Conference program

How does intelligence move from fragmented signals to analysis to timely, defensible action?

This masterclass explores how modern capabilities—spanning data ingestion, AI-assisted analysis, and intelligent decisioning—can be combined to operationalise intelligence at speed and scale. Using a foreign interference (FIMI) scenario, we will examine how indicators such as coordinated inauthentic behaviour can be detected, analysed, and translated into clear response options.

Participants will engage in a practical walkthrough of an end-to-end intelligence workflow, highlighting where traditional approaches stall and how emerging techniques—such as large language models and decision automation—can improve consistency, agility, and impact.

The session will focus on closing the gap between insight and outcome: ensuring intelligence not only informs, but drives action that is timely, auditable, and aligned to mission priorities.

This dynamic opening panel sets the scene for the conference by exploring how intelligence is evolving in an era defined by rapid change, technological disruption, and increasing complexity. Bringing together senior leaders, industry experts, and emerging voices, the discussion will examine what it truly means to move from insight to action—and why that remains a persistent challenge across the profession.

Through a mix of rapid-fire perspectives and candid discussion, panellists will unpack the forces reshaping intelligence today: the pressure for speed alongside the need for rigour, the growing role of AI and data-driven tools, and the enduring importance of trust, tradecraft, and human judgement. Just as importantly, the panel will spotlight the experiences and expectations of early-career professionals and students, offering a forward-looking view of the skills, pathways, and mindset required for the next generation.

Designed to spark debate and set a purposeful tone, this session will surface key tensions, challenge assumptions, and provide a shared foundation for the conversations that follow throughout the conference.

Public safety agencies are increasingly operating within an environment they were not originally designed to manage, shaped by rapidly expanding data, technology-enabled and transnational threats, rising public expectations, and growing social complexity. Yet many intelligence and public safety models remain heavily focused on reactive response and downstream intervention. This presentation examines the growing tension between traditional approaches to public safety and the emerging need for prevention-oriented, intelligence-led strategies.

Drawing on operational experience, international research and contemporary intelligence practices, the session will explore how data, analytics, interagency collaboration and trustworthy technology are reshaping the way agencies understand harm, risk and community safety. It will also consider the enduring importance of public legitimacy and trust, and the role intelligence professionals may play in supporting more informed, ethical and proactive approaches to public safety in an increasingly complex future.

This session explores what it means to lead intelligence organisations in an era of strategic competition. It examines how leaders can provide clarity of purpose while navigating ambiguity, balance risk with opportunity, and enable decision-making when information is incomplete or contested. Drawing on contemporary intelligence practice, the session will highlight how leadership must evolve from directing activity to shaping adaptive, resilient systems capable of responding to constant change.

Aligned with the conference focus on translating insight into action, this session will consider how leaders foster organisational agility, integrate emerging technologies, and build trusted partnerships across agencies and sectors. It will also address the human dimension of leadership—how to sustain trust, accountability, and professional judgement under pressure.

This session reframes leadership not as control in uncertain environments, but as the ability to guide organisations through them—turning uncertainty into strategic advantage and ensuring intelligence remains a decisive force in national security, public safety, and organisational resilience.

Well-being like you have never heard it before! This session will provide you with the real biology you were never taught at school: The chemical changes that occur in your body when you are stressed, why they occur, the damage they can do, and how to recognise and most importantly alleviate them.

In this session, we will focus on why focusing on the mental health aspect of stress is a mistake.. There are two aspects to a person – the body and the mind and both are vitally important in a person’s ability to be happy, healthy, and perform at their best.

As a double act, Dr Zoe Billings and Mark Pannone will cram in as much information as possible to help you identify signs of stress within your body and equally importantly, identify techniques that you can use to address physical symptoms of chronic stress, which can manifest far earlier than the mental symptoms, providing you with the ability to adopt an early intervention approach to your wellbeing and support your personal resilience. In a (hopefully) fun and engaging presentation Mark and Zoe will help you to protect health and wellbeing and provide evidence-based approaches to avoid dying… yet! 

Confronting the Intelligence Challenge of Our Time

In an era of data abundance, clarity is the decisive advantage. The defining intelligence challenge today is no longer collection—it is connection: transforming fragmented data into actionable insight at the moment of decision.

This session explores the growing seam between government and private-sector visibility that adversarial nation-states exploit through whole-of-society strategies. Competitive advantage in the Intelligence Age will come not from matching authoritarian secrecy, but from operationalizing openness through trusted collaboration and real-time visibility.

Learn how a new intelligence model—grounded in OSINT, agentic AI, and federated collaboration—is reshaping strategic operations, and see how Strider OS enables organizations to surface strategic risk and make faster, more informed decisions.

A fast-paced, high-impact Lightning Talks session featuring six concise presentations designed to spark thinking, challenge assumptions, and surface fresh perspectives across the intelligence profession.

Each talk is strictly 7 minutes, responding to a shared master question that explores a critical issue facing intelligence today. Rather than traditional presentations, speakers will deliver sharp, focused insights that cut to the heart of the topic—no filler, just ideas that matter.

Across the six talks, speakers will each address a specific angle of the master question, building a layered and multifaceted exploration of the issue from different perspectives, disciplines, and experiences. 

This format is designed to:

• Accelerate idea-sharing across domains and disciplines

• Surface diverse perspectives from across the intelligence community

• Challenge conventional thinking through brevity and precision

• Encourage connection between strategic concepts and operational realities
  

Expect energy, provocation, and insight—delivered at speed, but with lasting impact.