Leeds Cyber Security Conference 2026

Leeds Cyber Security Conference 2026 is back at Northern Ballet on Thursday 22 October, running from 9am to 5pm. It's the latest edition of a day that's become a bit of a fixture for the city's IT crowd, and it's run by YorCyberSec, a small Leeds-based company that says it's passionate about making cyber security more accessible and easier to understand, and about helping organisations find the right support.

The day is built around a charitable model: every penny from ticket sales goes to The Northern Ballet charity, which supports the arts and local communities across the UK. That's a nice bit of context to keep in mind while you're there. The organisers say it's taken about four years to reach its current form, and the 2025 edition was described by attendees as 'Informative, Interesting, Fun, Engaging and Friendly' — there's a highlights video available if you want to see what it looks like in practice.

As for what's on the agenda, it's a mix of expert talks by cyber security professionals and motivational speakers, plus an IT and security end-user panel discussion. There's an exhibitor hall too, with Blacks, Boxphish, Dionach, Exosec, ISACA, Precursor, ThreatInsights and T3C all there, and FSP as a panel sponsor. Between the sessions, there are arcade machine competitions, a hot lunch, and a Cybrewery evening networking session to keep things social. A limited number of discounted tickets are reserved for students entering the field, so if you're just starting out, it's worth checking those first.

It's a community-focused, non-salesy day for IT professionals rather than a corporate pitch, so the focus stays on the talks and the networking. It runs from 9am to 5pm at Northern Ballet, 2 Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7PA, and tickets range from £9.38 to £16.96.