Our Call for Speakers is now Open!
Notifications will be sent to submissions within August 2023.
The EWF Annual Conference offers a chance for innovative women leaders and practitioners in cybersecurity, privacy and risk to come together, share ideas, solutions, challenges, and best practices. This year’s theme is "Blazing the Trail: Technology and Leadership in Complex Times"
We would love to have you join us!
We would love to have you join us!
We are looking for knowledgeable women who can passionately and effectively share their subject matter expertise, real life experiences, tools and templates with the attendees of our 21st Annual Conference on November 7-9th, 2023. The 2022 conference will be held in-person in San Antonio, TX.
Please review the focus areas below for the technology and leadership tracks. You will indicate on your submission form which focus area your presentation falls under. You will need to submit a title and abstract for your session. This title and abstract will be the final version used if your topic is chosen. Presentations will be assigned to either 45-minutes or 90-minute slots dependent on topic, interaction required from attendees and speaker(s). **Please note there are different directions for the technology track vs leadership track**
The EWF values diversity as a strength in our membership organization and promotes inclusiveness and equal opportunity for all. Diverse perspectives and backgrounds make better panels and speaker rosters. A diverse range of voices and perspectives challenge the audience (and participants) to think differently about topics. This variety generates far more lively and engaging discussions, with less repetition of the same talking points.
If selected to be a speaker at the EWF, you grant to EWF the following rights in connection with your presentation:
a. Worldwide publication rights and the non-exclusive, worldwide, irrevocable right to publish, reproduce, distribute, display, edit, modify, translate, adapt, create derivative works of and otherwise make available the slides and the presentation in all media, whether now existing or later devised.
b. the right to reproduce the presentation (always appropriately credited to you as the speaker and author) in any EWF compilation or educational publication.
c. the right to record your presentation and the accompanying slides/illustrative materials by photographic, audio and/or video or other media for EWF archival purposes and streaming on EWF websites and EWF social media outlets.
Please review the focus areas below for the technology and leadership tracks. You will indicate on your submission form which focus area your presentation falls under. You will need to submit a title and abstract for your session. This title and abstract will be the final version used if your topic is chosen. Presentations will be assigned to either 45-minutes or 90-minute slots dependent on topic, interaction required from attendees and speaker(s). **Please note there are different directions for the technology track vs leadership track**
The EWF values diversity as a strength in our membership organization and promotes inclusiveness and equal opportunity for all. Diverse perspectives and backgrounds make better panels and speaker rosters. A diverse range of voices and perspectives challenge the audience (and participants) to think differently about topics. This variety generates far more lively and engaging discussions, with less repetition of the same talking points.
If selected to be a speaker at the EWF, you grant to EWF the following rights in connection with your presentation:
a. Worldwide publication rights and the non-exclusive, worldwide, irrevocable right to publish, reproduce, distribute, display, edit, modify, translate, adapt, create derivative works of and otherwise make available the slides and the presentation in all media, whether now existing or later devised.
b. the right to reproduce the presentation (always appropriately credited to you as the speaker and author) in any EWF compilation or educational publication.
c. the right to record your presentation and the accompanying slides/illustrative materials by photographic, audio and/or video or other media for EWF archival purposes and streaming on EWF websites and EWF social media outlets.
If you are interested in participating as a speaker, please fill out our official submission form BELOW. You must submit a copy of your biography and the idea(s) of the panel or panels you wish to participate along with the reasons why you would be a good fit for the topic you choose. If you submit on behalf of a co-presenter or multiple panelists you must have their permission form them for their submittal with the understanding that they must also be able to travel to present in-person if the submission is chosen.
Guidelines for 2023 Submission
- Only the speakers themselves may submit. Any submission from a PR firm, assistant or marketing department will be immediately rejected.
- Please note that not all talk topics below will be selected and used for this year's conference.
- No product, vendor or individual business pitches will be allowed.
- Incomplete submissions will be automatically rejected.
- If you submit to present a topic you indicate that you will and are authorized to travel and present in-person at the EWF Conference in San Antonio, TX. Any co-speakers or other panelists that will be presenting too must be able to present in-person.
- The EWF will prioritize any submission that includes a case study. Make sure you get permission to present your company’s case study before you submit your proposal.
- If selected as a speaker, you agree to submit presentations by the deadline date that will be provided to you upon your acceptance.
- Direct any questions to speakers@ewf-usa.com
Important Dates
Final submissions are due no later than July 14th, 2023 | Acceptance notifications will be sent the 2nd week August 2023
Technology Track Focus Areas
Directions for the Technology Track: This year we are encouraging creativity and original topics from our speakers and the technology subtopics listed below are just suggestions. In the subtopics below they are labeled as either (P) which means would make a good panel; (E) means works great as an experiential or workshop. If there is no indication or it is blank which means a single speaker would work.
