"Participation in the CYBERSEC 2019 was a golden opportunity offered to me by the Kosciuszko Institute. I was asked to facilitate the panel titled Cybersec Women, which was especially exciting knowing the background of this initiative. A few years ago, the European Commission raised the topic of the importance and necessity to have a more diverse cybersecurity sector, alarmed by the small amount of women participating in it and the deficiency this inequality is causing. In 2017, Kosciuszko Institute, which is a leading and most prestigious centre of cybersecurity in Poland, took the lead on organizing Cybersec Women panel with strong support of the European Cyber Security Organisation and Women 4Cyber Initiative.

The Cybersec Women panel integrated leaders who have had played an important role in cybersecurity sector. The diversity of represented sectors is certainly worth noting. They included government sector, e.g. Government of Poland, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Ministry of Finance from Israel, organizations linked to governmental initiatives, such as the European Cyber Security Organisation, to private sector and research institutes like the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association, Cisco, Perspektywy Education Foundation, CybExer Technologies, Tekniska Polska, Terida System, Ericsson, Women in Security and Resilience Alliance, Microsoft, Accenture.

The diversity of participants involved in the discussion allowed us to have a broader and richer perspective on the topic. Their views were so diverse and common at the same time, which was a perfect combination that encouraged the audience to show their deep interest by active participation.

My experience as a facilitator helped me to get even more involved with their stories, to relate to them and to recognise the common points that they share in their speeches.

I believe this conference was as a whole very interesting, and there was perceived willingness from different participants to share information and cooperate that allowed networking and sharing information on what other participants are doing in the field currently.

I highly recommend this kind of experience to every researcher, academic, student and any person who wants to learn more about cybersecurity. After this experience, I do not have any doubt that this topic is worth learning more about".