Fred Rockwell

B2B events are changing.  The most value comes from smaller, highly targeted groups having deeper conversations. We focus on making networking EASY.

EASY Way = Fun + Authentic + Engaging + Meaningful Convos + Budget Friendly

The Old Way = Boring + Fake + Painful + transactional booths + awkward to break the ice + asynchronous content 


The Future of B2B Conferences = Justify the spend based on longer bottom of the funnel conversations with the decision maker 


Our audience:

• VPs and C-Level 
• Mid-Market - $5M to $1BN ARR
• B2B Software/Tech

My DMs are open if you'd like to see how Ascent can connect you with your buyers 

Founder CEO

Ascent is a network of c-suite leaders who come together to share insights, build relationships, and discover new technologies that supercharge their companies and careers.

Brian Haugli

As the CEO of SideChannel, a publicly traded cybersecurity company ("SDCH"), I lead a team of passionate and talented professionals who are on a mission to make cybersecurity simple and accessible for small and mid-sized enterprises. With over 20 years of experience in the security industry, I have held senior advisory and practitioner roles within the DoD, the Intelligence Community, and Fortune 1000 companies, delivering risk management capabilities and effective operating models.

I am also the founder of RealCISO.io, a cybersecurity risk assessment SaaS platform that helps businesses and organizations understand, manage, and mitigate their cyber risks easily and efficiently. As a Wiley published author and a creator and host of the #CISOlife YouTube and Podcast, I share my insights and expertise on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, industrial control systems, and operational technologies. I am a certified CISSP, GICSP, and Security+, and an Eagle Scout. I enjoy mentoring and teaching, and I have served as an adjunct professor at Boston College.

Creator & Host

#CISOlife - https://www.youtube.com/c/sidechannel

LinkedIn, YouTube Video and Podcast on risk, cybersecurity, and #CISOlife. Zero sponsorships, no vendor influence, just pure riff.

We’ve had a lot of great conversations in 2025 about how to explain cyber posture clearly—to clients, executives, boards, and even internal teams.

That’s exactly why we’ve added Cyber Defense Matrix (CDM) support as a capability inside RealCISO vCISO Platform as the new Security Inventory feature.

The Cyber Defense Matrix gives you a simple, consistent way to:

- Organize security by Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover
- Map those functions across Devices, Apps, Networks, Data, and Users
- Quickly spot gaps, overlaps, and priorities
- Create a shared language between technical teams and leadership

This isn’t just a diagram or a slide. In RealCISO, CDM is operational:

- Mapped to assessments and controls
- Tied to risk and remediation
- Trackable over time across one client or many

For context, the Cyber Defense Matrix was created by Sounil Yu, who has also been a long-time advisor to RealCISO vCISO Platform. His goal was clarity and structure—we’ve focused on making it usable at scale for service providers and internal security teams.

Cyber CEO | ZeroTrust & NIST Expert | DoD & F500 CISO

Open article: The Cyber Defense Matrix, Now Built Into RealCISO by realciso.io

Cyber Defense Matrix - Security Inventory feature in RealCISO

The Cyber Defense Matrix, Now Built Into RealCISO

Most organizations think they’ve “covered security.”

They have an MSP.
Maybe an MSSP.
Lots of tools. Plenty of alerts.

But here’s the real question:

𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲?

In this #CISOlife episode, I break down:

- Why MSPs and MSSPs are necessary — but not sufficient
- Why security execution ≠ security ownership
- How smaller and mid-market organizations end up pushing CISO responsibility onto already-overloaded CTOs and CIOs
- And why the vCISO model mirrors how real enterprises manage cyber risk

If no one is governing security, you don’t have a security program — you have activity.

🎧 Watch / listen and let me know how your organization handles this.

#CISOlife #vCISO #CyberSecurity #MSP #MSSP #RiskManagement #SecurityLeadership SideChannel CISOlife™

SOC 2 platforms love to promise “fast,” “easy,” and “automatic compliance.”

Hot take: 𝐒𝐎𝐂 2 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦.

🔅 Tools don’t own your controls.
🔅 Platforms don’t talk to auditors for you.
🔅 Dashboards don’t fix broken processes.

If a SOC 2 tool tells you it can “do SOC 2 for you,” ask one question:
Who’s on the hook when the auditor says no?

Software can help.
Leadership, ownership, and execution are what actually pass audits.

Watch the video before you buy the promise. 🔥

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The Battle

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Engagements

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