Welcome to The Spoonful newsletter!

A few things that surfaced across the community this week.

🔥RSAC 2026 Conference: What we are doing this year!

RSAC™ 2026 is coming up fast, and we’re showing up in a few ways this year, not just with booths and badges, but with real opportunities to connect!

1. RSAC 2026 Party for Marketers (In-Person):

The pre-RSAC 2026 gathering for cybersecurity marketers is legendary. It’s a chance to see familiar faces, meet a few new ones, and start the week with an open bar, a delectable buffet, limited edition Society swag, snack stuffing station, and of course: the best networking around!

March 22 at 5:30 - 8 p.m. PT in San Francisco

Tickets are selling fast (and are limited)! Get your ticket today!

Thanks to our sponsors: ActualTech Media, PAN, MOBI Solutions , and Tofu!

2. If you’re extending your week, we’re also hosting a gathering in Napa Valley on Thursday, March 26, from ~2:00 to 9:30 PM at Olive Hill Estates.

Wine and olive oil tastings, outdoor space, and room to slow down before heading home. There’s a charter bus from San Francisco departing in the afternoon and returning around 9:30 to 10:00 PM, or you can rideshare or drive yourself. Thanks to Priority Experiences for sponsoring the wine, olive oil, and sourdough bread tasting!

Request to join Napa here.

Trending News 📰

Do you have cool news from your company? Please send it to us! Email media@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com

ChatGPT ads come with premium prices and limited data
OpenAI is rolling out ads inside ChatGPT at a premium price point, with limited performance and measurement data available to advertisers so far.

Google moves to shut down massive cyber weapon
Google used a court order to take down infrastructure tied to one of the largest botnets ever observed, running quietly across millions of consumer devices.

AI social network exposed 1.5M API keys
We're still enthralled by the MoltBook saga. A misconfigured database exposed API keys, private messages, and emails at an AI social network.

RSAC announces 2026 Innovation Sandbox Top 10 Finalists
RSAC announced the 10 startups competing in this year’s Innovation Sandbox, many of which focus on AI security, agent governance, identity, and code security.

Partner Corner

RSAC 2026 Conference: Final Days to Save—Ends February 20

The countdown is on! Discount pricing for RSAC™ 2026 Conference ends February 20, so now's the time to save $600 on an All Access Pass. And with your Cybersecurity Marketing Society's membership, you’ll save even more—an extra $150 with code 16UCMSAD. Don’t wait—lock in your savings today and be part of the community shaping tomorrow. Register now.

Stop Letting Bad Ads Drain Budget

Managing ads across ICPs, geos, and funnel stages manually doesn’t scale. See how Silvio automated $300K+ in ad spend. The optimization runs nonstop, not “when someone remembers.” Watch + copy the workflows.

Webinar list fatigue is real. Boost attendance.

Get one complimentary webinar promotion to 50K active security practitioners & leaders who have explicitly opted in for webinar alerts. No catch.

Redeem by Feb 28: Learn More About Our InfoSec Events Directory

CMO Corner with Charles Gold

“3x Coverage” Can Be a Lie We Tell Ourselves

By Charles Gold

The mistake we make is treating coverage as a single comfort number. Totals hide mix, timing, and quality—where the misses live. For instance, a clean 3.0× total can still miss if the entire pipeline is in early stages or relies on a few large binary deals.

Break it down: Coverage by segment and product, mapped to historical Stage-to-Close conversion and expected close period.

Do you have a realistic chance of hitting the target for this quarter and next, based on actual historical close rates? Are there outlier deals that are skewing the projections? Are there other leading indicators (POVs started, for instance) that give you a better sense of what’s likely to close?

Partner with your sales leader to get an accurate picture of this quarter and next. Then jointly determine a plan to maximize the chances of success.  

Ask yourself: Where does this quarter’s “coverage” actually turn into bookings—and where is it just noise we’re comforting ourselves with?

**

On a separate topic, I’m a firm believer that the CMO role is the loneliest on the estaff. It’s tough to find someone who truly understands your challenges inside your company.

But you are NOT ALONE.

Each month, Gianna and I host Cyber CMO Confidential, a closed meeting for top marketing leaders to discuss challenges, share ideas, and, well, yeah, vent. Sign up here

Not in the “CMOs Only” Slack channel yet? If you’re a CMO or Head of Marketing, reply to this email, and we’ll get you in.

From the Community 💌

What the Community is up to this week!

RSAC College Day (Free)A dedicated RSAC Conference day for current college students and recent grads studying cybersecurity.
📍 March 26, 2026, Moscone Center

👇👇New Podcast episode alert: From Slack Groups to Super-Users: Community-Led Growth in Cybersecurity

Avital Knoller, Head of Ecosystem, Community, and CXO Relationships at Orchid Security, walks through how she thinks about community when it’s tied directly to product and growth. 👉 Listen to the episode

Where We’re Meeting Next:

Upcoming events, webinars, and meetups across the community.

Feb 25: CyberMarketingCon Replay Day: Watch Together, Learn Together (Virtual) 11 a.m - 4 p.m.

Feb 25: Wine & Chocolate Tasting for Cybersecurity Field Marketers (Virtual) 2:30 p.m. PT / 5:30 p.m. ET (THE COMPLIMENTARY KIT FOR THIS EVENT IS CLOSED; SIGN UP FOR THE NEXT ONE ON MAY 20th HERE)

Feb 26: Behind the Cyber Creator: AMA with Phillip Wylie (Virtual) 2 - 3 p.m.

Mar 5: Cybersecurity Marketing & GTM Atlanta Meetup (In-Person, Sandy Springs, GA) 6 - 8 p.m. ET

Mar 12: Behind the Cyber Creator: AMA with Patrick Gorman (Virtual) 2 - 3 p.m.

Mar 12: Boston Cyber Marketing Meetup Hosted by 7AI (In-Person, Back Bay) 4:30 - 6:00 p.m. ET
Mar 22: RSAC 2026 Party for Marketers (In-Person · San Francisco, CA) 5:30 - 8 p.m. PT

Mar 26: After RSAC 2026: Debrief & Destress in Napa (In-Person) 2 - 9:30 p.m. PDT

Apr 10: Partner Up: Co-Marketing @ Black Hat USA Matchmaking (Virtual) 12 - 1 p.m.

Apr 30: SEO & GEO: What’s Working for Cybersecurity Brands in 2026 (Virtual) 1 - 2 p.m. ET

May 15: LAST DAY to Apply to Speak at CyberMarketingCon + SummitsMay 20: Margaritas & Mocktails Marketing Mixer (Virtual) 2:30 p.m. PT / 5:30 p.m. ET
Aug 27: Martini & Mocktail Mingle (Virtual) 2:30 p.m. PT / 5:30 p.m. ET
Nov 15: CyberMarketingCon 2026 (In-person and Virtual)

Check out the monthly member & non-member events calendar! It’s packed with exciting networking opportunities and recurring meetups designed just for you.

Just for laughs: Meme of the Week... 😂

Every tab is open for a reason. Probably.
Thanks to Michael Yehoshua, our unofficial meme king.

That’s it for this edition! Thanks for reading!

Don't forget: you're the best! 💪

Have a great weekend!

❤️ Gianna & Maria

‍

‍