KEYNOTE: This conference was not built for you - Chantal Stekelenburg
Disobey 2026 · Keynote
Chantal Stekelenburg's keynote at Disobey 2026 delivers a powerful and analytically sharp critique of the systemic barriers preventing **diversity** and **inclusion** in cybersecurity conferences. Moving beyond a purely moral argument, Stekelenburg meticulously dissects how current practices, often driven by unconscious assumptions and comfort rather than malice, inadvertently exclude women and other underrepresented groups from speaking stages and, by extension, from shaping the future of security. Her central thesis is that "this conference was not built for you" for many, and that addressing this is not merely "the right thing to do," but an **operational imperative** for effective security.
AI review
Stekelenburg is a credible, committed speaker with real community-building credentials, and the AirTag threat-model reframe is the talk's only genuinely sharp technical hook. The rest is a competent, well-structured argument for inclusive conference design that any experienced organizer has already heard in some form — delivered well, but not advancing the conversation meaningfully beyond what's already circulating in DEI-focused security circles.