Summer of Cyber for Invest in Gloucestershire team

This Summer has been a buoyant period for the team working with the Cyber sector’s key stakeholder and the Department of Business and Trade.

This summer has been a buoyant period for the team working with the Cyber sector’s key stakeholder and the Department of Business and Trade. The team attended a major international cyber conference (Infosec Europe 2024) at Olympia in London in early June, meeting companies from the US, Israel, Turkey, and Germany. This led to some of these companies attending a visit to Cheltenham in June.

A series of cyber-focussed international webinars also took place, organised in partnership with the Department of Business and Trade (DBT).

Presentations were provided by the Invest in Gloucestershire team, the Golden Valley Development via HBD and Plexal and DBT’s Chris Moore, giving the national perspective. Three took place to cover the time zones of Europe, the US and Australasia. Representatives across the British Embassy network attended, including ‘posts’ from the US Canada, Belgium, Portugal, Holland, Norway, Turkey, and Spain, as well as some of their client companies. These webinars have directly led to strong lead generation which the team are currently fostering.

On the back of Infosec Europe 2024, the team organised an international cyber delegation to Cheltenham, predominantly companies from the US and EMEA as well as senior staff from the British Consulate in New York.

Utilising contacts across the sector, the team arranged speakers from GCHQ, and the Golden Valley Development, as well as those that can support the recruitment of new staff, as well as a case study from a local cyber company.

The delegation was also able to experience the Cheltenham Science Festival, seeing first hand the importance the area attaches to educating the next generation of budding scientists and those wanting a tech-related career.

The team were also privileged to be invited in June to the DBT's Nations and Regions ‘Scaling your business from the UK’ event at the Oval as part of London Tech Week. The team facilitated a panel spot for Darkscope’s (recently landing in Gloucestershire) COO, Morten Steen Mjels, who was able to talk to the audience about the significant opportunity awaiting in Gloucestershire for cyber tech and security resilience businesses.

With the recent opening of MX Cheltenham, the team are gearing up for some productive client visits in Autumn and are working closely with DBT, Plexal and the Golden Valley Development team to promote the exciting opportunities that are available in of Gloucestershire’s growing cyber security sector.