One of my favorite conferences is the Women in Cyber Security Conference (WiCyS), hosted by Tennessee Tech University. The event brings together female and male industry leaders to collaborate on current developments while also placing awareness on the shortage of women in cyber security positions. The event has been my favorite for many reasons. The event this year was my third time attending, and every year my goal is to encourage more women and students to join. Next year I hope to get my manager involved in the event, as I know it is an event I know she would enjoy as well. Last year I attended the event in Dallas, Texas, with two other female students from John A. Logan College. It seems as if every year the event gets better and the sessions are more interesting. Perhaps that is due to the fact that each year I learn more about cybersecurity and my interests are more developed.
The first day of the conference this year was optional, but my favorite session was during the first (optional) day of the conference. The introduction to reverse engineering session presented by Maddie Stone and Amanda Rousseau included interactive labs that not only provided an understanding of concepts, but also allowed the participants to test them out and practice reverse engineering. The networking events held a lot of promise, and lived up to it. With big name companies present such as Cisco, Facebook, Palo Alto, and many more, the experience of talking to company reps was a great takeaway. Various members of the National Cybersecurity Student Association attended different vendor events and had great things to say. Personally, I made a few great acquaintances that I look forward to keeping in touch with. I also grew closer to my mentor and former Director of the NCSA, Jo Portillo, and the current Director Gustavo Hinojosa as well as the other members of our association. The sessions, and the company present made the event such a great experience.
In addition to the wonderful event lineup, the location was incredible. As my first visit to Arizona, I was blown away. The first cactus that I witnessed towered over my head. I had to ask the concierge if it was real. Since I attended the optional first day, I was able to get in a few more hours of the scenery that I certainly didn’t take for granted. One thing that WiCyS also does well is ensuring to pick a great location for their events.
The WiCyS event this year was also my first experience presenting at a conference. I could not have picked a better event for my first presentation, but the group that I presented with made it even better. The importance of collaborating to make something as major as a conference presentation come together is no minor undertaking. The time to prepare and communicate is crucial and the end result of our Business Acumen for the Graduating Cybersecurity Student was well worth the effort. The feedback about the questions students are left with after graduating before starting their careers shows that there is still a gap in preparing for such an in demand career.
We still have a long way to go in the cybersecurity preparation spectrum, but awareness is the first step to change. If you have not yet attended the WiCyS Conference, please make it a point to get involved with next years event. If you haven’t ever been to a conference, this is a great conference to attend for the first time. The takeaways are priceless and the experiences are memorable. I hope to see you there next year.
