If RSAC is the industry’s annual fair, Gartner’s Security & Risk Management Summit is the boardroom briefing.
Running 1–3 June at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Maryland, the 2026 edition is built around a single, blunt premise: the CISO job is getting harder, faster, and the people doing it need vendor-neutral guidance under pressure.
The Conference at a Glance
Gartner runs the SRM Summit globally — National Harbor in June, Tokyo, Japan in July (22–24), São Paulo in August (4–5) Brazil, London, UK in September (22–24).
The 2026 North American edition features 62 Gartner analysts and more than 110 research-driven sessions, structured around five comprehensive tracks and five spotlight tracks covering everything from leadership and AI governance to cloud security, identity, application and data security, cybersecurity operations, and the realities of being a new-to-role CISO.
The exhibitor showcase is substantial but distinctly more curated than the open-floor model of larger events, and one-to-one analyst meetings remain the format’s most valuable feature.
Who It’s For?
This is unambiguously a senior leader event.
The audience is heavily CISO-track, with CROs, security architects, and risk executives rounding out the mix.
The format — analyst-led sessions, one-to-one analyst meetings, executive roundtables, peer Meetups — is built for people who need vendor-neutral input on decisions that have already escalated.
The dedicated New-to-Role CISO track is a notable feature that few other events offer with this depth, and the Evaluating and Negotiating with Technology Providers track has become unexpectedly important as security budgets tighten across most sectors.
Highlights and Themes from the Most Recent Edition
The 2026 theme, “Smarter, Faster, Stronger… Together,” reflects the pressure CISOs are under from AI adoption, tariff-driven supply chain reshuffling, and diverging regulatory regimes.
Leigh McMullen’s opening keynote, “Seize the Moment,” framed the next 18 months as a compressed decision cycle — with the unmistakable message that the cost of delay is rising.
Peter Firstbrook’s “Future of Cyber 2030” session traced where skills, AI, and tooling converge across a five-year horizon.
Notable spotlight content included how to scale cyber-AI responsibly while proving ROI at every stage, and dedicated sessions on navigating volatile geopolitical conditions.
Guest keynotes from chef and humanitarian José Andrés and humour-and-business expert Naomi Bagdonas brought the leadership content beyond the security bubble — a Gartner signature that some find refreshing and others find indulgent.
What to Expect Going Forward
The London edition (22–24 September) typically draws the European CISO audience and is worth considering as an alternative or complement, particularly if the National Harbor budget is a stretch.
Expect AI governance maturity models, identity threat detection and response, and continuous threat exposure management to dominate Gartner’s research agenda through 2027.
The Magic Quadrants and Market Guides released around the summit usually shape buying conversations for 12 months afterwards.
The Bottom Line
At roughly $4,000-plus per pass, Gartner SRM is one of the priciest events on the calendar — but for senior leaders, the analyst access alone often justifies the spend.
If you’re a new CISO, navigating a major architecture decision, or trying to translate AI risk into board-level language, this is one of the few events specifically engineered for that work.
Top Tip: book your one-to-one analyst meetings early; they fill within hours of opening.