Secure your table at the White Hat Ball 2023 in aid of NSPCC Childline!
The White Hat Ball Committee are delighted to invite you back to the annual White Hat Ball, in aid of NSPCC Childline! Taking place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London on Friday 27th January 2023.
The evening
Champagne reception in the Westbourne Suite
…
Sumptuous three-course dinner in the Ballroom with celebrity host
…
Live auction
…
After party with live band
…
Carriages at 2am
The White Hat Ball is the highlight of the Information Security and Risk industry event calendar and we are excited to be returning to a face-to-face event! The evening offers the chance to have an incredible evening with industry colleagues, being entertained from start to finish, all in the name of a fantastic cause.
Click here to book your tickets 2023 White Hat Ball Booking Form
A message from our sponsor Cado Security
Cado Security was founded in 2020 to empower security teams with a smarter and faster way to investigate and respond to cyber incidents in the cloud. Data is moving to the cloud. Cyber attackers are moving to the cloud. Yet when security teams need to investigate a threat in a modern environment, it’s incredibly complex and time consuming. The Cado Response platform automates data capture and processing across cloud and container environments to take the complexity out of cloud inventions and enable security teams to respond at cloud speed.
Cado Security is pleased to sponsor the White Hat ball and stand beside Childline in their work to support young people in the UK.
White Hat Ball 2022 announcement- new date- 25th March
We want to provide an update about our upcoming White Hat Ball which was due to be held on Friday 28th January at the Lancaster London.
We have been closely monitoring government guidelines around live events, alongside the ever-changing landscape posed by COVID, and have taken the decision to re-schedule the event for Friday 25th March at the Lancaster London.
We feel that this decision allows us to safeguard the health of our guests, whilst also ensuring the event can be as successful as possible.
If you have purchased a table or tickets to the Ball you will already have been contacted by a member of our Events team- if you have not been contacted please do get in touch with Robyn at Robyn.Stevenson@NSPCC.org.uk.
We really do appreciate your continued support of White Hat and Childline through what has been a difficult time and your support allows us to continue answering calls from children who need our help. We’re really excited to be back in March 2022 and do hope to see you there.
vArmour and White Hat- a partnership
vArmour, founded in 2011, exists to serve the modern enterprise. Businesses are now reliant on
thousands of applications, many of them distributed across geographies, users, domains, and
infrastructure. These applications create relationships and dependencies between applications, users,
devices, and data, many of them unknown or otherwise obscured. Discovering, observing, and
controlling digital relationships is the next frontier to successfully operating and securing the enterprise.
We’re pleased to be a part of the White Hat community and to support the work of Childline who
provide a friendly ear to children across the UK who may find themselves under stress and needing
someone to talk to. Childline, like us, believe that relationships matter.
Thank you to vArmour for sponsoring this year’s White Hat Ball Afterparty and helping us to raise money for Childline
A message from our 2022 sponsor Qualys
We are delighted that Qualys are sponsoring our 2022 White Hat Ball in aid of Childline. With their support we hope to raise over £200,000 for this vital children’s service at next year’s Ball.
We spoke to Paul Baird of Qualys about why they have offered their generous support.
“Qualys was founded in 1999 as one of the first SaaS security companies, leading the way with Vulnerability Management, we have expanded our portfolio to over 22 applications within a single platform. Qualys supports and, in some cases, were founding members of many associations around the global (CSA US &Italy, CESIN France, CIIsec in the UK).
The association with the White Hat Ball is different , it is an opportunity for Qualys to give something back to children that desperately need help and give them somewhere to turn too, and it is our honour to be part of this amazing event bringing the industry together once again.
It has been another challenging year for everybody but even more so for children across the UK, with the support given from Qualys ChildLine in the last 5 years has been able to answer over 10,000 calls, making a potentially life-changing impact. Childline has been running a 24 hour service for 35 years providing support and guidance to children, with events like the White Hat Ball it will be able to keep helping children until every child feels safe.”
