The Call for Presentations for TechMentor & Cybersecurity Live! @ Microsoft HQ 2026 is now OPEN.
Proposals are due: Monday, December 1st, 2025 11:59 PM PST Submit your proposals here: https://sessionize.com/techmentorcyber26/
TechMentor & Cybersecurity Live! @ Microsoft HQ – August 3-7, 2026 Microsoft Conference Center, Redmond, WA / Hyatt Regency Bellevue
TechMentor & Cybersecurity Live! @ Microsoft HQ 2026 will offer a combination of in-depth and interactive sessions including workshops, hands-on labs, 75-minute breakouts, and 20-minute fast focuses. We invite you to submit sessions in any and all of these categories, and you may also submit across multiple topic areas at a single show.
To help you in creating successful submissions, we want to share some of the considerations that go into our process of selecting our speakers and sessions for a TechMentor event. First, each speaker will typically be selected to deliver two presentations. That means that it is in your best interest to submit at least three breakout sessions in addition to any Fast Focus topics you may be submitting. This ensures that the conference chairs have more than two options per speaker, particularly if the topic you are submitting is popular and is being submitted by a number of people for the same show. Next, please make sure that your title is clear and appropriate to the track you are submitting it to, and that your description includes enough detail to understand what audience members will walk away from your sessions having learned. Again, many speakers often provide submissions on the same topics, meaning it comes down to a meaningful title and a quality abstract.
Wanting to dig in even deeper and offer hands on experience and learning? We are also looking for speakers willing to deliver two-day workshops and two-day hands-on labs that will be offered as part of the 2026 TechMentor IT Pro Training Course series.
Client and Endpoint Management Although apps are moving to the Cloud and web more and more, attendees still have to support, upgrade, migrate, and troubleshoot all of those client computers to use the apps. Windows client is evolving faster than ever. Microsoft destroyed the myth of Windows 10 being the last Windows ever, with Windows 11. Windows 10 support ended in October 2025 but many are still forced to run older versions next to Windows 11! We might have Windows 12 – who knows! There are many different ways to support older versions and we are very keen to learn about your thoughts on that as well! We are looking for session submissions on the following topics:
PowerShell and DevOps TechMentor brings PowerShell, automation and scripting in general as core session topics. TechMentor is all about how to make an admins or devs life easier. It's all part of the new DevOps approach so, sessions in this track teach attendees the tools and tech they need to make it happen inside their organization. PowerShell topics can now be cross-platform so, Mac/Linux topics are of interest to us.
Classic Infrastructure TechMentor's Infrastructure track covers the services that make the server, client, application, and services work together in an IT environment. We are looking for submissions on Server 2019/2022/2025 Active Directory, network services, Certificate Services, network troubleshooting, and Group Policy.
Soft Skills for ITPros Being a successful IT Pro requires more than just technology skills. These sessions will help attendees boost their careers by selecting sessions on the lighter side of technology. This track teaches attendees how to be successful in their careers and communicate their knowledge to others.
Security Explore how attackers try to defeat your best security measures. Learn how to think like a hacker (threat actor) and prevent the black hats from getting anywhere near your electronic assets. TechMentor assembles some of the best presenters in the industry to guide attendees on Securing Windows clients, servers, and assets in the Cloud. We are looking for essential sessions on information in forensics, Blocking Malware, and monitoring. In 2020, there were more than 360,000 new malware samples found per day – Security has to evolve, and so do you!
Cutting Edge AI Keep up with cutting-edge AI research and emerging trends at TechMentor that are impacting the IT industry now and in the near future.
Azure (Public/Hybrid) At TechMentor, we leave the marketing presentations at home. Replacing them are real-world discussions on "the cloud" as you're using it: Hybrid, connected, private, and the real world. From onsite Azure Stack to everything in the Cloud is what we want to cover!
Office / Microsoft 365 for the IT Pro Almost every person in IT needs to manage and support Office 365, now Microsoft 365. Exchange servers are moving to the Cloud faster than anything else. Admins may no longer have physical servers to administer, but the job hasn't gone anywhere! At TechMentor we want to provide attendees with the up to date and real-life skills needed to manage all aspects of Microsoft 365 from the administrator's perspective.
Ransomware Industry Ransomware is a complicated industry with attackers ranging from individuals to highly organized syndicates. Some operators have Service Desks with better SLA than us. We might face standard opportunistic criminals or nation level threats. The industry runs with affiliate programs and credential harvesting auctions. This track is dedicated to the higher-level descriptive sessions on how the industry works.
Threat Intelligence One of the most important aspects of securing your environment is to understand who you are against. Threat Intel tries to identify, analyze, understand and predict what we are facing.
Human Intelligence It's unfair to say that the biggest threat in security is the person between the chair and the keyboard, but we do need to understand the human factor.
Security Operations Center Cyberattacks don't happen during office hours but mostly during nighttime. 24/7 surveillance is mandatory for companies. A Security Operations Center tries to detect and isolate threats before they escalate to incidents. There are different kinds of, different levels, different sized, and different priced SOCs.
Incident Response When an incident happens it's the IR-teams job to jump in, identify the threat and restoring operations. IR-teams gather evidence, expel the enemy, fixes vulnerabilities, and restores company operations.
Blue Team Blue Team is the proactive defensive side of security operations. They aim to prevent breaches or at least slow down the enemy. Red Teaming is very popular, especially for young people, as it gives you the permission to attack someone. People should remember that for every one Red Team job offering, there are six offerings in the Blue Team side. Red Teams find vulnerabilities – Blue Team blocks/fixes them.
Red Team Red Team is the offensive side of security operations. Red Team uses tools and techniques that aim to find vulnerabilities and bypass the defenses companies have in place.
Purple Team Purple Teams that perform both Blue and Red Team duties. They might be an external provider that analyses and audits the whole environment, both identifying vulnerabilities and fixing or mitigating them.
OT & IoT Security Operational networks, like in factories, are usually operated very different from Office networks. They might not have Internet access so Cloud Services are not usable. Defenses have to designed accordingly. Internet of Things, smart devices connected to and managed by Cloud Services, are an increasing attack vector to networks. Almost every home appliance now has a version with Wifi. Identifying, inventorying and protecting these new smart devices is vital.
Security in Education Institutions Not only are education institutions prime targets for cyberattacks, but they also face a unique combination of security challenges: lack of resources (budgetary and personnel), strict privacy regulations, sensitive research data, a culture of open access to information, impermanent user roles, and a complex decision-making structure, to name just a few. This track will provide practical instruction on a wide range of security topics specifically for K-20 education IT professionals.
Submission Guidelines Please include the following information with your submission (failure to supply all requested information may limit opportunities for selection):
Speakers chosen to present at TechMentor events will receive a full-conference pass and a stipend for each session they present. Speakers are responsible for their own travel costs and incidentals. That being said, the speaker stipend for two talks typically covers domestic flight costs and travel to/from the airport. TechMentor will also cover hotel accommodations (room and tax only) for a pre-determined number of nights at the host hotel as outlined in the speaker agreement.
We look forward to your submissions! ~ The TechMentor and Cybersecurity Live! Event Team
For questions or to be added to our call for presentations notification list, please contact: Danielle Potts Sr. Event Manager [email protected] 925.207.0468 For questions regarding exhibit or sponsorship sales, please contact: Brent Sutton Vice President [email protected] 415.518.1962