Cyber Scotland Connect was born out of a merger of two thriving security communities in late 2018.

Former lead organiser of Security Scotland, Stu Hirst, and former lead organiser of Scotland Connect, Harry McLaren, decided to bring together these groups to diversify, unify and ignite the passionate and thriving Scottish security community under a newly created banner; Cyber Scotland Connect.

The mission was, and continues to be, a simple one – to create a holistic and diverse hub for the cyber community in Scotland.

Historically we have run events, both small and mid-size, facilitated workshops and partnered with leading events in Scotland. We’ve created an online community and partnered with many of Scotland’s leading lights in cyber and tech to help spread the word and connect people.

We try to connect organisations and people who perhaps wouldn’t know each other, or know how to engage with each other.

2020 – Everything Changes

Before March 2020, Cyber Scotland Connect hosted six central meet-ups a year, some of the most popular in the whole of the UK, with a loyal following. These were complemented with online streaming via Product Forge.

We also ran a series of miniature ‘open mics’ events focusing on smaller audiences and new(er) speakers who might want to hone their skills and present to a smaller audience. Through this, we had significant venue supporters in Skyscanner, Wood Mackenzie and FreeAgent.

CSC also held sessions at the Scot-Secure Summit, talked at events across the country, provided articles for the media, and even branched out into topics such as mental health and burnout.

And when the pandemic started, we, like many event organisers, pivoted to virtual events, which were initially successful despite teething problems.

The last two years have presented several challenges, including:

Virtual Fatigue

As the world quickly pivoted to a virtual workplace, online meetings and events became the norm.

Initially, it felt incredible to try and replicate our social connections in this environment. Still, with many stuck behind a screen for a whole workday, the desire to spend an evening in front of one waned.

We’ve also witnessed industry personnel becoming far more reclusive.

Engagement

We saw notable drops in conversation across social media platforms such as Twitter, or Slack.

Moderator Energy

CSC has had a group of incredible moderators who have given their time for several years. This has always been key to the future of the mission, but like many during these difficult few years, energy dipped considerably as people juggled day jobs and family life with added stresses.

The Great Resignation

The last two years have seen a lot of movement in the industry, which has kept many of our moderators busy – in fact, a large percentage have moved jobs during this time.

This, along with the broader community effect, will have played a part in desires to commit beyond busy day jobs.

Issues With Venues/Budget

Even as restrictions eased through 2021 and early 2022, it continued to be very difficult to navigate the issues of in-person events.

As legalities pushed employees away from office spaces, the ability to run any kind of physical event became fraught/impossible. Some organisations also reduced budgets for supporting local events.

The Future

Although we never entirely “went away”, we are delighted to partner with Scot-Secure again in 2022 and reignite our mission and call to arms – Cyber Scotland RE-Connect!

Though times may remain somewhat uncertain, we look forward to a hugely more positive year where we can re-connect in person.

Although there are logistical challenges to in-person events, we will kick these back off in the latter part of 2022.

We Need Your Support

We would like to extend an open and sincere ask to the Scottish cyber and InfoSec community and ask, “what do you need/want?”.

CSC exists to bring people together, but we want to make sure we’re ready to be who you need us to be.

We’d also love a wider group of emerging (or pre-existing) leaders/supporters from across Scotland to help us at CSC. If you would like to offer some of your time, either as a member of CSC offering to become a mod (moderator, a community and event helper and leader), then please let us know.

Equally, if you belong to another community (this doesn’t have to be cyber) and think we’d be better working together than alone, please reach out and let’s see how we can support each other’s mission and activities where appropriate.

We can’t wait to see you at Scot-Secure and later in the year at the relaunch of our meet-ups, and will shortly be launching a community-wide survey to see what’s next for the Scottish cyber community.