1284 Communications provided comms and PR support for the sold-out East Midlands Cyber Security Summit.

Working alongside its client East Midlands Cyber Security Cluster (EMCSC), as well as the Business Services team at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), 1284 supported with pre-event content and communications - from profiling keynote speakers to promoting the Summit across LinkedIn, and helping on the ground with event management.

The inaugural Summit was more than 50% oversubscribed. It brought together business leaders, cyber specialists, and regional partners to share first-hand experiences and practical steps organisations can take to improve their security. 

Led by EMCSC founder and director Dr Ismini Vasileiou, the day set out to “translate the technical into the actionable” and “bridge research and practice” for SMEs across the region.

‍Pre‑event content that drove registrations for the cyber summit

In the run-up to the event, 1284 produced a series of blog posts spotlighting the Summit’s speakers and themes, which were shared via EMCSC’s channels to drive engagement and registrations. 

These included a feature on keynote speaker Paul Abbott, former Group Director of KNP Logistics, who told the audience how a ransomware attack forced his 158‑year‑old transport company into administration, with the loss of more than 700 jobs. He warned that many boards still underestimate cyber risk and overlook basic protections that could prevent serious damage.

Other contributors included Simon Plummer of Collective Security, cyber security author Adrian Davis of Horme Business Services, and Martin Sadler OBE, one of the team behind the Government’s Cyber Growth Action Plan - all of whom were featured in 1284’s pre-event speaker content.

‍How 1284 helped the East Midlands Cyber Summit sell out

Throughout the campaign, 1284’s role was to turn expert insight into accessible stories to promote the event. This included:

• Writing and editing speaker blogs for the EMCSC website
• Creating LinkedIn copy and visual assets to promote the Summit
• Supporting event delivery to ensure messages from the day could be shared with a wider audience

Dr Vasileiou said: “1284 played a crucial role in making the Summit’s message land with the businesses we most wanted to reach.

“Their support in shaping our story, profiling speakers and coordinating content meant we weren’t just running a successful event in the room - we were also building momentum around cyber resilience across the region before, during and after the day itself.”

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By combining strong regional partnerships, expert voices and focused communications, the East Midlands Cyber Security Summit showed how storytelling and practical guidance can work together to help protect businesses, jobs and growth across the region.

‍Why strong regional partnerships matter for cyber resilience

George Oliver, 1284’s managing director, said: “1284 was very proud to play a part in the first East Midlands Cyber Security Summit.

“Its success validated the new package we have been developing over recent months to maximise the impact of university and government-funded programmes in the East Midlands.

“Clusters such as EMCSC are important because they sit at the heart of the regional ecosystem - in this case using bringing businesses, universities, and specialists together to turn cyber risk from something abstract into something leaders can actually act on. 

“Our role now is to use content created on the day to continue amplifying EMCSC’s work - with the outcome being that more SMEs know where to turn for practical support about skills in the cyber security ecosystem. This will make the region as a whole more resilient.”