Please create your own session title and abstract for the topic you (co-submit or panel) are submitting to speak on.
Please create your own session title and abstract for the topic you (co-submit or panel) are submitting to speak on.
Building and Running Resilient Organizations
Resilience is the word of the day – in particular, practical steps organizations can take to build and manage their operational resiliency. Part of a resilient mindset is accepting that breach will occur, which is why crisis management is a very important topic in this area.
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
- Successful Communications during Breach Events & Crisis Management (E)
- When the World is in Crisis: Preparing for Extreme Events (P)
- Setting up a Crisis Management Team
- Stemming Institutional Knowledge Loss During Times of High Attrition
- BISOs: What do BISOs do? Does your Company Need One or Many? (P)
Convergence: Cyber, Enterprise Risk Management & The Board
As the practice of cyber (security and privacy) matures it continues to intersect more closely with business risk management decisions. This topic area addresses how to evolve communications with the Board, balancing security, privacy, and business risk, and the evolution of the CISO role.
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
- Presenting to cyber savvy Boards: How to have these conversations as a CISO? How to Frame the Conversation? (E)
- CISO from Cyber to Chief Trust Officer? (P)
- Balancing Cyber, Risk, and Legislation
- Beyond the Checklist: Making the Most of Control Assessments
- Public/Private Collaboration: Case Studies & Way Forward
Supply Chain Security
Recent events have brought forward how much every organization and person relies on a robust and functional supply chain. Topics in this area include modernizing the supply chain to keep pace with a digitally transformed world, managing risk with partners and customers, and on the ground lessons learned about software supply chains from the Log4j incident.
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
- Lessons Learned from Log4j
- Modern Supply Chain Metrics that Matter (P)
- Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) Best Practices & Case Studies
- Helping Execs Understand SIG and Shared Assessment Responses (E)
- Security as Sales Motion: Value of Organizational Security Controls and Protocols when Closing Deals and Onboarding Partners (P)
Privacy and Regulations
Privacy and security are interconnected but not always aligned, yet they must work in concert to protect data and workflows. Areas of interest include how to manage the burden of complicated and sometimes conflicting global privacy regulations to hands-on experience building privacy-aware threat models.
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
- Privacy Regulations: What’s on the Horizon, How to Prepare? (P)
- Threat Modeling for Privacy (E)
- Understanding Data Flows: Where is your Data and How is it Used? (E)
- Harmonizing Compliance: When International Regulations Collide/Differ
- Tracking and Staying up to date on Regulations: Sector Specific, National & International
Operations
Where the technology rubber meets the road, the Operations topic area centers on practical guidance for improving operational efficiency. Real world use-cases are of high interest, as are forward looking topics like the evolution from a project to product model approach.
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
Example talks in this topic that the EWF Community has expressed high interest in attending:
- Zero Trust IRL: Implementation Use Cases
- Beyond the SOC: Helping Threat Analysts understand the Intersection of Technical and Business Risks (P)
- Threat Modeling: When and How to Do It (E)
- Creating a Functional and Secure Agile/SecDevOps Culture (P)
- The Project to Product Model: What does it Mean for Modern Companies? (P)
Leadership Track Focus Areas
Directions for the Leadership Track Submittals: The EWF defines leaders as leader of self, leader of ideas, leader of projects and leader of others. All submissions should consider that many in our community and many conference attendees are individual contributors. The leadership track is designed to expand our attendees knowledge in 3 focus areas. Each focus area lists the conference session topics we are inviting submissions for.
Please create your own session title and abstract for the topic you (you may co submit or submit a panel discussion) are submitting to speak on. We also encourage you to submit a different topic that would be relevant to the broad community and falls under the leadership focus areas.
Please create your own session title and abstract for the topic you (you may co submit or submit a panel discussion) are submitting to speak on. We also encourage you to submit a different topic that would be relevant to the broad community and falls under the leadership focus areas.
Building Capabilities
- Critical Decision Making: How to make sound decisions that contribute to executing on the strategy
- Building Stakeholder Relationships and Consensus
- Communicating Effectively to all stakeholders
- Enabler of change and Change Agility: Includes effectively managing complex and rapid moving
business needs
Career Advancement
- Effective networking and building relationships that build your career
- Mapping your career journey: There are many paths and everyone’s aspirations don’t lead to the C Level
- Getting to the next level
Work/Life Integration
- Taking Better Care of Yourself so you don’t burn out
- Staying Calm Amidst the Chaos of Work/Life
- Mitigating Change Exhaustion