Inaugural cyber summit coming to North Augusta in September

Samantha Winn, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·2 min read

Aug. 7—One of the CSRA's growing industries, cybersecurity, is having an inaugural summit to discuss the job market and research opportunities in North Augusta.

The Savannah River Cyber Summit is scheduled to be held Sept. 27-28 in the Crowne Plaza hotel in Riverside Village. The summit will host a variety of academia, corporations and public entities that work within the field. The event plans to focus on the Cyber Command and the Cyber District around Fort Gordon.

The North Augusta Chamber of Commerce, sponsor of the event, recognizes the importance of cybersecurity to the region and its growing population.

"We wanted to make sure that North Augusta stayed in front of everyone as still a resource for cyber and technologies as us being centrally located between Fort Gordon and Cyber Command as well as all of the other things happening on the South Carolina side of the river," Terra Carroll, president and CEO of the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce, said.

Carroll believes that the Cyber Summit, created in partnership with CyberSC, will help increase industry impact in the area.

"North Augusta is kind of centrally located, and with everything that is happening with Fort Gordon, Cyber Command and the Cyber Center on the Georgia riverfront side, we felt it necessary for us to show the resources that are available on the South Carolina side," she said. "We do have comparable resources here in South Carolina."

"It's not for any competition with what is happening at the Georgia Cyber Center but as an additional resource to show that we have things for folks here as well. I think there's plenty to go around but just to show for those who want to do business in South Carolina and are in South Carolina and some may need to keep their funding on this side of the river but still have an impact in our region, we wanted to be able to showcase what the options are," Carroll continued.

During the two-day event, there will be a vendor expo with exhibitors. An agenda featuring speaking panels from top industry leaders is also planned.

"When you think of our quality of life that we have as a region, of course North Augusta being a bedroom community, this could be very attractive for different industries wanting to bring their company here because of what we have available for raising families and startup companies and things of that sort," Carroll said. They are not as busy as some of the larger cities, but something that would be pretty attractive for them to relocate or expand or even start a business in our community. We just wanted to be able to show that we have it here in North Augusta."

To register for the event, visit its website.

Samantha Winn covers the city of North Augusta, with a focus on government and community oriented business. Follow her on Twitter: @samanthamwinn and on Facebook and Instagram: @swinnnews.