This cybersecurity industry leader doesn’t mind repeating herself

As a cofounder of a professional society, Gianna Whitver thinks about leadership a lot.

And when she’s not thinking about it, she’s doing it. The group that she cofounded, the Cybersecurity Marketing Society, is about to hold its 2023 CyberMarketingCon in Austin, Texas Dec. 10-13, with Whitver leading the organizing. After successfully pulling off the inaugural in-person CyberMarketingCon in Alexandria, Virginia last year in 2022, this year’s event is drawing cybersecurity marketers from all over for a three and a half day event featuring 81 speakers, workshops and a lot of networking.

Her advice for leading the organization of such an event, she said, applies to leadership in general.

“Over-communicate,” Whitver told Technical.ly shortly before heading to Austin. “I’m a chronic over-communicator, I will communicate someone to death. People have told me like, ‘Gianna, you’ve told me, that’s like five times, you put it in writing, you mentioned it on the call.’ I over-communicate because I know that people are busy and that I forget, like, half the things people tell me, so I’m always over-communicating.”

Challenges will come up, she said. While you can’t plan for surprise crises, you can plan to make room for them by setting your deadlines as early as possible, giving you time to navigate.

“Put together a project plan at the beginning,” she said. “And make sure all those deadlines give plenty of room for when things inevitably might go bad or a little off track.”

Bringing a virtual team together IRL

The Cybersecurity Marketing Society is all remote, with Whitver based in Delaware and cofounder Maria Velasquez in Connecticut. With that comes some specific leadership tactics that allow effective leaders to keep their teams accountable without falling into a micromanagement trap.

“In my perspective, a good project management system helps solve a lot,” Whitver said. ”I don’t want to say a tool is the answer, but keeping track of everyone, being accountable, everyone kind of knowing what’s going on with the project at any given point — I think it’s fair. It doesn’t mean your boss is calling you every hour, or zooming at you every hour going, ‘Hey, are you working or are you at the beach?’”

She said that getting the team together at least a couple of times a year is a priority, and CyberMarketingCon is a big part of that. Along with regional events throughout the year, the annual event is one way the team meets IRL.

For any entirely virtual team members, she said it’s up to the leader to make sure that they build strong connections via digital means.

“Are there culture-building activities we can do virtually?” she said. “Do we recognize the team members? Do they get a pat on the back even though they’re not in the office? How can you bring them into the fold?”

CyberMarketingCon is inclusive of society members and others who can’t make it to Austin with a virtual option for the full con. The remote choice is also available for the free one-day CyberCreatorCon, a smaller simultaneous gathering focusing on security media influencers — including cybersecurity TikTok personalities, podcasters and microbloggers — on Dec. 11.

Those interested can register here

This editorial article is a part of Leadership Development Month of Technical.ly’s editorial calendar.