Risk on the Rock 2024! What a fantastic event and a marvellous attendance!

Last week GACO Gibraltar Association of Compliance Officers hosted its biennial Risk on the Rock event with international and local speakers. We had an attendance of 120, mainly local guests, on the fantastic venue of the Sunborn Gibraltar Yacht Hotel Resort!

We had the unique Steve Giles as a Master of Ceremony who guided us through this half-day event, once the attendees had enjoyed their lunch and had the opportunity to network with each other. 

The conference was addressed by the Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, the Hon Nigel Feetham KC MP. Minister Feetham reiterated the need for Gibraltar to continue to remain compliant with local and international #legislation & #regulations. He highlighted that "#Gib cannot take the foot of the pedal in #combating #financial #crime".

Charlie Mcmurdie was the first of the international speakers of the day to take the stage and to enlighten us on what are the current #cyber #threats and #opportunities for local #businesses, future #data #threats, liability, and legislation. The audience was astonished about the quantity of real live scenarios and cases that were shared in the limited time available to Charlie and everyone took notes to make sure their businesses will not be affected by similar threats. 

Next on stage was serial entrepreneur and writer Ajay Chowdhury. He delivered an inspiring presentation on #AI #technology and its business implications, likely future technology risks and how to protect ourselves, where the technology is going and how to use AI positively. The key message was "The #Future is #already #here!"

After a short coffee break, where participants of the conference could collect GACO bags, beach towels and drinking bottles in celebration of GACO's 20th anniversary, the event continued with two further speakers. 

Next on stage was writer and presenter Alexis Conran that addressed the audience on an interactive session and who gave an insight into #scams and what the future looks like, the influence of AI. #Awareness and #education of the dangers and how to avoid them. Alexis presented the audience with practical and effective tools on how to protect themselves and their businesses from current and potential future scams. 

Before all speakers were called on stage to #answer #questions from the audience, Alan Pereira, CIO from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, presented the views of the local regulator on cyber threats, AI and how a modern #financial #regulator of choice monitors current developments and sensibly implements new technologies into their supervisory activities and when assessing their licensees. 

Finally, after the closing words by Steve Giles, the speakers and attendees were invited to drinks at the Sapphire Bar. 

GACO would like to issue a special "Thank You" to all the speakers that made this event a success and to Chas Foster the main organiser of the event!