In-Person

Toronto CISO Community

Executive Summit

December 3, 2025 | Marriott Downtown at CF Toronto Eaton Centre

December 3, 2025
Marriott Downtown at CF Toronto Eaton Centre

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Toronto's top CISOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.

Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CISOs today:

Recalculating risk appetites across the C-suite and strengthening relationships accordingly

Streamlining user access through intelligent technologies

Balancing security best practices with business needs to drive innovation and resilience

Toronto CISO Governing Body

The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CISOs, For CISOs®.

Governing Body Co-Chairs

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CISO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Toronto CISO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda

Executive Boardroom Sessions

AppSec Revolution — Driving Efficiency with Context and Culture

Traditional security practices are struggling worldwide against modern threats and the rapid pace of software development. The solution lies in leveraging production data, which enables effective Application Detection and Response (ADR) by integrating real-time insights into code behavior, vulnerabilities, and attacks. This approach empowers development and operations teams across borders to collaboratively enhance security.

Join this roundtable to discuss:

  • Identifying what’s wrong with the current approach to protecting Apps and APIs
  • Enhancing vulnerability scanning with real production insights
  • Strengthening attack protection with contextual awareness

Streamlined Compliance — Boosting Security and Cutting Costs with Innovation

Managing compliance doesn’t have to be a drain on resources. By reducing the scope of compliance environments and leveraging scalable solutions, businesses can simplify audits and control costs. Discover how microsegmentation and cloud-based services can streamline compliance while improving security.

Join this session to explore: 

  • Minimize the scope of compliance to reduce audit complexity and costs
  • Scale security solutions with business growth for cost-effective protection
  • Eliminate costly on-premises infrastructure by utilizing cloud-based platforms

Should CISOs be Responsible for Business Continuity?

 While incident response, business continuity, and disaster recovery are unquestionably linked, each is a separate initiative with its own distinct objectives. While it makes sense for CISOs to own IR, business continuity is increasingly also finding its way onto CISOs' already overloaded plates -- but is that where it should be? Since so much of BCP is tied to the service impacts on the organization such as financial, reputation, etc. as CISO do you feel you have sufficient qualifications/expertise to address?

Join your peers for a thought-provoking discussion about:

  • Where business continuity should optimally sit in the organization
  • What CISOs with BCP under their purview are doing to manage it
  • How CISOs are navigating BCP challenges whether they're responsible for it or not


Keynote Sessions

Brain-Driven Resilience — Neuro-Optimizing for Executive Edge

 In the high-stakes arena of billion-dollar enterprises, resilience isn't just an asset; it's a necessity. Learn how elite athletes, Navy SEALs, and top executives leverage cutting-edge neuroscience and cognitive training to elevate their relationship with adversity to yield more resilient outcomes. Cognitive training can help boost executive function and enhance decision making under pressure.

Join Megs Gelfgot, Tedx speaker and two-time founder, as she shares:

  • Hacks for gaining a competitive edge
  • Tactical resilience leadership strategies
  • Ways to mitigate symptoms of cognitive decline

Zero Trust & AI — Strengthening Security, Reducing Complexity, and Driving Innovation

Businesses stand to benefit from AI in unprecedented ways, but only if security leaders overcome transformation challenges. This includes implementing a modern zero trust architecture to protect data and users, embracing AI while managing its risks, and handling the technical and financial implications of ever-expanding environments. A risk-based approach to security ensures CISOs deliver a secure, phased transformation.

Join this session to:

  • Understand how zero trust and AI together, unlike firewalls, provide the strongest cyber defense by stopping threat actors from lateral movement within networks
  • Learn strategies for protecting AI applications developed in data centers and the cloud, while preventing data leaks from public AI applications
  • Discover how eliminating costly legacy hardware simplifies environments while cutting network and security costs


Breakout Sessions

Benchmark Your Cybersecurity Program — Pragmatic Peer Insights for CISOs

For CISOs, benchmarking is more than just a measurement exercise — it’s a strategic tool for continuous improvement, innovation, and leadership.

This interactive session is a candid, data-driven opportunity to compare your cybersecurity program against others in the region, and get practical peer insights on important questions, like:

  • How does cyber budget stack up against IT spend?
  • What are the most effective ways to collect, connect on, and share threat intelligence?
  • What new technologies or security controls have had the biggest impact?

Navigating the Risks vs. Rewards of GenAI

As organizations continue to race to unlock business value from GenAI, information security leaders are tasked with navigating a complex landscape — balancing the promise of innovation with concerns about data integrity, trustworthiness, and operational risk. 

Join this session to hear a candid conversation between cybersecurity leaders about their experiences — and concerns — with leveraging AI’s opportunities and mitigating its risks in the context of enterprise cybersecurity, including:

  • Establishing effective governance frameworks
  • Fostering a culture of responsible AI use and adoption
  • Ensuring that the drive for business innovation doesn't compromise cybersecurity


We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming in-person gathering

Gartner cares about the health and safety of our community. If you are feeling unwell, please refrain from attending the conference. At this time, Gartner does not have any health-related requirements in place for attendance. Should this change, we will follow up with updated guidance.

Location

Your Community Sponsors

Global Thought Leader

CISO Thought Leader

Key Sponsor

Program Sponsors

Community Program Manager

For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.

Lynn Morrow

Senior Community Program Manager

503-805-5624

lynn.morrow@gartner.com