Industry experts from the technology sector and business accelerators will explore how to adapt current innovative practices to the NATO environment on Day 2 of NITEC17.
"There are ground-breaking ideas that have already proven themselves when it comes to tackling new defence challenges and speeding promising technology solutions to support defence objectives," said NCI Agency General Manager Koen Gijsbers, "NITEC17 will be a unique opportunity to hear about these approaches directly from the experts who are implementing them, and how they can apply to NATO."
A discussion on "Innovation as a Process" will highlight case studies in which panellists successfully implemented an innovative approach to solve a defence challenge. Panellists include Dr. Kai Martius, Chief Technology Officer of Secunet; Mr Scott Johnson, Skype Enterprise Engineering, Microsoft Corporation; and Mr Chris Barnett, Chief Technology Officer of General Dynamics Information Technology.
Dr Greg Edwards, Director of Infrastructure Services at NCI Agency will moderate the discussion.
"When we think about innovation, we sometimes forget to fully exploit the technology we already have," Dr Edwards said, "While new products and services are certainly important, it is also critical to bring new thinking to how we do what we do. As NATO seeks to optimize enterprise services to gain efficiency benefits, we are keen to learn how to best use what we have and if it is practical to take incremental steps to innovate. The distinguished technical experts on our panel will describe what innovative approaches they see to solve a problem, and explore what NATO could learn from them."
A second panel on "Accelerating Innovation," will feature representatives of business accelerators designed to bring together promising start-ups, security experts, mentors, and investors to spur innovative solutions to the defence marketplace. Mr Paul MacGregor, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Leonardo's Security and Information Systems; Mr Allen Dillon, Managing Director Cyber, New Brunswick Accelerator; and Mr Jeff Ryder, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Glacier Point, will discuss their approach and how it could apply in the NATO context.
Mr Steve Grundman, the George Lund Fellow for Emerging Defense Challenges at the Atlantic Council's Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, will moderate.
"Innovation' is today's watchword for how the US and its allies are going to sustain competitive military advantage into the 21st century," Mr Grundman said. "To achieve that ambition, our institutions are also going to have to innovate the way our acquisition systems engage industry's best. Our panel on 'Accelerating Innovation' focuses on how business accelerators and incubators can serve acquisition."
For Day 1 overview click here.
The NCI Agency Annual Conference and AFCEA TechNet International (NITEC17) will take place from 24-26 April in Ottawa, Canada, with the theme of "Sharpening NATO's Technological Edge: Adaptive Partnerships and the Innovative Power of Alliance Industry."
To register and view the full agenda, please visit www.nitec.nato.int.