3 Reasons to Attend Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Air Defense Summit

As rapid advancements in technology continue to reshape the modern battlefield, the U.S. Department of the Air Force is racing to stay at the forefront of technology development and maintain a competitive advantage.

The Potomac Officers Club will host its highly anticipated 2024 Air Defense Summit on June 23. At this engagement, you will have the opportunity to dive into the USAF’s most notable technological endeavors and the ways in which the service branch is reorganizing to address the challenges of modern warfighting. Here are three reasons why you should attend:

Learn From Top Air Defense Experts

Keynote Speakers

The 2024 Air Defense Summit will feature an exciting lineup of USAF leaders, including three confirmed keynote speakers:

• Melissa Dalton, under secretary of the Air Force
• Venice Goodwine, chief information officer of the Air Force
• Dr. Timothy Grayson, special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force for mission-centered analysis and operational imperatives.

Panelists

The event will also present four panel discussions that will bring together Air Force officials and private sector defense experts for lively conversations surrounding various topics, such as information technology, artificial intelligence and more.

Accelerating with IT Panel

• Bob Ritchie, chief technology officer of SAIC (moderator)
• James Crocker, chief technology officer of BESPIN within the Air Force
• Col. Frank Biancardi, deputy director of the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System Cross-Functional Team
• Pat Kumashiro, senior advisor for F-35 sustainment within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment

Drive USAF Decision Advantage: Practical Use Cases for AI/ML Panel

• Corey Hulen, chief technology officer and co-founder of Mattermost (moderator)
• LTC Timothy Heaton, AMC 618TH AOC within the U.S. Air Force
• COL Matt “Nomad” Strohmeyer, director of Global Information Dominance Experiments for the U.S. Department of Defense
• Leslie Shing, technical staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory
• Maj. Matthew Jordan, chief of product for Platform One for the U.S. Air Force

Harnessing Technology, Science and Innovation for Force Readiness in Multi-domain Operations Panel

• Scott Ariotti, senior program manager at Capgemini Government Solutions (moderator)
• Lora Muchmore, assistant deputy under secretary of the Air Force and management and assistant deputy chief management officer for the U.S. Department of the Air Force

Maximizing Impact: Strategies to Replicate Successful Air Force Case Management Solutions Panel

• Matt Beran, industry lead for global defense and intelligence at Appian (moderator)
• Daniel O’Connor, deputy director for AF Legal Information Services for the Disciplinary Case Management System of the U.S. Air Force 
• Justin Soderlund, special agent, USAF ORION program manager for the Air Force
• Edwin Herchert, branch chief for mission applications, enterprise physical security, Pentagon Force Protection Agency
• Laura Parsons, managing director for DOD solutions at Maximus

Get a Closer Look at Key Air Force Initiatives

At last year’s edition of the event, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall discussed the service branch’s growing focus on contested logistics and the need to “get used to the idea of operating under fire effectively,” a challenge he plans to address with cutting-edge technologies.

Derek Tournear, director of the Space Development Agency, gave a detailed overview of the agency’s philosophy of spiral development – the concept of working on different stages of different projects concurrently – and updated the audience on the status of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture.

This year, you will have the opportunity to gain even more insights on a variety of DAF priorities. Some areas that may be explored at the summit include:

• Great power competition
• The Next Generation Air Dominance program 
• Artificial intelligence
• Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2
• And many more

Network With Fellow GovCon Leaders

At the 2024 Air Defense Summit, you will have the opportunity to connect with executives from a variety of government contracting enterprises during periodic networking sessions. Potomac Officers Club summits gather hundreds of attendees, giving you the chance to exchange insights with a vast array of GovCon experts. Some of the companies participating in this year’s Air Defense Summit include:

• SAIC
• Mattermost
• Capgemini
• Merlin
• Appian
• Maximus
• Booz Allen Hamilton

Along with our sponsors, representatives from a wide spectrum of GovCon enterprises will convene at the event. Leidos, Ultra Intelligence & Communications and Oracle Cloud are just a few of the many other companies that have attended our summits.

Don’t miss out on all the benefits the 2024 Air Defense Summit has to offer! To gain access to this elite event, visit this page and secure your spot before tickets run out.