What are a few great reasons to circle March 11-12 on the calendar for AFCEA’s TechNet Emergence conference at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, Va.?
The View Over the Horizon
First, the TechNet Emergence conference is focusing on the emerging technologies of our time – very much aligned with the White House’s list of critical and emerging technologies that they updated last week. Think supply chain, data integrity, IoT cybersecurity, and quantum computing – and how the use of those technologies will evolve over the next three years across the nation for the federal government and private sector.
But second, the conference delves into the categories of “horizon” technologies that will take center stage over the next three to eight years – things like AI, biotech, semiconductors and microelectronics, and next-gen telecom.
It’s hard enough to grasp the complexities of just one or two of these, and the promise of the TechNet Emergence conference is to provide the ground-level truth on the status and promise of each, the connections and interdependencies across them, and where the nation is looking to go with them.
Hear From the Feds in Charge
To make that happen, TechNet Emergence is featuring some of the top policy creators in those emerging and horizon tech areas. Don’t miss, among many others:
Keynoter Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering;
Sharothi Pikar, Deputy CDAO for Acquisition and Acquisition Executive, DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office;
Brian Hack, former Deputy CIO and Deputy Director for Information Technology Exercise, Central Intelligence Agency;
Jamie Holcombe, AFCEA Technology Committee; Chief Information Officer, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office;
Tess deBlanc Knowles, Staff Associate for Technology Policy and Strategy, Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships, U.S. National Science Foundation; and
Joshua Marcuse, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Google Public Sector
Why TechNet Emergence is a Can’t-Miss
We caught up with Duane Blackburn, Science and Technology Policy Lead at the MITRE Center for Data-Driven Policy, for a chat about why the TechNet Emergence conference is a must-attend both for feds and private sector tech professionals. Here’s what he had to say…
Q – It looks like there’s plenty here for both the military and civilian sides of the government. How do these technologies fit in?
Blackburn: We’re at a crossroads because there’s a handful of emerging technologies that have huge potential. We’ve run across these types of major innovations multiple times throughout the years – we had the transistor, computers, internet, wireless, etc. But now, there are several world-changing technologies all happening at the same time. We need to collectively understand that what we do now with these technologies will drive national security and economic prosperity for the next several decades as these technologies combine.
Q – What’s the ultimate goal of the TechNet Emergence conference?
Blackburn: We want to enhance collaboration between the public and private sectors – not just military but also DHS, FBI, you name it across the interagency landscape, as well academia, venture capital, and industry. We’re enhancing not only the whole-of-nation collaboration needed for each technology, but across the technologies. That’s really what we’re trying to do with this event.
Q – What’s the best reason for people to attend the TechNet Emergence conference?
Blackburn: Meeting your peers or potential peers, so that you can work together to advance the nation’s capabilities. This is not a typical technical conference where people get up on a whiteboard and argue over equations, and it’s not a sales venue where people are going to be meeting their quotas. This event is strategic in nature with people talking about technologies’ capabilities, discussing their plans, forging partnerships, and trying to reach consensus on what the nation needs to do and how we can collaboratively get there with the most important emerging and horizon technologies.
See you next month at AFCEA’s TechNet Emergence conference at the Hyatt Regency in Reston, Va., on March 11 and 12.
