In-Person Event | London |Â 3 July |Â 12:30 - 15:00 BST
As cyber threats facing defence organisations grow more complex and frequent, security leaders are under pressure to respond faster – and with fewer resources. With overextended analysts, fragmented tools, and rising regulatory demands, traditional approaches are falling behind.
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This exclusive panel brings together senior leaders across defence and Elastic to explore how AI-powered automation is helping build operational resilience and streamline threat management across national defence and critical industry networks.
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This session offers practical insight into how AI is helping organisations boost responsiveness, reduce pressure on analysts, and build more adaptive, resilient operations.Â
Join us to hear real-world perspectives on:
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- Tackling advanced threats within constrained resources
- Reducing analyst fatigue through smarter workflows
- Strengthening public-private collaboration on threat visibility
- Meeting audit, compliance, and governance expectations with confidence
Attendees will leave with actionable insights into how emerging technologies are supporting faster decisions, stronger resilience, and better coordination across agencies and partners.
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Check the agenda below, the panelists and register to join senior leaders from Defence and industry.
The panel will explore how Defence leaders are tackling the accelerating cyber threat landscape, from building software-defined resilience and managing data deluge, to balancing sovereignty with coalition trust and delivering capability under resource constraints. Speakers will share practical insights on evolving cyber operations, smarter analyst workflows, and real-world approaches to driving faster, more adaptive threat response across complex Defence environments.
Award-winning analyst and writer specialising in electronic warfare, radar and military communications; a Research Associate at the Royal United Services Institute and a Senior Non-Resident Associate Fellow at the NATO Defence College. He has written widely on these subjects for a range of specialist and general publications, including Shephard Media. He also works as a consultant and adviser in these areas for several leading government and private sector clients. Dr. Withington provides regular commentary on security and defence aspects of electromagnetic spectrum use for major media organisations around the world.
Commanding Officer 90 Signals Unit, who was awarded the OBE for his contribution to the National Cyber Security Programme. Group Captain Chesworth was nominated for the prestigious honour in recognition of work carried out during his previous role with Defence Intelligence in London.Â
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Group Captain Chesworth has been at the heart of setting strategic policy and direction. He has delivered a revolutionary approach to how the Nation and Defence conducts its cyber activities and Defence.
Suzy Button is the Field CTO for Elastic in EMEA, bringing over 30 years of experience in cybersecurity, cyber resilience, secure infrastructure, and data management. She spent 16 years with the UK Ministry of Defence in security assurance and later led security architecture at Atos. Suzy built the world’s first fully automated Security Operations Centre for Sitecore. She is a certified ISO 27001 and 22301 Lead Auditor, has published widely on cyber resilience, and serves on advisory boards including TechUK’s Cyber Resilience Committee and the Charter of Trust.
Keith is CEO & Founder of AI strategy start-up Cassi and former Expert Adviser to the UK Prime Minister on Science, Technology, Space, and Modernising Defence. A former RAF Intelligence Officer, he has served operationally in Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, Mali, and with the US Air Force. In industry, Keith previously led Fujitsu’s £22M Centre for Cognitive Technologies, driving advances in AI, digital twins, quantum computing, and high-performance computing. He holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and serves as a Fellow at RUSI, the University of Oxford, and Cambridge Judge Business School.
Crossley McEwen is Head of Defence UK at Elastic, where he supports Ministry of Defence and Defence Primes through data-driven cyber, search, and observability solutions. He previously served as an Armed Forces Officer in the UK Ministry of Defence for 16 years and held leadership roles at DSTL, G2G3 (Capita), jHub and Improbable. Crossley has led strategic partnerships, innovation delivery, and cybersecurity transformation across government and industry. His work focuses on enhancing mission performance through open collaboration, emerging technologies, and defence-focused innovation.
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