GEOINT 2026 Day One

Opening the Main Stage and Setting the Global Context

Day One of GEOINT 2026 opened with a clear sense of scale, momentum, and shared purpose as the global GEOINT community officially convened for the week ahead.

During the Opening Ceremony, Ronda Schrenk, CEO of USGIF, welcomed attendees to a symposium shaped by the community itself and reflective of the pace of change facing geospatial intelligence today. This year’s GEOINT Symposium brings together participants from more than 200 organizations, including 47 first‑time exhibitors, and features 203 speakers across 151 sessions. The audience includes more than 410 international attendees representing 26 countries, as well as participants from 57 academic institutions, underscoring GEOINT’s growing global and interdisciplinary reach.

Ronda emphasized that GEOINT remains a team sport—powered by collaboration across government, industry, academia, and international partners—and highlighted how artificial intelligence, workforce development, and community‑driven programming are shaping the symposium’s agenda.

Robert Cardillo, Chair of the USGIF Board of Directors, joined her on stage to reinforce that focus, noting that the challenges and opportunities facing GEOINT demand both innovation and disciplined tradecraft.

As part of the opening program, a series of community‑submitted vignettes illustrated real‑world applications of GEOINT, demonstrating how commercial imagery, AI‑enabled analytics, and fused data sources are supporting decision‑makers across national security, maritime domain awareness, wildfire detection, and humanitarian missions.

Global Security Perspective: A NATO View

The morning continued with a keynote from Major General Paul Lynch, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for the Joint Intelligence and Security Division at NATO, who offered a global security perspective grounded in alliance cooperation.

Major General Lynch spoke about the importance of shared situational awareness, common data standards, and trusted relationships among allies in an increasingly complex security environment. He underscored how GEOINT enables collective defense by supporting interoperability and coordinated intelligence efforts across NATO partners.

Following his remarks, Lynch joined Ronda Schrenk for a Q&A that expanded the discussion to include policy frameworks, mission alignment, and the role of intelligence in strengthening multinational collaboration. Robert Cardillo also recognized a member of the community during an In Memoriam moment, honoring lasting contributions to the GEOINT enterprise.

Seeing First, Acting Faster: GEOINT and Decision Advantage

The panel “Seeing First, Acting Faster: GEOINT and Strategic Decision Advantage” examined how integrated geospatial intelligence accelerates decision‑making in operational environments.

Moderated by Robert Cardillo, the panel featured senior intelligence leaders:

• Lieutenant General Scott Berrier (Ret.), former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and Senior Vice President at Booz Allen Hamilton
• Brigadier General Steven Gorski, Director for Intelligence and Information (J2), U.S. NORTHCOM
• Vice Admiral Frank “Trey” Whitworth (Ret.), former Director of the National Geospatial‑Intelligence Agency and CEO of r4 Federal

Panelists reflected on the evolution of GEOINT as a strategic enabler, emphasizing the need to integrate data sources, shorten analytic timelines, and deliver insight at the speed required by today’s decision‑makers.

Evolving Tech Modernization to Meet Mission Needs

The panel “Evolving Tech Modernization to Meet IC and National Security Mission Needs” focused on how modernization efforts across the Intelligence Community are adapting to operational and security demands.

Moderated by The Honorable John Sherman, Dean of The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University, the discussion included:

• Doug Cossa, IC Chief Information Officer, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and former CIO of the Defense Intelligence Agency
• The Honorable Milancy Harris, Vice President and Chief Security Officer at AV
• Mark Chatelain, Chief Information Officer, National Geospatial‑Intelligence Agency

The panel explored how leaders are balancing innovation with security, modernizing infrastructure, and aligning technology investments to support mission outcomes across the Intelligence Community.

Exhibit Hall, Stage Programming, and Workforce Engagement

Day One also marked the opening of the Exhibit Hall, where more than 200 organizations showcased technologies, applications, and solutions across the GEOINT ecosystem. Programming across the Exhibit Hall featured three dedicated stages, extending Main Stage conversations into technical and operational focus areas:

• The GeoAI Stage, sponsored by Leidos, highlighted applied artificial intelligence and evolving GEOINT workflows.
• The Scaling AI Stage, sponsored by Carahsoft and NVIDIA, focused on enterprise‑level AI deployment and advanced computing infrastructure.
• The GEOINT Data at Speed Stage, sponsored by Capella Space, emphasized persistence, latency, and delivering GEOINT at operational tempo.

Workforce development was also a visible priority, including a Job Fair in partnership with ClearanceJobs.

Working Groups and Community Collaboration

Day One featured a range of working group breakout sessions designed for focused collaboration on shared mission challenges, including:

• NRO Advisory
• Modeling, Simulation, and Gaming
• Tradecraft
• Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

These sessions reinforced the collaborative foundation of the GEOINT community and provided structured opportunities for practitioners to engage beyond the Main Stage. Look for more Working Group sessions, including the launch of the new Maritime Domain Awareness Working Group on today, at 3PM in Willow Lake 3.  

Looking Ahead

Day One of GEOINT 2026 set the tone for the week ahead—grounded in mission relevance, global partnership, and a shared commitment to advancing the GEOINT tradecraft. As the symposium continues, these conversations will carry forward throughout the week.