CyberSec4Europe, CONCORDIA, ECHO and SPARTA are hosting CONVERGENCE NEXT, a three-day event from 1-3 June at the Hessen Representation in Brussels. It follows in the tradition set in the first CONVERGENCE event on 9-11 December 2020 which successfully presented results and demonstrations from the four pilot projects and the collaborative focus groups.

CONVERGENCE NEXT is focussing on the future of the community, the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) and look at the key issues for cybersecurity in the future.  This event is not to be missed if you are interested in European cybersecurity issues.  High-level representatives from EU institutions will discuss the role of the ECCC and that of the wide stakeholder community in the next stages.

The first day sets the scene with a review of how we got to where we are today from the perspectives of the four pilots, ECSO and EARTO. One session will investigate the key explorations on how the wider cybersecurity community should be governed in the future in the context of the ECCC and the national competence centres. The proceedings conclude with an evening panel discussion, moderated by Kai Rannenberg, CyberSec4Europe coordinator, featuring representatives from the European Parliament, the ECCC, the European Commission, ECSO and the German national cybersecurity competence centre. This will be followed by an evening social event.

The next day dives into more of the detailed results of the work of the pilots over the last three years with a focus on research and innovation, highlighting the work carried out by the pilots, individually as well jointly, on cybersecurity roadmapping and industrial demonstrator use cases.

The last day moves from where we’ve come from and what we’ve been doing to look at the sustainability of the community and expanding the impact of the momentum created by the pilots. A focus will be on the vital role education and building capacity play as well as how this contributes to the evolution of the European cybersecurity ecosystem. The conference will finish with a panel discussion involving more of the key stakeholder representatives who will be asked the simple intriguing question, “What Next?”. No doubt, given the uncertain times we live in, we all look forward to hearing the answers.

You can follow CONVERGENCE NEXT online, by connecting through YouTube:

• Wednesday, 1 June 2022:  https://youtu.be/jQ0PptjZfd4
• Thursday, 2 June 2022:  https://youtu.be/lrjdHJsPYaQ
• Friday, 3 June 2022:  https://youtu.be/lrjdHJsPYaQ

You can register your impressions on #convergencenext. Finally, you’ll also be able to catch up when the video of the conference is made available.