Is there a better way to nurture and strengthen your local community of cybersecurity companies than inviting them for breakfast? This is exactly what the Bretagne Développement Innovation (BDI) – the regional development and innovation agency for the Brittany region – has been doing since 2016.
CyberBreakfast has been designed as a monthly gathering of the local cybersecurity SMEs (i.e. small and medium-sized enterprises) in Brittany region, providing a forum for informal discussion and exchange of views.
‘We realised that there was a need for closer interaction and community building. Local companies wanted to get to know each other better and spend some time to share common business challenges. This gave us the inspiration to start organising monthly meetings of our local cybersecurity community, which proved to be a success’ – said Tiphaine Leduc, Head of Cybersecurity Department at BDI.
CyberBreakfast takes place once a month on Friday mornings, gathering around 25-30 people each time. To date, 40 such meetings have been organised with many more to come.
During different CyberBreakfast editions, participants have a chance to familiarise with cyber-related developments at the regional, national and European level, as well as to get acquainted with the latest cyberattacks and technological developments. In addition, local cybersecurity SMEs have a chance to shape the meetings by suggesting a specific cyber-related topic to be discussed and presented by an external expert, providing the first-hand experience and expertise. Ultimately, CyberBreakfast provides great networking opportunities and peer-to-peer learning.
The added value of the CyberBreakfast initiative is its potential not only to consolidate the community of local cybersecurity SMEs, but also to facilitate the integration of new players in the regional cybersecurity ecosystem.
‘Our experience demonstrated that CyberBreakfast has great added value. It has already been adopted by other local business support organisations located in Brittany. We believe that other regional cybersecurity ecosystems across Europe can also benefit from adopting this good practice. CyberBreakfast does not require extensive resources and can be easily transferred to different settings‘ – concluded Ms Leduc.
During the 3rd Interreg Europe CYBER project meeting, CyberBreakfast was elected as one of the most impactful initiatives, which can be replicated in different European cybersecurity ecosystems.
