Last summer, a conversation took place between a group of security professionals from EclecticIQ and Booz Allen Hamilton. The topic was straightforward: The Hague is home to NATO, Europol, the Dutch NCSC, and The Hague Security Delta - the largest security cluster in Europe. It is also home to major global enterprises, financial institutions, and critical national infrastructure that represent some of the most significant concentrations of cyber risk on the continent. By any measure, The Hague is one of the most important security hubs in the world.
And yet it had no grassroots community event to reflect that status. No accessible, practitioner-led space where the community could come together, share real knowledge, and connect outside of a commercial setting... and notably, no BSides event.
The question was simple. Why had nobody done this? What followed was equally simple.
We decided we would.
The Responsibility Falls on Companies Like Ours
EclecticIQ is a Dutch-born, native cyber company. We were not built by a private equity rollup or spun out of a technology conglomerate. We were founded in the Netherlands by people who came from the security community, who understood it from the inside, and who built a business around solving problems that actually matter to cyber defenders. That origin shapes how we think about our responsibilities - not just to our customers and our shareholders, but to the broader ecosystem that the entire industry depends on.
When we looked at that gap in The Hague, we did not see a sponsorship opportunity. We saw a problem that we had both the ability and the obligation to help fix. Organizations like ours - native to this industry, born and headquartered in the Netherlands, embedded in the European security landscape - are exactly the ones who should be stepping up.
If not us, then who?
Our CEO Cody Barrow felt the same way. Cody is one of the founding organizers of BSides Den Haag and has been personally involved in building this event from the ground up. That level of commitment from a CEO says something about the kind of company EclecticIQ is. This is not a logo on a banner. It is genuine investment of time, energy and conviction from the top of the organization down.
Why Grassroots Community Matters
Having spent nearly two decades in this industry, one thing has always been clear to me. The best security professionals are not shaped solely by certifications or formal training. They are shaped by community. By the conversations that happen at the edges of a conference room, the knowledge shared freely between peers, the willingness of experienced practitioners to bring the next generation up with them.
That culture does not sustain itself. It requires deliberate investment from people and organizations who recognize its value and are willing to show up for it. Grassroots events are where that investment becomes tangible. They are where early-career professionals get their first platform. Where defenders share tradecraft that never makes it into a vendor white paper. Where students and junior practitioners get to sit in the same room as some of the most experienced people in the field and realize that this community is open, accessible and worth being part of.
That last point matters more than it might appear. The security industry faces a persistent talent shortage. We talk about it constantly. But talent does not appear from thin air. It is developed, encouraged and retained through exactly the kind of community infrastructure that events like BSides provide. If we want the next generation of cyber defenders to be well-prepared, well-connected and committed to this field, we need to build the environments that make that possible. BSides Den Haag is one part of that.
The commercial conference circuit serves an important purpose, but it cannot do this job on its own. Large events are expensive to attend, often inaccessible to people early in their careers, and shaped by the priorities of their sponsors. BSides events exist to fill the space that commercial events leave open. Low cost, practitioner-led, built entirely by volunteers who believe the community is worth their time. No vendor agenda. No polished keynotes detached from operational reality. Just practitioners talking to practitioners about the things that actually matter.
Building Something That Lasts
The Hague Security Delta has spent years developing one of the most impressive security ecosystems in Europe. The city attracts serious talent, hosts institutions that shape global security policy, and sits at the centre of a corporate landscape that makes the cyber risk concentration here genuinely significant. It deserves a community event that matches that status and serves the people who make that ecosystem what it is.
That is what we are building. Not a one-off event, but the foundation of something that grows year on year and belongs entirely to the community here. BSides Den Haag should outlast the people who started it. That is the point.
A number of the EclecticIQ team have given significant time outside of their normal responsibilities to help make this happen alongside our co-founders from Booz Allen Hamilton. I am proud of what the whole group has built and genuinely excited about what comes next.
The First One. Don't Miss It.
BSides Den Haag takes place on 19th March in The Hague. We are expecting over 100 attendees for a full day of talks covering threat intelligence, offensive security, and more. If you are part of the security community here, this is your event. Come along, meet the people building it, and be part of what we hope becomes an annual fixture in the European security calendar.
