Atlanta Cyber Week, a first-of-its-kind event to be held Oct. 2-6, has opened applications for 15 companies to pitch their cybersecurity-focused products at its anchor conference, CyberCon. Atlanta Cyber Week is a public-private collaboration of law firm Baker Donelson and the Metro Atlanta Chamber to demonstrate Atlanta’s strength as a dominant cybersecurity hub.
The pitch opportunity will focus on emerging and growth-stage companies and will allow them to showcase their product directly to CISOs/CIOs, investors, and cybersecurity executives. Though growth-stage companies are particularly encouraged to apply, any company is eligible — during last year’s event, a publicly traded company was amongst the dozen that pitched.
Cyber Week has also added a number of educational and networking events to the schedule, including cybersecurity-focused lectures and a “Startups & CISOs” night at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC). Georgia State University and the TEDxPeachtree Conference will also hold events.
According to Justin Daniels, Atlanta Cyber Week leader and co-founder of Baker Donelson’s cybersecurity accelerator, it’s all part of a larger goal to “set Atlanta Cyber Week apart from traditional security conferences.”
“The goal for this year is to better understand the needs of attending CISOs so we can connect them with cyber companies who meet their specific needs most closely,” says Daniels. “Most cybersecurity events and conferences have become so saturated with vendors aggressively pushing products and services that CISOs either don’t want, can’t easily differentiate or simply do not need. We’re trying to eliminate that atmosphere from our Cyber Week events.”
Atlanta has garnered international attention this year for its strength in cybersecurity — the 100+ security companies headquartered in the state of Georgia account for approximately a quarter of global revenue market share.
“Atlanta is ready to demonstrate to the world why it is a premier cybersecurity hub,” says Daniels.
Applications to pitch at CyberCon are due August 23.
