Chairing the Cyber Leaders’ Summit Antwerp 2026

On 15 and 16 September, I had the pleasure of chairing the Cyber Leaders’ Summit in Antwerp.

Chairing a two-day event is a different role from giving a keynote or moderating a single panel. You are there throughout the programme. You listen to every conversation, keep track of what keeps coming back and, where useful, connect one discussion to another.

That was also how I approached these two days.

Rather than treating every session as a separate item on the agenda, I tried to keep a running thread through the summit. What were security leaders struggling with? Where did speakers agree? Where did they see things differently? And, after a day full of presentations and discussions, what was actually worth taking home?

Finding the thread

The preparation matters, but a chair cannot script the conclusions in advance. They have to come from what happens in the room.

Throughout the summit I therefore kept notes, listened for recurring themes and used the transitions between sessions to reflect some of those observations back to the audience.

For me, that is one of the most interesting parts of chairing an event. A good programme contains a lot of individual expertise. The chair can help turn that into a conversation that develops over the course of the day.

Closing the loop

At the end of the programme, I brought the main observations together again.

Not a summary of every presentation, but the things that had surfaced repeatedly or had challenged assumptions during the two days. That final reflection is important to me. If people have spent two days listening, discussing and comparing experiences, the closing should help them make sense of what they have heard.

I enjoyed the role and the conversations around it. Thanks to the speakers and participants for being open about both what works and what does not, and to the team behind the Cyber Leaders’ Summit for trusting me with the chair.