Engage With USGIF Working Groups

USGIF’s various Working Groups as well as its Tradecraft & Professional Development Committee will gather August 27 for the first annual USGIF Working Group Summit. This day-long event, to be held at the new Trajectory Event Center, is open to all and offers a valuable opportunity to network among various specializations within the GEOINT Community.

“We’re planning to have a very interactive session,” said USGIF Vice President of Programs Ronda Schrenk. “This summit is open to anyone in the geospatial community who would like to participate in discussions that set the course for what USGIF Working Groups focus on over the next 12 to 18 months.”

The morning will feature a joint keynote by Zach Jett, Acquisition Agility Champion at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and Dr. Roy Pettis, Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Acquisition, Procurement, and Facilities at ODNI.

“Just over a year ago, ODNI announced five strategic initiatives to evolve business practices and lead the Intelligence Community into next decade, and one is acquisition agility,” Schrenk said. “Zach and Roy have been working tirelessly with the community to identify how to evolve the acquisition and procurement cycle to best meet national security needs. Their presentation will provide an update on their progress and offer attendees the opportunity to provide input on the way forward.”  

Following the keynote, each USGIF Working Group as well as the Tradecraft & Professional Development Committee will provide a Flash Talk on its specific initiatives. In its presentation, the committee plans to address the ever-expanding reach of geospatial technology.

“There is a newly developing geospatial revolution that goes beyond commercial remote sensing,” said Committee Chair Michael Hauck. “We observe that geospatial technologies are increasingly employed in the commercial world, which creates new opportunities within our community for professional development that extends beyond our traditional notions of GEOINT tradecraft.”

The agenda will also include a discussion led by USGIF Chairman of the Board The Honorable Jeffrey K. Harris regarding the potential establishment of a new working group focused on intellectual property and data rights. The proposed group would engage with industry, academic, and commercial users of data to understand and share expert knowledge of data assets as well as to understand best practices to promote wider use, improve usability and quality, and identify opportunity for improved commercial use of data and services.

Throughout the day, an easel for each Working Group and Committee will be available for participants to provide feedback. The agenda will then end with roundtable discussions.

“This is a great opportunity to collaborate across the Working Groups on similar projects and outcomes as well as to take a fresh look with broader community input at what each group should be working toward,” Schrenk said.

She added that even those who might not have the time to actively participate in a USGIF Working Group can further the discussion by informing goals for future Working Group-hosted workshops, GEOINT Symposium breakout sessions, and networking events.

“This is the first time USGIF Committees and Working Groups have come together to discuss what we have done, what we are doing now, and what we should do collectively to advance the tradecraft,” Hauck said. “For this reason, it is an historic event that we don’t want to miss.”

• Click here to learn more and to register for the Working Group Summit.