Your feedback to Swiss Cyber Storm 2026
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Swiss Cyber Storm 2026 is a little over two weeks behind us and, as every year, we sent out the same feedback form to all attendees right after the conference. We have been using the identical set of questions for many years now, which allows us to compare the numbers across editions. This year, 68 participants filled in the form. As it happens, this is exactly the same number as last year and a bit above our long-term average.
Thank you everybody who took the time to submit the form. We have also drafted a free ticket for the lucky one who filled out the form and gave us their email address to join the raffle. That ticket is on its way. (If you want an SCS 2027 ticket, then you can head over to the ticket store right away. The super early bird tickets are 399 CHF until the end of the year. That’s like the best price you will get.)
So here is what you told us.
Overall impression of the Swiss Cyber Storm conference
Let’s start with the big picture. 44% of the respondents picked the top answer („It was a very interesting and cool event, keep it up, and I’ll be there next year”), 47% said it was quite good, and they consider attending again, and 9% said it was OK, but they probably won’t be back. Nobody picked the „bad” option, which is a bit of a premiere if my memory does not fail me.
If we add up the first two answers as positive and the last two as negative, we end up with 91% positive and 9% negative. That is a step down from the dizzying 97% of 2025, and it puts us back at a more reasonable level.
| Year | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 91% | 9% |
| 2025 | 97% | 3% |
| 2024 | 94% | 6% |
| 2023 | 93% | 7% |
| 2022 | 95% | 5% |
| 2021 | 96% | 4% |
| 2020 | – | – |
| 2019 | 91% | 9% |
| 2018 | 91% | 9% |
| 2017 | 89% | 11% |
Nine out of ten people coming back or considering coming back is a very good result. But after three years of going up, this is a reminder that the scores do not take care of themselves. This takes work.
Average speaker rating
The feedback form asks you to rate every talk you attended on a scale from 1 (bad) to 4 (very good). We do not publish the individual speaker ratings, but we do share the average across all regular talks in the Arena and the Scenario track (partner talks in the Panorama track are not included, as in previous years).
There are two ways to calculate this. You can take the ratings the individual speakers get. Or you put all the ratings into a large pot and calculate the mean this way. Usually the two values are very close to one another. But not so this year.
The overall mean is at 3.13 which is the 4th best result we ever got. But if we build the mean of the individual speakers, then we drop to 2.94. A closer look at the stats explains this. We had three or four speakers with a fairly small audience and relatively bad feedback when compared to the rest. In the large pot, there is little impact since these few votes are diluted with the much better ones.
Usually, we never reported these nuances, and we went with the mean of the individual speaker rating. But this time it helps to interpret the results.
| Year | Mean of all ratings | Mean of speaker means |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 3.13 | 2.94 |
| 2025 | 3.24 | 3.27 |
| 2024 | 3.19 | 3.20 |
| 2023 | 3.10 | 3.02 |
| 2022 | 3.09 | 3.19 |
| 2021 | 3.34 | (a fanboy audience with fewer attendees than usual) 3.34 |
| 2020 | – | – |
| 2019 | 3.06 | 3.04 |
| 2018 | 3.01 | 3.04 |
| 2017 | 2.95 | 2.96 |
And here is a graphical representation that gives you a better feel for the numbers.
Choice of the focus theme „Shadow IT”
85% of you thought „Shadow IT” was a good choice for the focus theme, 12% did not like it and 3% were not aware we had a focus theme at all. That is a recovery from last year’s 82% and back in the range we have grown used to, even if the 2023 and 2024 themes scored higher.
| Year | Approval | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 85% | „Shadow IT” |
| 2025 | 82% | „Resilience in a mad, mad world” |
| 2024 | 95% | „The AI Revolution” |
| 2023 | 93% | „The Human Factor” |
| 2022 | 92% | „Digital Identities and How to Secure Them” |
| 2021 | 88% | „Securing the Supply Chain” |
| 2020 | – | – |
| 2019 | 83% | „Embracing the Hackers” |
| 2018 | 78% | „Trust” |
| 2017 | 67% | „E-Voting” |
Food and beverages
The food question has been fairly stable since we introduced it. This year, 49% rated the food and beverages as great, 46% as good and 5% as OK. That is practically identical to 2025. We did not get the 65% „great” of 2024 back, but nobody went hungry this time either, and the lunch, the hummus and the salads got explicit praise.
| Year | Great | Good | OK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 49% | 46% | 5% |
| 2025 | 49% | 44% | 7% |
| 2024 | 65% | 29% | 6% |
| 2023 | 59% | 27% | 11% |
Where did people hear about the conference?
Word of mouth remains the main way people find Swiss Cyber Storm. Of those who answered the question, 56% had attended before, 19% heard about the conference from colleagues and 13% via communication by a partner. That latter number is quite good, and we also saw this in the ticket sales. Two business partners really supported us substantially in this direction. Thank you TEMET and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
| Channel | 2026 | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| I’ve attended before | 56% | 63% | 53% |
| Colleagues | 19% | 17% | 26% |
| Communication by a sponsor | 13% | 5% | 10% |
| Partner organization | 3% | 4% | 5% |
| Social media | 3% | 4% | 2% |
| Online articles / blogs | 2% | 2% | 2% |
| Other | 5% | 5% | 2% |
Speaker suggestions and future focus topics
As every year, we asked who you would like to see on stage next time. Bruce Schneier, Meredith Whittaker, and Lisa Forte return to the list like in previous years. We keep trying with all of them, with mixed success so far. Beyond individual names, several of you asked for more Dutch colleagues of the kind we had on stage this year. Somehow there is a pattern that Dutch speakers are always well received at Swiss Cyber Storm. I have one or two more names up the sleeve …
And there is a call for first-hand stories from people actually dealing with incidents rather than talking about what could happen. We also heard this when talking to people directly. That’s good food for thought.
On the focus topic side, the suggestions were all over the place, which is not unusual. Sovereignty came up more than once, and so did AI in its various agentic forms. Operational Technology (OT) security, product security, post-quantum cryptography, and threat hunting were also mentioned. We will take these into account when we define the focus theme for 2027, but as one respondent wisely noted, the landscape moves so fast that it is better to wait for a couple of months. Maybe that speed could be a topic in itself.
Summary
2026 was a good conference with a very happy crowd in the networking area, a focus theme that resonated, and a well-organized day at the Kursaal. We are noticing the numbers are a bit lower than in the last three years and the analysis is ongoing. Prepare for a rebound!
You can also question whether it’s such a bright idea to communicate numbers that are lower than in previous years. We think that’s part of the transparency and authenticity of Swiss Cyber Storm. And that we owe it to all of you who cared to fill out the feedback form. You have been heard.
Swiss Cyber Storm 2027 will take place on October 26. Super early bird tickets are available now at 399 CHF, the best price we are offering.
About the author
Dr. Christian Folini
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