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Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security Forum 19th March 2025

Scotland March 2025
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Supporting Organisations

Overview

This unique event, specifically designed for female InfoSec professionals, is an extension of Empowering You's award winning "Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security" leadership development initiative. Launched in 2021 as a cross-sector partnership with government and industry to try and address the lack of gender diversity in leadership within the sector, our alumni network now includes nearly 500 empowered and empowering female InfoSec professionals across the UK.

Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security - Forum 2025 fuses agenda setting discussions on some of the key technological developments and challenges in the sector, presented by some of the leading InfoSec experts from across Scotland and the UK, alongside inspiring and immersive leadership development workshops, led by our expert facilitators. These leadership masterclasses will be built around some of the most pressing challenges facing leaders as they develop and grow into the role, as well as the most common themes for development that we hear from our work with hundreds of female technology professionals across the country every year. 

Most importantly, Forum 2025 provides an invaluable, supportive and empowering environment to deepen your industry knowledge, develop your leadership capabilities, create valuable new connections and, ultimately, realise your potential.

Forum Agenda

Our 2025 "Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security" agenda is packed with inspiring and insightful main-stage sessions exploring some of the key technical and leadership challenges facing today's InfoSec professionals. Coupled with interactive leadership masterclasses, led by our expert facilitators and Thought Leader panel sessions, there's something here for everyone to support their personal and professional development.

Time Title Presenter
9am Registration  
9.25am Chair's Welcome Alison McLaughlin
9.30am Keynote Address - "Tales from the Front Line of Cyber Leadership" Christine Maxwell, CISO, SSE
10am. Panel Session: "A Brave New World - Emerging threats, opportunities and how well placed are we to address them?

Maggie Titmuss, Chair, National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board

Dr Meera Sarma, CEO, Cystel

Other Panellists tbc
10.45am Morning Break and Networking  
11.05am

Leadership Stream Workshops:

a) Taming Your Internal Impostor

b) Self-care as Key to Effective Leadership - Managing stress and burn-out

c) Harnessing the Power of Networks

d) Managing Difficult Conversations and Conflict Resolution

a) Charley Gavigan

b) Debbie Anderson

c) Nathalie Britten

d) Steve Cliff
12.35pm Lunch and Networking  
1.35pm Leadership Stream Workshops - details as per 11.05 session  
3.05pm Afternoon Break and Networking  
3.25pm

Thought Leader Session One:

Incident & Crisis Management - from systems triage and maintaining operational stability to communications response and stakeholder engagement, how should organisations respond to a major breech?

Heather Lowrie, Independent Consultant

Other Panel Members TBC
3.25pm

Thought Leader Session Two:

Security Behaviour and Control Programs (SBCPs) and their role in improving your security posture

Panel Members TBC
3.25pm

Thought Leader Session Three:

Threat Intelligence - as threat vectors continually evolve, so must threat intelligence. What does the current threat landscape look like and how are threat intelligence leaders responding?

Panel Members TBC
4.20pm

Closing Keynote - "My Leadership Journey"

Speaker TBC
4.50pm

Chair's Closing Remarks

Alison McLaughlin
4.55pm

Drinks Reception

Delegate Experience

The Empowering Women to Lead Digital Cyber Security Forum  is not just another conference.

The entire day has been specifically designed to blend agenda setting technical discussions, presented by some of the leading female voices in the InfoSec profession from across Scotland and beyond, with interactive leadership development workshops, led by our expert facilitators and themed around some of the most pressing challenges that we hear from our work with hundreds of female technology professionals every year.

Throughout the day, delegates will be informed, challenged, inspired and strengthen their networks with likeminded peers from across the cyber eco-system. 

Attendees will:

  • Hear from some of the leading InfoSec professionals on the issues shaping the sector 
  • Develop your leadership capabilities in a supportive and immersive environment 
  • Take part in interactive discussion forums 
  • Listen as established InfoSec leaders share their journey 
  • Build your network with an established community of empowered and empowering peers
  • Engage with some of the leading InfoSec employers in Scotland
  • Connect with potential mentors 

Sponsor Experience

If you're tired of just being the exhibition backdrop to yet another cyber security conference, the "Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security Forum" could be the answer. 

Building on the success of our established "Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security" programs across the UK, Forum 2025 provides a vital opportunity for female InfoSec professionals to gather, advance their industry knowledge, stretch their development as leaders and deepen their connections with a growing community. 

Your support makes something special and valuable possible. 

