Held the second Tuesday of every other month, GEOINTeraction Tuesday is a casual networking event where you can develop new relationships, exchange ideas and discover business opportunities. Each event features a guest speaker from the Defense, Intelligence or Homeland Security Community who shares their views on current issues and answers audience questions.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Jordan Fuhr at jordan.fuhr@usgif.org.

Next GEOINTeraction Tuesday

Sept. 14, 2010: Mr. Paul R. Weise, Director, Office of Geospatial Intelligence Management, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Maggiano’s Little Italy
2001 International Dr, McLean, VA, 22102-4605

Past Events

July 13, 2010 – Mr. James R. Martin, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (Portfolio, Programs, and Resources), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence

On Tuesday, July 13, Mr. James R. Martin, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (Portfolio, Programs, and Resources), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, spoke at the bi-monthly GEOINTeraction Tuesday networking event. Martin is responsible for executive oversight of numerous intelligence programs across the armed services and defense agencies. He focused his remarks around the future of ISR with respect to traditional warfare tactics and counterintelligence, pointing out the challenges and commonalities of both. He also addressed the changes ISR will have during withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, specifically due to the pace of withdrawal and how ISR will be redistributed. Mr. Martin also highlighted the shifting emphasis to new sensors, airborne surveillance and LiDAR being deployed next year for counterinsurgency tactics. He also discussed how Secretary of Defense Robert Gates plans to “normalize” the ISR Task Force and the potential impact. He also reminded the audience that all of these topics and more would be covered in the Defense Intelligence Information Enterprise (DI2E) day during the GEOINT 2010 Symposium, Nov. 1-4, in New Orleans, LA. Following his briefing, audience members were given the chance to ask Mr. Martin questions and interact with colleagues.

Learn more about Mr. Martin

May 11, 2010 – Ms. Michele Weslander Quaid, DNI Senior Representative to the ISR Task Force

On Tuesday, May 11, Ms. Michele Weslander Quaid, DNI senior representative to the ISR Task Force, spoke to USGIF Members during its GEOINTeraction Tuesday event. During her informative speech, she gave members a useful update on what the ISR Task Force is doing, what are its needs, and how to get involved to help.In her current role, Ms. Weslander Quaid focuses on information sharing and collaboration issues while identifying gaps within information, currently focused on Afghanistan. Having worked closely with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), she stressed the importance of getting useful intelligence into the hands of our Allied forces as well as nontraditional partners in Afghanistan by using one general network for sharing, such as the Afghan Mission Network. She also highlighted how important tagging GEOINT to a particular area can be to information sharing and that input and output standards of this should be up to par with NATO’s. Emphasizing the need to continue dialogue on information sharing offline as well as using open intelligence for counterterrorism and counterinsurgency tactics, Ms. Weslander Quaid noted the that stability operations in could be much more successful in this way in Afghanistan. She closed her remarks by stressing the importance of keeping U.S. intelligence competitive and innovative through not only information sharing but also efforts to remove some restrictions on the commercial industry. USGIF members were then given a chance to ask questions and network with Ms. Weslander Quaid.

Learn more about Michele R. Weslander Quaid

March 9, 2010 – Mr. Jim Ward, Army GEOINT Office, Senior Army Operations Advisor to Director of NGA

Photos from the March event

On March 9, USGIF hosted its bimonthly GEOINTeraction Tuesday event with guest speaker Mr. James J. Ward, Senior Army Operations Advisor to the Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Army Geospatial-Intelligence Office. Mr. Ward is responsible for oversight and management of the planning, coordination, liaison, programming, execution, and evaluation of all aspects of Army geospatial intelligence collection planning and operations in response to operational and expeditionary Army requirements. Ward spoke to over 30 USGIF Members, starting off with his own experience at last year’s GEOINT Symposium and how it’s theme, “Build the Community. Accelerate Innovation. Advance the Tradecraft.” is exactly what the Army is working toward. He encouraged the community to attend the Symposium due to its great content, commentary and speakers. Ward’s speech concentrated on the criticality of training to deliver GEOINT and how training techniques are a moving target. He also informed the audience of Army personnel blending within different GEOINT cells across the country, especially at Ft. Huachuca. Ward briefly addressed New Campus East, notifying the audience that some Army leaders will begin transitioning there this month. In addition, he communicated VADM Murrett’s enthusiasm of the location as a new way of doing business, making communication amongst directorates more seamless. Ward concluded his address by bringing the audience’s attention to two initiatives the community should be aware of, the first being Gen. Zahner’s analysis on the Army MI, sparking healthy debate on potential significant changes to the program. The second initiative he emphasized was Gen. Flynn’s Fixing Intelligence. Ward stressed the importance of reading this as it highlights how GEOINT can help the problems address within Intelligence along with products of worthy note and how they’re essential to Gen. Flynn’s strategy. After Mr. Ward’s discussion, audience members were given the opportunity for a Q&A session.

Learn more about Mr. Ward

January 12, 2010 – Mr. Brian Hibbeln, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Special Capabilities

Photos from the January event

On January 12, 2010, Mr. Brian Hibbeln, Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Special Capabilities, addressed a crowd of 60 at USGIF’s January 2010 GEOINTeraction Tuesday event. Hibbeln’s speech came as a landmark for the Office of Advanced Systems and Concepts as this was the first time anyone from the office has spoken about its capabilities and services to the public. Mr. Hibbeln’s speech included a vast amount of information about his organization, mainly concentrating on the current state of the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTD) and Joint Capability Technology Demonstrations (JTCD) programs and where they are headed in the future. Mr. Hibbeln also addressed the many ways USGIF Member companies can help serve the organization as well as how to get their services and technologies noticed and supported. He finished his speech by informing the audience of key capability areas where OSD hopes to see more innovation followed by a short Q&A session with the audience.

November 10, 2009 – Mr. Patrick Warfle & Mr. Keith Barber, NGA

As the Director, NSG Expeditionary Architecture Integrated Program Office at NGA), Mr. Barber coordinates the efforts of Acquisition, Enterprise Services, InnoVision and Source Operations and Management in support of deployed forces and first responders. Mr. Warfle, who serves as NGA’s Deputy Military Executive, helps carry out the mission of the MX to facilitate all facets of NGA’s geospatial intelligence support to military operations.

Photos from the event

Photos from past GEOINTeraction Tuesdays