5 Key Takeaways From DTX Manchester 2025

On the 2-3^rd April, we spent two exciting days exhibiting at DTX Manchester. Lots of interesting talks were going on and the event was further enlivened by the presence of notable personalities, including star appearances from the creator of DOOM (John Romero) and K.I.T.T, the car from the Knight Rider franchise. Kicking off the expo, was a keynote including the British Olympic champion, Dame Laura Kenny.

If you are new to DTX, here is a short description of what you can expect at the expo:

“The anchor event of Manchester Tech Week, DTX Manchester is where tech leaders come together to tackle real-world challenges and stay ahead of the curve. Through expert talks, live demos, and interactive sessions, discover how to embed innovation securely, drive business growth, and enhance digital experiences.”

There were a multitude of stages filled with exciting talks, fireside chats and activities including Cyber Hack, Cloud and IT Infrastructure, Digital Strategy and Operations, Threat Detection and Intelligence, and Advanced Cyber Strategies.

By exhibiting, our cyber security experts had the opportunity to discuss attendees’ security challenges and our marketing team joined a wide range of activities across the two days. Here are 5 key takeaways from our team members:

AI: Dominating the Landscape

As you can imagine at an event around digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was one of the most prevalent themes across the exhibitors stands and talks. One whole stage was even dedicated to the topic and many attendees wanted to talk to us about AI. Speakers highlighted practical AI applications, such as predictive analytics, automation, and enhanced customer experiences. The need for secure AI implementation and robust governance frameworks was also stressed, ensuring that AI advancements align with organisational goals.

While AI holds immense promise, businesses must adopt a critical lens to differentiate genuine opportunities from marketing hype.

The Importance of Identity Management

Identity Management is the critical framework for identifying, authenticating, authorising, and auditing users (both human and non-human) and their access to organisational resources. In today’s threat landscape, as one talk perfectly phrased, we are living in a time where we have to think about “identity security in a border-less digital world”.

Getting Identity Management right means you can prevent unauthorised access, mitigate insider threats by enforcing least privilege, ensure compliance with regulations, enhance security operations and strengthen the overall security posture. Essentially, allowing you to gain control and visibility over who has access to what. Exhibitors and speakers showcased solutions and best strategies emphasising robust identity management practices, ensuring that only verified users can access sensitive data and systems.

A common and closely related theme also seen at the expo is Zero Trust, which operates on the principle of “never trust, always verify,” heavily relying on robust identity management for continuous authentication and granular authorisation.

Addressing Burnout and Mental Health

DTX is co-located with UCX, which is “where unified communications (UC) and customer experience (CX) pros connect to tackle tomorrow’s challenges today”. Digital transformation, unified communications and customer/employee experiences are all intertwined throughout the event,  with these themes being seen across all stages.

The welfare of staff, mentioning burnout and mental health concerns, were significant points of discussion. At the event, Mind Manchester exhibited and there was also a break out point where attendees, including neurodiverse attendees, could take a breather. Talks took place including: ‘Let’s talk about stress: Finding a healthy Balance’, ‘Fireside Chat: Building Inclusive workplaces: designing for accessibility, equity and neurodiversity’ and  ‘Fireside chat: Strengthening the human firewall: Prioritising mental health in cyber security teams’. Communication, effective leadership and AI were proposed solutions to help with this matter.

Navigating a Crowded Market

One of the most common security challenges discussed with us at our DTX stand, was how crowded the cyber security market had become, making it difficult for organisations to navigate and identify the most suitable solutions or partners. The rapid expansion of the cyber security sector has presented challenges in consistently ensuring uniformly high standards and substantive offerings across the market.

The cyber security industry also shifts rapidly, with new technology, acronyms and hypes being a common occurrence. Having an effective cyber security strategy in place with core objectives and a timeline is important to stay on track. This allows you, your team and the wider organisation to have a laser focused plan, where maturing your cyber security defences and reducing cyber risks are the prime purpose.

Leadership Insights for CISOs

Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and other business leaders were provided with tailored content focusing on leadership and strategic management. With cyber security challenges evolving, the role of a CISO is becoming more critical and complex. Talks at DTX included: ‘Fireside Chat: maximising cyber security investments and strategic alignment’, ‘IT Starts with People: Smarter IT, better decisions , bigger impact’, ‘CISO Secrets: Strengthening Cyber Resilience in 2025’, ‘Keynote Interview – The connected leader: How to drive impact through team engagement’ and ‘The CISO’S guide to the galaxy: Cyber leadership in a mad, mad world’.

In many industries, it always comes back to people. The technology sector is no different, with many talks highlighting the significance of people (linking to the PPT framework that stands for People, Progress and Technology). Sessions emphasised the need for CISOs to not only talk at C-Suite level but also foster collaboration across departments and really understand challenges on a day to day level.

Continuous “Real-World” Cyber Risk Assurance

The Data Connect service, vSOC AIM, recently underwent significant improvements to incorporate powerful new features, such as advanced dashboard metrics and industry benchmarking. Excitingly, at the expo we relaunched the service as vSOC Assure. Through the vSOC Connect Console and our dedicated security team, we provide a strategic direction to cyber risk.

A common theme we noticed at the event, which our service helps alleviate, is how IT and business leaders “speak different languages”. The job of a CISO and IT leaders is to make people care and take responsibility for cyber security, not the technology or process aspect, but the overall need and importance of security. For a long time, cyber security was treated as a separate entity, a technical afterthought bolted onto existing IT operations. With so much relying on secure defences, including reputation, operations and the financial future of an organisation, security must align with your overall business objectives. 

Find out more about our Cyber Risk Management service here.

Benefits of vSOC Assure

1) Cyber Risk Reduction               2) C-Suite Assurance

3) vCISO Advisory                        4) vSOC Connect Console

5) Industry Benchmarking           6) Strategic Cyber Roadmap

If you have any further cyber security queries, please contact us to speak to a cyber security expert.