Day 1 – Monday
Slightly more business-oriented attire today. A little nervous, but also feeling quite confident; a curious combination – like Marmite flavoured Toothpaste (pastă de dinți cu aromă de pastă de drojdie, best I can describe it if unfamiliar with this rather peculiar British delicacy! The Marmite, that is. Not the toothpaste.)
The București traffic is “interesting” at peak times, so leaving in good time combined with a taxi driver who either has previous racing experience or future aspirations in this direction, got me to the Nord Events Center before most of the vendors had turned up. But that was OK as I always enjoy perusing the wares without sales present, at first.
But the “stand out” poster for me was from a company whose marketing department had thought about it… and realised that this would look different.
Good skills, Luardó Chocolate! I’m dieting but was left thinking about chocolate all day… 🤪
Some selected highlights follow. There were many sessions in parallel, so every choice meant missing something, or indeed several somethings.
The Vice-President of the European Parliament was interviewed. A sign of how high-profile the BCC series have become I think.
Next up a panel discussion on Stability at risk: Working together when people, cloud infrastructure and nations are under attack.
Some very interesting contributions from William Kabogo Gitau, Kenyan Ministry of Information, Communication, and Digital Economy. African nations are rarely represented at events such as these, which means missing out on important perspectives and views, so it was really great to hear direct from the Kenyan Minister.
I’ve never been to Kenya, but since childhood have been fascinated by Nanyuki, Kenya. Famous/infamous for being a town bang on the equator and thus with zero Coriolis force, so which way does the bathwater spin around the plug hole when you empty it?
Mircea Geoană (Aspen Institute, România, and former Deputy Secretary General NATO/OTAN) delivered an interesting keynote Working together on cybersecurity in a time of global uncertainty.
Another keynote, Cyber, AI, and the Future of War, delivered by the thoroughly engaging Christopher Kirchhoff from Scale AI.
This year’s Monday evening social event was nearby, and I was lucky enough to get to talk to lots of new and interesting people.
A panel discussion followed Europe’s cybersecurity rules at crossroads – the next chapter of EU cybersecurity legislation. UK vendors need to pay very careful attention if they wish to sell into the Single Market.
This year’s Monday evening social event was nearby, and I was lucky enough to get to talk to lots of new and interesting people.
A handful remembered me from last year, which was a surprise. I never think of myself as memorable, and I did look somewhat different last year. But it has been that sort of trip this year. I walked into a small shop near where I’m staying and was greeted with “You were here last year weren’t you?”
Clearly I am no Master of Disguise!
At this point the Conference is Officially Opened!
President of the Românian Senate, Mircea Abrudean, delivered a keynote Countering propaganda in the digital age – from words to action: Parliamentary Responses to Disinformation.
I attended a workshop Building Public Sector Capacity for Large-scale Cybersecurity Exercises.
And a roundtable on CVD 2.0: Aligning România with ENISA’s new guidelines & EU Vulnerability Database chaired by Mirabela Săvulescu from the DNSC.
A roundtable AI Data Safety Control Inside the Organisation was fascinating.
Finally Radu Puchiu closed the day.
Asleep by 01:00. „Work hard, play hard!”
Sophie Baskerville 