I recently attended the Cyber Congress event held at JW Marriott in Chandigarh. My dad was one of the speakers, and his talk was scheduled for 12 o’clock. The drive from our home usually takes about 30 minutes, and we barely made it on time, reaching the venue around 11:50. After a quick fresh-up, my dad began his presentation.
His topic focused on e-commerce, UI, UX, and security. Since this was primarily a security conference, he emphasized how security often clashes with user experience. While security is essential in an e-commerce website, it should not cripple UX or make the platform oblivious for hackers. His talk centered on how to balance the two. He also stressed the importance of how security and UX professionals present their ideas to leadership. For example, simply saying something “must be added” may be ignored, but framing it in terms of financial impact, such as potential losses of $1 million or $10 million, that you should convey the message in the way the executives can understand you and not just use technical jargon.
After the talk, lunch was served. I didn’t eat much, but I picked up some paneer and roti and then joined a conversation with Mr. Deepak, Mr. Thaw, and Aditya, all of whom had much more experience in technology than I do, since I am still learning JavaScript. It was exciting to be part of a discussion with people from such diverse backgrounds, each at different stages in their careers but all sharing the same passion for technology.
Mr. Thaw, a student from Amity University in Delhi, had traveled specifically for this event, which showed real dedication. Mr. Deepak had recently started his own company and was eager to learn and network, while Aditya, a 12th-grade student, had already won several hackathons, something I aspire to do in the future. Listening to their experiences gave me a sense of where I might want to head with my own journey.
I also learned about Mr. Thaw’s field of study, a master’s degree in computer applications, which I hadn’t heard of before. That opened my eyes to different academic paths within technology. In addition, I discovered Toastmasters International, an organization that helps people improve their public speaking skills. As someone who wants to communicate ideas better, that was something I found very interesting. The discussion gave me new perspectives and plenty of inspiration. Before the next session began, we took a few photos together, which was a nice way to remember the day.
The following session was led by Vibhor uncle, who presented the six key pillars of security: identify, detect, protect, monitor, respond, and recover. What stood out was his engaging way of explaining concepts through a fable, making the material both fun and easy to understand. His method showed me that even technical ideas can be communicated in creative ways that stick with the audience.
One of his strongest points was about recovery. Unlike many who stop at prevention and response, he highlighted the importance of keeping logs during recovery to trace what the hacker did and fix vulnerabilities later. This was a new and valuable insight for me, because it showed that recovering from an attack is not just about restoring systems but also about learning from what happened to prevent it in the future.
After the session ended, we returned home. Looking back, the day was not only informative but also inspiring. I learned new technical ideas, connected with people from different backgrounds, and came away motivated to explore hackathons, improve my skills, and continue growing in the world of technology.