Secure your table at the White Hat Ball 2022 in aid of Childline
Tables are going fast for the annual White Hat Ball in aid of Childline, taking place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London on Friday 28 January 2022. Take a look at what’s in store:
The evening
Champagne reception in the Westbourne Suite
…
Sumptuous three-course dinner in the Ballroom with celebrity host
…
Live auction
…
After party with live band The Phat Cats
…
Carriages at 2am
The White Hat Ball is the highlight of the Information Security and Risk industry event calendar and we are excited to be returning to a face-to-face event! The evening offers the chance to have an incredible evening with industry colleagues, being entertained from start to finish, all in the name of a fantastic cause.
Photography by CPG Photography Ltd. 
Photography by CPG Photography Ltd. Photography by CPG Photography Ltd. 
White Hat Ball and the Royal Lancaster
Since 2012 the White Hat Ball has been held at the stunning mid-century Royal Lancaster Hotel at Hyde Park. Regular attendees of the Ball will attest to the strong partnership between the hotel and the Ball, as the event has grown into a sell-out gala of over 650 guests in the Cyber Security industry.
We caught up with Royal Lancaster’s Deputy Director of Events William Harding, and Business Development Manager Petya Lazarova, who are working with the NSPCC and the White Hat committee to shape a stand-out White Hat Ball 2022 in these unfamiliar times.
Hi William and Petya! Thanks for joining us. What has the impact of the pandemic been to the hotel and has the reopening been a success?
Petya: The pandemic had a huge impact on the hospitality and events industries as a whole and it has taken patience and resilience to get where we are at the moment. Royal Lancaster London closed its doors during the first lockdown and re-opened in August 2020. Although we were unable to support individual business and leisure guests due to the lockdown restrictions, we were happy to accommodate those who needed us during this time. We also implemented a 50% NHS discount to support our key workers.
From events point of view we quickly adjusted to the new normal. We were very lucky to host several Virtual/Hybrid events in line with the Government restrictions, which helped us not to lose momentum in the industry!
Will guests notice any new developments at the Royal Lancaster since the last White Hat Ball in January 2020?
Petya: We are constantly working on raising the bar at the hotel! During the first lockdown, all of our contracted events were cancelled and we took the chance to build a XR Mixed and Virtual Reality Studio in partnership with our in house AV provider – 4Wall. We became the first 5 Star hotel in Central London to be able to offer this high end equipment and supported several clients reaching to large audiences all over the world. On the way back to live events, we are working on permanently positioning our XR studio to the 19th floor!
How are you ensuring the safety of guests at the hotel in these unprecedented times?
Petya: The health and safety of our guests and team members is our top priority. We have reviewed and updated all our operational procedures to ensure the risk of infection is minimized. Some of the actions we have taken are – hand sanitizers are distributed all over the hotel, all team members are being tested twice a week and our temperature is checked on arrival. We are also taking the temperature of guests checking in. In order to reduce the touch points during a stay with us we have become cashless hotel and each guest can use a digital key for their bedroom. We have ensured that we have plenty of PPE available and even more regular cleaning of our common guest areas.
William you have hosted the White Hat Ball for many years- what is your personal highlight of the event?
William: Meeting Esther Rantzen and also working with the amazing team at the NCPCC!
Thank you for speaking to us
Bookings are now open for the White Hat Ball 2022 on the 29th January at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, in aid of Childline.
Royal Lancaster Hotel facts
- The hotel opened in 1967 and was initially called “Royal Lancaster”
- The brand new “Royal Lancaster London” hotel crest features a stylized rose, the symbol of the House of Lancaster.
- The hotel’s “Nine Kings Suite” is yet another nod at history, referring to the line of nine English kings that followed immediately after John of Gaunt, first Duke of Lancaster
- The “Westbourne Suite” takes its name from what’s underneath the hotel… the small river Westbourne! Originating in Hampstead Heath, this brook used to flow into the Thames. It entered Hyde Park at what is now the Serpentine – which was formed in 1730 by building a dam across the Westbourne on the wishes of Queen Caroline, wife of George II, to beautify the royal park
- The iconic mid-century tower was originally built as an office block to house the Rank Organisation- a huge British entertainment conglomerate of film-makers
- The tower was designed by the famous architect Richard Seifert (1910 – 2001), who was extremely prolific during the 60s and 70s. No other architect is responsible for as many buildings in London (not even Sir Christopher Wren!).