Sponsors Will:

  • Connect with emerging and aspiring InfoSec leaders from across the public and private sectors
  • Align your brand with an award-winning gender diversity in tech initiative
  • Support the personal and professional development of tomorrow's industry leaders
  • Showcase your organisation as an employer which recognises, celebrates and supports diversity

 

Pricing & Registration

Tickets are priced at £70 for the full day and includes access to all main stage presentations, 2 x leadership workshops, 1 x panel discussion and drinks reception.

Please Note:

Public Sector Places: Through the support of The Scottish Government, there are a limited number of free places available to Scottish public sector employees. Please only use the free registration option if you are a public sector employee based in Scotland. 

Group Bookings: If your organisation is booking a number of places on the Forum, please email events@empowering-you.co.uk referencing "Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Forum - Group Booking" in the subject title and a group booking order form will be issued.

This event is specifically designed for women working within the InfoSec professions. Whilst Empowering You completely understands and believes in the valuable role which male allies play in creating a more diverse and inclusive cyber eco-system, the immersive nature of our workshops means that we respectfully request that men do not register to attend.

For any queries regarding the Empowering Women to Lead Cyber Security Forum, please email events@empowering-you.co.uk

Register Here
Venue: Dynamic Earth, Central Edinburgh
Pricing: £70 (limited free tickets are available for Scottish public sector employees)

Leadership Stream Workshop Information:

Leadership Workshop A:

Taming Your Internal Impostor:

with Charley Gavigan

Full session details to follow

Leadership Workshop B:

Self-care as Key to Effective Leadership - Managing stress and burn-out:

with Debbie Anderson

OVERVIEW

The mind and the body are intrinsically connected.  If you are not feeling well physically it will affect your mental state and vice versa.  Whilst we will have the best of intentions, we may not look after ourselves as well as we could; life pressures, work priorities and family commitments can get in the way.  If we are not practising self-care we are not putting ourselves in a good position to manage our health let alone support others.  

In this interactive workshop we will explore the following:

  • How we define mindset, resilience and wellbeing and how they affect how we operate at work.
  • Simple principles for setting boundaries and what it means to us when we say ‘Yes’ or ’No’.
  • Using coaching techniques challenge each other on whether our resilience balance is right.
  • The connection between stress and performance.
  • The difference between real self-care and faux-self care and how to get the flow back into our lives.

Leadership Workshop C:

Harnessing the Power of Networks

with Nathalie Britten

Building Connections: A Networking Workshop Using Lego Serious Play

Objectives:

  1. Help participants understand their current networking style.
  2. Encourage participants to explore and visualize ideal networking approaches.
  3. Develop actionable insights on how to improve and leverage networking for personal and professional growth.

Leadership Workshop C

Managing Difficult Conversations and Conflict Resolution:

with Steve Cliff

Full workshop details to follow

PLEASE NOTE: Delegates will be contacted in advance of the Forum for you to select your workshop preferences. 

Speakers

Christine Maxwell is the Group Chief Information Security Officer for SSE. She joined SSE in November 2024 and prior to that was the CISO of the Ministry of Defence for 5+ years and has also worked with BP, RBS and KPMG. Christine is not deeply technical but has worked in and around IT since 1996 and then moved to Information/Cyber Security full time in 2009. Christine spends her time working on complex cyber strategy and transformation initiatives, keeping Boards briefed and managing complex cyber challenges while evangelising for modern approaches to cyber security adoption across the whole organisation.

 

 

Christine Maxwell | CISO, SSE

Heather is a seasoned technology, security and risk leader with a track record of achievement in government, public and private sectors. She was recognised by her peers as “CISO of the Year 2024” at SC Awards Europe and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Information Security.
Heather served as the first Chief Information Security Officer for The University of Manchester, building security capabilities and leading through a significant cyber incident. Prior to that, she worked in Scotland’s public sector, orchestrating the cybersecurity efforts behind Scotland’s first digital-first Census. She has also held various technical and leadership roles in the financial services industry.

Heather Lowrie | Independent Consultant

Maggie is an extremely experienced, respected leader and Board Advisor. She carries the unique blend of senior private sector career leader blended with the highest level of international law enforcement management. She served as the UK's lead for serious and organised crime based in Washington DC for 4 years and was latterly Lloyds Banking Group's Director Intelligence & Incident response prior to adopting a portfolio of cyber companies with whom she advises and consults. Maggie is the Chair of the National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board for the Scottish government and is a strong advocate for new and emerging sectors and skills.

Maggie Titmuss | Chair, Scottish Cyber Resilience Advisory Board

Contact Us

Drop us an email at:

hello@empowering-you.co.uk

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