It took me 2.5 days to recover from Black Hat this year. I’m still at about 70%.

You know what? I’ll take it. Especially after such a stellar week in Vegas.

It’s rare for me to say this about a large trade show, but this year I didn’t want it to end.

Black Hat has always been a strong event for me: high-quality attendees, meaningful offsite conversations, Startup City’s innovation buzz.

But 2025 set a new standard. I wrote down deep thoughts as I was jumping from booth to booth, venue to venue, conversation to conversation.

For those of you who weren’t there (hell, even for those who were), this will serve as great insight going into future events and conversations with buyers.

Here’s my take on why Black Hat was so electric this year and where there’s still room to improve.

Traffic was dense but navigable - a balance that RSAC missed entirely this year. I’ve heard from many of my peers that they felt like numbers were lower this year; frankly I think the pathways were clear, the layout logical, and attendee engagement noticeably stronger than in prior years.

Exhibitors and organizers struck the right balance between accessibility and activity. Foot traffic patterns supported sustained engagement without creating unmanageable congestion.

Booth design was notably more intentional than in past years. Messaging was concise and audience-relevant. Many booths avoided buzzword or acronym soup and instead led with a crisp articulation of their value proposition.

Several vendors integrated immersive but manageable experiences - environments that encouraged conversation with interested prospects.

The most effective booths demonstrated message-market fit by directly addressing buyer pains in their visuals and copy. Weak performers still leaned heavily on generic claims or AI hype without context.

(Stay tuned for a full analysis to follow in my 2025 Black Hat Booth Messaging & Buyer Research Report.)

There was a marked shift in tone this year. Instead of endlessly cataloging the industry’s pain points, many attendees (both buyers and vendors) focused on practical, operationally viable solutions to those problems.

Conversations were deeper, more specific, and often rooted in real-world deployment challenges rather than abstract strategy.

A notable trend was the increased discourse around proactive vs. reactive security in terms of strategy and execution across different domains.

This is not a new talking point (I’ve been hearing this for years) but this year marked a change: solutions are finally starting to follow through with tangible approaches that show how this actually works in practice. The emphasis is shifting from “we should be proactive” to “here’s how we operationalize it.”

This indicates a maturing of market discourse. Buyers are less interested in conceptual frameworks and far more engaged by provable, field-tested approaches with measurable business outcomes.

AI was pervasive, but the narrative shifted. The dominant theme wasn’t “AI for AI’s sake,” but rather how to secure AI - governance, trust, and risk management in applied AI systems.

The vendors leading these discussions were notably more credible to security buyers than those simply embedding AI into booth messaging or existing features without a risk framework.

The market is beginning to divide into two paths between AI “adopters” and AI “securers.” The latter group is aligning more closely with buyer priorities.

One of the most notable dynamics was the frequency of incidental “run ins” or “bumps”. I couldn’t cross Mandalay Bay without meeting so many great friends, many of whom I’ve built trust with over years.

This density of preexisting relationships accelerated the quality of on-the-fly meetings and opened doors for more substantive follow-up.

Black Hat continues to function as a force multiplier for those with an established network, amplifying the ROI of attendance beyond the scheduled agenda.

Our Cooking with CISOs Las Vegas production underscored the appetite for unconventional engagement formats among buyers and vendors. Security leaders responded to the informality and openness of the experience, which lowered the guardrails typical of industry panels and webinars.

The resulting conversations were human, direct, and sticky - the kind of dialogue people carry into future interactions.

Alternative formats that blend human connection with subject-matter expertise are proving effective in bypassing traditional engagement fatigue.

I want to personally thank the team at Orca Security and Pentera for joining us in the kitchen!

There’s a growing recognition that security posture depends as much on behavioral risk reduction as it does on technical control maturity. We are roughly 30 years behind in addressing the “people” side of security.

For decades, the industry has poured investment into process and technology, yet the human element has been treated as an afterthought. This gap is costly. A large majority of breaches are caused by a small percentage of people, often due to repeat patterns of risky behavior.

The shift I observed at Black Hat was more than lip service; there’s a sharper focus on measuring, coaching, and reducing human risk in a way that’s embedded into security programs, not bolted on.

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) is widely talked about, but widely misunderstood. Many vendors claim they “do CTEM” when, in reality, they’re offering only a sliver of the approach.

I saw marketers positioning CTEM as a platform you buy when it’s a strategy you operationalize. The leaders in this space are aligning their offerings with the full lifecycle: identifying exposures, prioritizing them based on real-world attack paths, and ensuring remediation actions are measurable.

Those missing this strategic view risk losing credibility as buyers become more discerning.

Buyers are rewarding vendors who can show operational relevance and proof of business impact.

That means messaging tied directly to a buyer’s day-to-day challenges, supported by real deployment stories, and distributed in formats that match modern consumption habits. Short-form, digestible video (that can also be consumed as audio) is emerging a key GTM asset for building credibility and reach.

The vendors getting traction are showing why they should be trusted, in formats buyers actually engage with.

Even in a strong year, there are lessons to apply:

While solution-oriented dialogue improved overall, too many booths still defaulted to high-level “pitch mode” when buyers were ready to go deeper. Exhibitor training should prioritize tiered conversation paths - quick engagement for casual passersby, deeper technical or operational dialogue for evaluators.

There is also a persistent gap in booth staff readiness. At a minimum, every booth rep should be able to clearly articulate the company’s value proposition and explain how the product or service works. Too many defaulted to vague claims when pressed with basic questions, eroding trust and missing opportunities to establish credibility.

At both Black Hat and RSA, I made a point to ask marketers in their booths the same question: “What do you think is the ROI of this booth?”

The most common reaction? A pause…followed by a vague guess or a deflection to lead count.

Lead count alone is a shallow, misleading metric. A hundred scanned badges means little if most of those conversations were irrelevant, unqualified, or unmemorable. The real value lies in quality over quantity - understanding who you spoke to, what was discussed, where they are in their decision process, and what the agreed next step is.

Too few vendors have a system for capturing this post-conversation intelligence in a structured, repeatable way. The best performers log buyer role, pain points discussed, buying stage, and urgency, creating a follow-up map that marketing and sales can act on immediately after the show.

AI was everywhere, but inconsistency between marketing claims and actual product capabilities remains a credibility killer. Several booths led with “AI-powered” messaging that collapsed under scrutiny. Vendors must ensure booth staff can defend AI claims with specifics or risk losing buyer confidence.

Overall, Black Hat 2025 was a reminder of why I do this work. The quality of conversations, the depth of insights, and the willingness of people in this community to both challenge and support each other left a real mark on me.

I came home humbled, reminded that no matter how much we talk about technology, processes, and markets, it’s the people behind it all who push this industry forward.

I’m more grateful than ever for my community - the peers, clients, friends, and collaborators who show up, share openly, and push for better.

And I’m incredibly energized by what’s ahead, not just the next 12 months of events and product launches, but the long-term opportunity to make cybersecurity more effective, more human, and more sustainable.

See you in Vegas next year!

Dani

About CyberSynapse

CyberSynapse is the first buyer intelligence service and platform built specifically for cybersecurity GTM teams. In 30 days or less, we replace guesswork with direct buyer research, helping marketing, sales, and product leaders understand the real needs, language, and decision triggers of security buyers. Our mission is simple: give GTM teams direct access to security practitioners to gain the clarity and confidence to make calls that accelerate revenue.