Infosec Europe 2023: our 3 Takeaways

Cocktails from 11am, 7-piece jazz ensembles til late, guests travelling from all around the world to attend, no it’s not Glasto but Infosec Europe 2023.

Here are our 3 technology takeaways from this year’s conference and how it could help you.

1. Attendees up, Vendors down. 

They might have been missing Elton John, but the 250 speakers, and 320+ booths were more than enough of a draw to fill ExCel London for the three day event. Attendance was significantly up from last year’s event, which had been marred by TFL strikes.

Despite this increased footfall, sales teams had to be quite persistent in flagging down attendees, many of who had turned up knowing exactly what stands they were there to visit, rather than “shopping around”.

There was a distinct absence of major tech players such as Google, Palo Alto Networks, and Zscaler. Paul Brucciani, Head of Product Marketing at With Secure said “The multi-storey cathedral-like stands were missing. The Infosec landscape was less Manhattan this year, more Didcott.”

In their place was a plethora of smaller technology businesses catering to specific security challenges such as application security (as well as Crowdstrike, who seemingly snatched every last inch of ad space possible).

Who’s taking the robot home? 

2. “Best practice” sessions aren’t always best practice.

This year’s agenda was awash with “best practices” sessions, AI technology also took up a fair chunk of the agenda, being the focus of eight talks across the main stages alone. Many organisations sought to jump on the hot topic, but struggled to cut through the noise. 

Missing from the agenda? Sustainability. Only one talk across the three days which was led by NordLayer.

Judging by the crowd at her talk on “​​malicious innovation”, bringing Keren Elazari on board as a keynote was a sound investment. 

3. Keep it simple stupid – it’s harder said than done.

One recurring theme on the exhibition floor was security and technology simplification. As organisations grapple with complex cyber threats, the need to streamline security measures has become paramount, both in packaging and in practical use, this has been reflected in the way organisations communicate their offering. 

How to keep momentum now the crowds are gone? In tougher economic climates, and a post-COVID event landscape, vendors are now compelled to explore innovative approaches to showcase their solutions amidst financial constraints. If you’re looking for innovative ways to cut through the noise, do get in touch, or check out our case studies here to learn how we’ve done it before.