DMV Rising conference promotes collabs in the booming cybertech industry

There’s a ton of cybersecurity conferences and events in the DC region, but a relatively new one is carving out a spot. 

DMV Rising, organized by DC data security company Virtru, returns for its second year on Sept. 12. It’s set to feature networking, talks and panels geared at cybertech firms across all different levels of maturity, from early stage startups developing an idea to established firms with an active customer base. 

Matt Howard, Virtu senior vice president and chief marketing officer and a two-time founder, saw space to create an industry-led conference for workers and leaders in cyber to come together across DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia. 

“People are hungry for community conversations,” Howard told Technical.ly. 

The in-person option for the event at Virtru’s offices on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House is at capacity, per Howard, but there’s a livestream option for people to attend remotely. 

Attendees are expected to be a mix of C-suite members, founders and others in the cybersecurity industry, and Howard hopes local college students specifically who are studying cyber or digital risk management will sign up to tune in virtually to learn more about the industry. 

Howard is also encouraging panelists, many of them being local founders, to be honest about their journey in cybersecurity — complete with the successes and the pitfalls. 

“We probably learn more from our failures than we do our successes,” Howard said. “But to come and just observe the conversations that will be happening at DMV Rising will be a window into that journey.”

Howard stressed this is not a startup conference or for founders to formally pitch to investors, but there will be a panel about starting a cybersecurity company in the DMV. There will not be vendors to sell software either, which is common at the larger conferences like Black Hat or Defcon, he said. 

He was also candid that DMV Rising is in its early years, and there’s still a lot to be figured out. 

“We’re trying to do something different,” he said. “We are very comfortable with the idea that we’re on a journey here. We learned a lot last year. We think we’re going to learn a lot this year.”

Howard previously led a conference at the Fulton, Maryland-based software company Sonatype, which is a sponsor of DMV Rising. DevOps, focused on reaching engineers, still runs today and is scheduled for October. When Howard started at Virtru about two and a half years ago, he knew he wanted to create another event. 

Sonatype is one of the event’s sponsors, along with the banking giant JPMorgan Chase and the Baltimore investment management firm Brown Advisory. 

Howard’s main goal with DMV Rising is to get at answering: “What else can we do collectively to make ourselves even better?”

One of the DMV’s top industries is cybersecurity, according to Startup Genome, but there could be improvements to make the region more of a global competitor, Howard said. The DMV doesn’t get the credit it deserves, he said, and one of the issues is that there’s a lot of competition among DC, Maryland and Virginia. 

The different trade associations, like the Cybersecurity Association of Maryland or the Northern Virginia Technology Council, are focused on its respective state, Howard gave as an example. 

Through this conference, he wants to foster more collaboration between the areas. 

“Not enough people,” Howard said, “know the truth about the DMV regional economy when it comes to its contribution to global cyber innovation and value creation.”