What we avoided
A standalone cyber chapter would have competed with the networks its members already belong to, asked people to pick a side, and cut security off from the rest of GTA at exactly the point where it is most useful.
About
A guild, not a silo.
GTA Cyber exists because cybersecurity is a craft practised across every part of Global Tech Advocates, and crafts are better served by guilds than by departments.
The parent
Where we sit
Global Tech Advocates is the international grassroots tech community: more than 40,000 business leaders, experts and investors volunteering their time across 42 or more networks worldwide.
It is proudly independent, not-for-profit and volunteer-led. It works because it is designed for busy people on the frontline of the tech sector, and because the norm is to give first.
GTA Cyber is a guild within that structure, alongside the resource hubs GTA already runs on subjects such as net zero and disability. It is managed by Vivat Group on behalf of the wider organisation.
The model
Borrowed from engineering, not from org charts
The guild idea comes from how large engineering organisations keep specialist craft alive without breaking their delivery teams apart. It maps unusually well onto a volunteer network.
What we built instead
Members stay in their existing GTA network and keep their day jobs. The guild sits across those networks, so a question raised in one city can be answered by a practitioner in another.
Why it holds together
People join a guild because of what they do, not where they are. That shared craft is a stronger bond than geography, and it survives members changing employer, sector or country.
How it runs
Principles we intend to keep
- Give first. The GTA norm, and the reason the network works. The guild asks for time and expertise before it asks for anything else.
- No selling into the membership. Sponsors fund the programme. They do not get a list, a lead-gen pipeline, or a speaking slot dressed up as a session.
- Vendor-neutral by default. Guidance published by the guild names categories and practices rather than products, including our sponsors’ products.
- Practitioners set the agenda. What the guild works on is decided by the people doing the work, not by whoever is funding it that year.
- Light on process. Busy people on the frontline is the design constraint. If something needs a committee to happen, it probably should not happen.
Still forming, deliberately.
The guild is new. Its remit, its programme and its leads are being shaped now by the people joining it, which is the point rather than a caveat. If you practise security inside the GTA world, this is the moment where taking part actually changes what it becomes.
Take part