- The block was repurposed as in the 1960’s London had scarce hotel space that could not keep up with growing numbers of tourists. The UK Government therefore decided to award £1000 grants for every new hotel room built, and the rest is history
White Hat Ball 2022 – Bookings now open!
The White Hat Ball Committee are delighted to invite you to the annual White Hat Ball, in aid of Childline, at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London, on 28 January 2022.
The White Hat Ball is the highlight of the Information Security and Risk industry event calendar and we are excited to be returning to a face-to-face event. The event offers the chance to have an incredible evening with industry colleagues, being entertained from start to finish, all in the name of a fantastic cause.
Find out more and book your tickets here!
White Hat’s One Unforgettable Day- stories from the front line
This year White Hat’s One Unforgettable Day campaign raised £70,718 and successfully funded Childline for a whole day- 29 January 2021. Read on to hear about the life changing impact that Childline had during those 24 hours.
29 January 2021 is now a day that 650 children will never forget. It was a day where children were able to talk to us about whatever they needed to, where 41% talked to us about mental health, 10% about suicidal thoughts and feelings and 9% about family relationships. It was a day where 5, 488 young people viewed the Childline website Information and advice pages, with the most popular page being Your rights and there were 5, 144 Message Board pageviews. It was a day where children from all walks of life spoke up, where 76% were girls, 20% were boys, and 3% were Transgender, and where the majority were 12-15 year-olds.
For many children reaching out to Childline, 29 January 2021 became the day they found a listening ear, saw a way forward and took back control.
Our volunteers are the beating heart of what we do at the NSPCC, and we hope these first-hand experiences of Childline counsellors demonstrate the power of funding this vital service:
“I had a 1-to-1 chat with a 15 year-old girl was struggling with her mental health. She revealed this was mostly due to the excessive workloads that her teachers had set her since the latest lockdown. She complained this extra work had been eating into her free time and it had left her feeling stressed and panicked. The girl told me how she’d wanted to bring this up with her form tutor, but didn’t know how and they worried they wouldn’t be taken seriously. I reflected how well this girl had done to express themselves with Childline already, and suggested she might want to transfer some of these feelings in an email to her teacher. She agreed this was a good idea and so for the rest of the chat we began crafting a message together” A Childline counsellor
“I had a phone call with a 13 year-old girl, who was feeling anxious and upset about the pandemic. She told me she’d heard stories of rising Covid cases in the UK, and couldn’t help fearing for her loved ones’ safety, particularly her grandparents who she was missing very much. She hadn’t spoken out about her feelings, she told me, as she didn’t want anyone to worry about her. I praised the young person for speaking out to Childline and reminded her that she was not alone. Together, we explored the Calm Zone section on the Childline website and identified some things she could do to manage her anxious feelings, like breathing or distraction exercises – we even practiced one of these exercises on the call. Finally, I signposted the young person to our message boards, where other children and young people have been sharing their experiences of the pandemic. She agreed to take a look after our call and thanked me for my time”. A Childline counsellor
“I had a 1-to-1 chat with a 13 year-old girl who told me she was being bullied online by several girls from her school. She said these girls had added her to a group chat and made fun of her appearance – they’d called her ‘emo’, ‘weird’ and ‘depressed’. One of the girls even made a meme about her and posted it on social media. The girl revealed that they’d since managed to get the meme removed, but that it was too late – the ‘damage had already been done’. She told me how the experience had left her feeling confused, humiliated and isolated, even more so now that schools were shut. Her biggest worry, she told me, was that the bullying might continue in person once schools re-opened. I reflected that no one deserved to be treated this way, and that they had done the right thing in speaking out about this. I asked her what it had felt like to share their story with Childline, and she said it ‘felt like someone cared for me and was interested in my life’. She said it had given her the courage to speak with her mentor during her next online session, and she agreed to come back and let us know how this goes” A Childline counsellor
The White Hat Ball 2022 hopes to raise even more money for Childline. The Ball will take place at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London on Friday 29th January 2022.
To find out more please email Robyn Stevenson at Robyn.Stevenson@NSPCC.org.uk
