.

If you would like to find out more about Cyber Security or the Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster please visit the website www.YCSC.org.uk