Popcorn Training – a KnowBe4 company to co-host East Africa’s CIO100 Symposium & Awards in Kenya

Popcorn Training PTY one of Africa’s content development team promoting Cyber and Information Security awareness training has partnered with CIO East Africa to co-host the Women in Tech and cyber resilience session at this year’s eagerly awaited CIO 100 Symposium & Awards slated on 28th – 30th November, 2018 in Naivasha, Kenya.

Proud to have been acquired by US security giant KnowBe4 in March 2018, the team from South Africa uses innovative story-based techniques to make complex content simple to understand and easy to remember.

KnowBe4 recognised as the world’s most popular integrated platform for security awareness training is a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. With a sophisticated phishing simulation platform and hundreds of training modules, KnowBe4 helps organizations and even individuals to manage the ongoing problem of social engineering in this era of digital transformation.

“With organizations constantly looking for ways to improve efficiencies to grow competitive advantage, engagement with KnowBe4 during CIO 100 Symposium will be an insightful experience,” said Laura Chite, CEO – CIO East Africa. “We are honoured to partnered with Popcorn Training at a time that we shall for the first time be hosting an Eastern Africa ICT Ministerial Roundtable and a Women in Tech Roundtable at the two and a half day executive-level symposium focusing on how to develop, implement and capitalize on innovation,” added Chite.

As a mother of two young children, Collard knows well the challenges faced by women in business. As a business owner, she knows flexibility is all-important, particularly for employees who have children. “Our company happens to be predominantly staffed by women” and we encourage more young women to join the security and IT industry.
Through thought-provoking keynotes, spotlight and moderated discussion panel sessions, roundtables and briefings facilitated by IT and business experts, this year’s CIO100 Symposium is expected to host an average of 300 CIOs and Heads of IT from across East Africa.

“Customer experience, once the sole province of marketing and sales — nowadays belongs to IT leaders as well hence the need of having it safe and secure,” Ms Chite added while lauding the timely partnership with Popcorn Training.

Sneak-pick of the Symposium’s Agenda show that the future of business is under construction everywhere, with IT innovation as its chief architect. The tech industry is exploding with new products and services in social collaboration tools, mobility, predictive analytics and the cloud.

“Customer experience, once the sole province of marketing and sales — nowadays belongs to IT leaders as well hence the need of having it safe and secure,” Ms Chite added while lauding the timely partnership with Popcorn Training.

Chite asserted that companies with the most strongly aligned, collaborative senior executives will be the ones outpacing their rivals in the race to digitize business.
While sharing the overall expectations of the 2018 Symposium Ms. Chite posed some questions: “How can IT organizations do a better job of innovating and driving business transformation? How can CIOs unify their C-suites around digital strategies that assure greater success? How can they make the business safe, secure and resilient?” “The CIO 100 Symposium is the place to find those answers,” she asserted.

Ms Collard said that becoming part of the KnowBe4 family has allowed us to expand our offering and integrate with KnowBe4’s best of breed phishing and training solutions. “As KnowBe4’s representative for the African region, we look forward to building content and solutions that are applicable to the African context she said adding that the transaction enables Popcorn Training PTY to continue to grow and to stay focused on what it loves doing, which is creating high-quality cyber security awareness content.”

In addition, the CIO 100 Symposium shall take time to recognize and celebrate the top 100 innovative companies of the year who have been identified by an independent team of consultants and CIO editorial team. These honorees will recognized and celebrated during the CIO 100 Awards Gala – the East East Africa’s most powerful IT ceremony and highly attended evening event of honorees and executives inspired by digital transformation.

The annual CIO 100 Symposium & Awards Ceremony is a unique opportunity for sponsors to create significant brand image and awareness for your company among influential information technology executives. By providing face-to-face networking time – on a formal and informal basis – the Symposium allows sponsors to position themselves as technology leaders, educate attendees about sponsors’ solutions and learn their challenges and priorities.