NATO Edge 2022: NATO Edge 2022 Lotto Mons Expo Mons, Belgium, October 25-27, 2022

Conference website	https://natoedge.nato.int/
Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=natoedge2022
Submission deadline	July 11, 2022

Welcome to NATO Edge 2022 call for speakers submission site

Submit your proposal(s) to plenary keynotes and technical breakout sessions                                

Call for speakers is now closed.

Overview

The NCI Agency is seeking contributions from speakers from industry, academic and not-for-profit organizations for plenary keynotes or breakout sessions. This call is open to entities or individuals from the 30 NATO member countries only.

When: You are invited to submit your proposals for keynote talks and breakout session briefings by 23:59 UTC on 10 July 2022, with the exception of the Technical Breakout Sessions 'Collaborative architecting' and ' Collaborative Software Engineering' for which the proposal submission is open until 23:59 UTC 18 July 2022.

Notifications are expected no later than 27 August 2022.

What: Each submission needs to include the information described below. Only proposals compliant with the required format and with complete information will be considered for selection.

Selection criteria:

• Suitability to the programme assessed from the submitted proposal (based on “content merit and fitness”);
• Programmatic coherence within each thematic session and across the overall programme;
• Diversity of speakers

Speaker slots are neither reserved nor assigned prior to submission of proposals. Submissions that the NCI Agency Planning Team determines to be product pitches will be rejected.

Plenary Keynotes

Plenary keynotes are expected to contribute to the development of the NATO Edge 2022 theme Technology in Focus, its associated wider context in NATO and discussion points from a strategic or visionary viewpoint. The intent of plenary keynotes is for the invited speakers to share their vision, strategic thinking and, when possible, experience in topics supporting the theme or associated matters. The duration of a plenary keynote is 20 minutes, including a 5 minutes for questions and answers.

We are looking for solo speakers for keynote briefs/talks in the following areas:

• Innovative application of technology to defence use cases: Addressing how emerging and disruptive technologies primarily aimed at civilian use, such as space technologies, quantum computing, artificial intelligence or 5G, to name a few, are being investigated and adapted to address defence use cases and ultimately support NATO’s agenda.
• Digital transformation: Sharing visions, views and experiences with digital transformation in complex organizations. Desirable to address specifically how digital transformation can be implemented in the context of defence organizations.
• Innovative processes: Using new approaches to deploy technology and services more quickly or strengthen resilience, particularly in the defence or operational context, and/or how to collaborate on innovation activities – ideas and experiences in cutting through the classic red tape.
• Human capital: Attracting, recruiting and retaining top talent, while fostering innovation, resilience and performance through a culture of diversity and inclusion in the organization.

Technical Breakout Sessions

NATO Edge 2022 breakout sessions aim at promoting effective dialogue between a wide range of participants around specific topics related to technology and collaboration across the Alliance. Breakout sessions will run through five parallel tracks: Technology in Focus I and II, Technical Collaboration Opportunities, Business Opportunities, and How to do Business the NCI Agency. The three technical tracks offer numerous speaking opportunities.

Each session will have the format of a workshop with sequential briefs, where briefers can provide a 15-minute brief and answer few questions, or a technical panel moderated by the session chair where panellists will provide a very short brief and discuss the topic. The session chairs will coordinate details with the authors of selected proposals.

Technical breakout sessions should be as interactive as possible, engaging with the audience and aimed at provoking questions and triggering debate. We encourage you to discuss concepts, designs, generic solutions, sharing experience and ideas.

We are looking for speakers for technical breakout sessions in the following technical breakout session topic areas:

• Multi-domain operations: Addressing the concept from the perspective of enabling technologies and the challenges of deploying them in the battlefield. We are particularly interested in getting different views on how technologies can enable coordinated campaigns in all operational domains (land, maritime, air, cyber and space) at the speed and scale needed to gain advantage and accomplish the mission.
• Digital transformation: Discussing technologies in support of digital transformation in defence, governmental and/or multinational contexts.
• Secure online collaboration: Discussing the technical concepts and potential technologies needed to enable secure online collaboration in defence contexts, which are subject to additional requirements and constraints for the implementation of digital collaboration.
• New space technologies and concepts for ISR applications: Discussing new concepts and emerging technologies for space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance applications.
• Technologies for future operations: Discussing new technologies in support of future operations, with a focus on the use of emerging technologies primarily developed for civilian use.
• Artificial Intelligence for military operations: Discussing the use of AI in support of military applications and operations.
• New concepts in cyber security: Discussing new and/or innovative technical concepts in support of cyber security.
• Excellence in cyberspace learning: Addressing emerging concepts and technologies, such as digitization, augmented reality, high-performance wireless access networks, to name a few, that will enable the achievement of levels of excellence in education and training in an ever more dynamic defence environment.
• Collaborative architecting: Discussing, with examples, of collaborative architecting efforts between defence organizations and industry on defence concepts and associated enabling architectures, in the context of co-design activities to facilitate common architectures and faster technology adoption lifecycles.
• Collaborative software engineering: Discussing and demonstrating, in a workshop context, examples of collaborative software engineering activities between different organizations.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to industryrelations@ncia.nato.int.