Why Baltimore, and why the US East Coast?

As he opened the proceedings on May 1st, one of the principal organizers of the Global Cyber Innovation Summit, Allegis Cyber’s Bob Ackerman, explained Baltimore’s Inner Harbor as the choice of venue. The group that assembled the summit wanted to create a “Davos-like atmosphere” that would cater to the needs and interests of CISOs. They chose to hold the Summit in Baltimore because they saw a need in the cybersecurity community for this kind of engagement on the American East Coast. And Baltimore, being at the center of what Ackerman called an “unparalleled pool of cyber engineering talent” that’s grown in Maryland universities with the support of massive US Federal investment, was a natural choice.

That massive Federal investment, of course, has long been centered on the National Security Agency, whose Fort Meade home is in the Baltimore suburbs.

Ackerman’s introduction was followed by remarks delivered by Maryland’s Governor Larry Hogan, who was particularly concerned to point out the state’s engagement with international cybersecurity development, particularly in the United Kingdom and Israel. He also alluded to the emergence of an apprenticeship model around the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

The inaugural Global Cyber Innovation Summit was the work of a number of partners with a strong interest in the future of the cybersecurity sector. These included AllegisCyber Capital, Allianz, Boston Meridian Partners, DataTribe, DBO Partners, Deloitte, Momentum Cyber, O'Melveny, the State of Maryland, VMware, and Weller Development. The event's media partners included Security Weekly, Cybersecurity Ventures, and the CyberWire.