When the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) changed its name last fall, it did so to represent the agency’s transformation from imaging and mapping to include the varied skills it uses to produce geospatial-intelligence (GEOINT). Technology and business largely enable this transformation, according to the agency’s director, Lt. Gen. James R. Clapper Jr., USAF (Ret.). NGA is continuing to support its industry relationships by sponsoring the second annual
NGA Industry Day on May 26, 2004, at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) headquarters in Chantilly, Virginia.
Helping to bring the event together is AFCEA International, headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. NGA sought out the partnership with AFCEA because of the association's connections with industry, says Steve Ritchey, AFCEA’s director of intelligence. And NGA recognizes that AFCEA helps build bridges between government requirements and industry’s solutions, he explains.
Unlike last year’s event, this year’s conference will be conducted at the Top Secret/SI/TK level to allow NGA to be more open about its goals and to provide industry with opportunities to prepare and respond to NGA’s emerging needs.
According to Ritchey, the event’s theme, “National Security, Geospatial-Intelligence and Information Technology: Beyond the Next Two Years,” was chosen to emphasize GEOINT’s pervasiveness across the intelligence community as well as its importance to national security and information technology.
Complementing the conference theme are top level guest speakers and panelists from the intelligence and homeland security communities. “The mix of panels and speakers from different organizations reflects how broad the agency’s scope is throughout the intelligence community,” Ritchey notes.
Gen. Clapper will open the conference with a discussion of the agency’s future vision that will be followed by a question-and-answer segment. The second featured speaker, Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, USAF, director, National Security Agency (NSA), will discuss how geospatial and signals intelligence collaboration enables intelligence community integration. The final speaker of the day, Lt. Gen. Patrick M. Hughes, USA (Ret.), assistant secretary for information analysis, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), will speak on the importance of GEOINT to homeland security.
Four panel sessions scheduled throughout the conference focus on the homeland security applications of GEOINT. In the first session, panelists from NGA, NRO, the U.S. House Defense Appropriations Committee, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, examine GEOINT’s part in the national security strategy. Meeting national security demands through business opportunities and challenges that arise from adapting technology also will be addressed.
The topic of the second panel is the technical and business challenges of modernizing and facilitating horizontal integration of agencies and their information. Panelists include representatives from NGA, the U.S. State Department, NRO, the Defense Intelligence Agency, DHS, the CIA and NSA.
The third panel will look at the role of GEOINT in the new and demanding homeland security context. Panelists describe the barriers to ensuring information at the national as well as the local and first responder levels. They also outline how government and industry can work together to meet the requirements of an expanding customer base. This panel features senior representatives from NGA, DHS, the Transportation Security Administration and the Terrorist Threat Integration Center.
Conference attendees who submitted questions in advance about NGA’s future technology requirements will hear the answers from the agency’s senior directorate leaders at the final panel session. Although the deadline for submitting questions has passed, attendees will have the opportunity to communicate with guest speakers and panelists during the luncheon and at the networking reception held at the end of the event.
Although the conference focus is national security’s relationship to GEOINT, its overlying purpose—for NGA to educate industry about its needs—is equally as important, Ritchey points out. “NGA is providing a service to industry by keeping them apprised of where NGA is headed,” Ritchey says. “And the reason why AFCEA is involved is a prime example of what the organization does: It exists as a service between both government and industry.”
Because of security requirements, registration for the event closes on May 18, 2004. To register for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s Industry Day or for additional information on the conference, visit
http://www.afcea.org/nga/default.asp.
