Consulting professionals to speak at Canberra cyber conference
Scheduled for the end of the month in Canberra, this year’s Australian Cyber Conference will feature a long line-up of guest speakers, including more than a dozen from the country’s biggest consultancies.
The upcoming 2024 Australian Cyber Conference in Canberra has assembled a huge list of guest speakers from many of the country’s leading multidisciplinary consultancies, including a dozen representatives of Accenture, Deloitte, Synergy Group, and new public sector player Scyne Advisory.
Other larger firms which will have a presence over the three-day conference include FTI Consulting, Alvarez & Marsal, RSM and Ernst & Young.
Taking place at the National Convention Centre over the 25th to 27th of March, CyberCon Canberra’s 2024 theme is ‘The Future is Now’, which the organisers say reflects the intersection of cutting-edge innovation and the urgency required to adapt and safeguard the country’s digital landscape. The conference will feature a mix of demonstrations, think tanks, workshops, panel sessions and guest speakers drawn from a broad range of industries.
Accenture boasts one of the larger speaking contingents, led by managing director Angelo Friggieri and the firm’s cyber response and intelligence lead Chris Keune, the latter who will give an address titled “Where did we all go wrong?” The Canberra-based pair will also host a session on the ‘psychology of the human firewall’, alongside Accenture colleagues and cybersecurity consultants Rachael Hardy and Conor Kenny.
Deloitte will also have four speakers at the event, including cyber principals Julie Gleeson and Michael Puckridge, the latter who leads Deloitte’s ‘Cyber for Space Community’ out of Adelaide. The pair will give a presentation, ‘Shining a light into a possible future of chaos’, while colleagues Nick Baragar and Alexander Gould, both cyber security managers, will deliver a separate presentation on ‘mastering cyber threat intelligence management in business.’
Having only officially launched at the end of last year, Scyne Advisory will make its CyberCon debut, headlined by national cybersecurity & tech risk practice lead partner James Calder, who will discuss supply chain matters alongside fellow partner and former BAE Systems A/NZ head Peter Johnson (the pair crossed together to PwC in 2021).
Scyne Advisory manager Lewis Ingram, who leads the firm’s threat intelligence capability, will also speak at the event.
Former Scyne Advisory and PwC director Dallas McGuire Hindle – who last month crossed to the partnership of Synergy Group – is also due to make an appearance, talking on ‘technology debt’ (with the subheading; ‘What’s hiding in your proverbial IT closet should be giving you nightmares!’). Meanwhile Synergy Group cyber senior manager Steven Coomber will discuss online gaming and ‘the new frontier of malign influence and interference.’
Others on this year’s speakers bill include FTI Consulting pair Ben Hamilton – who was recently bumped up to communications senior managing director – and 2023 head of cybersecurity recruit Wouter Veugelen; another recent promotee in RSM’s risk advisory principal Kaustubh Vazalwar; Luke Bradley, a forensics technology director who joined Alvarez & Marsal last year as part of its massive recent recruitment drive, and EY director Tim Archer.