North IT Trip to Southampton International Boat Show
The team at North IT have been away entertaining customers, and ourselves, as we ventured down south recently, sunning ourselves in Southampton for this year’s International Boat Show. With Paul’s (our Managing Director) interest in developing business in the cyber security of the maritime industry, we thought we would pop in and have a look around.
The Nautical
Southampton International Boat Show 2024
The Southampton Annual Boat Show 2024 was truly a spectacular event, celebrating its 55th year, held at the stunning Mayflower Park, this year’s show was a haven for boating enthusiasts, businesspeople and curious visitors alike.
Interactive Experiences
One of the highlights of the show was the opportunity to get hands-on with the latest marine technology. Visitors could test out equipment, participate in sailing lessons, and even have a snoop around some showcased boats.
Of course, we had a roam around some super yachts and tried our hand at the newest technology available. We spoke to technology professionals in the importance of maritime cyber security in everything from luxury yachts to the shipping industry.
Expert Insights
The Southampton International Boat Show is not just about boats; it’s also a hub for marine knowledge and a place where you can meet some interesting businesses in the maritime industry, listen to talks and demonstrations and ask questions to the key knowledge holders of the business. We took full opportunity of this and chatted to a few businesses and explored potential collaboration.
The Nice
Customers face-to-face
North IT caught up with our maritime pen testing customers, some of them visiting the show others exhibiting at the show. Outside of the boat show we also took this opportunity to visit some of our bigger pen testing customers to talk about red teaming and other areas of cyber security they now require due to their need for an increased cybersecurity posture.
Why face-to-face interaction is “nice”
Getting to see some of our long-standing customers has been a real treat and is something that we are excited to be doing more of after the notorious 2019 disruption of face-to-face interaction.
We at North IT believe that in a competitive business environment, like cyber security, it is important to keep business relationships engaged by having a strong personal presence with our customers, from meeting them at a boat show, to inviting them to a horror themed bar in Portsmouth! The world, and the humans in it, are managed by technological overseeing, even outside of the tech and cyber industry. It is all too easy to forget that there is a living breathing human at the other end of the email just waiting to have a real conversation.
To Cast Anchor
This experience was one of the many that we are lucky enough to attend at North IT, building stronger relationships within and outside of the team. As the saying goes, a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link, building good relationships can make or break a team or a business deal.