Conference program
The conference theme is: ‘A Thriving Intelligence Profession’. Within that theme, we will explore the sub-themes of Leadership, Transformation, and Empowerment – each factor represents what is needed to sustain and build the intelligence profession in Australia for the complex and challenging future.
Our highly interconnected world is being reshaped by strategic competition, with growing complexity arising at the national and local levels.
A thriving intelligence profession hinges on effective leadership, transformation, and empowerment to navigate the complexities of an ever-changing global landscape. Leadership provides the strategic vision and direction to guide teams through routine and unprecedented challenges, ensuring that intelligence operations remain agile and responsive. Transformation is equally crucial, as it involves embracing innovative technologies and methodologies to stay ahead of evolving threats and enhancing operational capabilities. Empowerment complements these elements by fostering a culture where intelligence professionals are encouraged to develop skills, contribute ideas, and take ownership of their roles. Together, these factors drive a dynamic and resilient intelligence community capable of addressing emerging issues with foresight and precision, ultimately supporting robust national security and informed decision-making.
The conference will represent the broad diversity of different domains of intelligence practice and the critical role and influence each domain has in securing our defence, security and well-being.
This program page has been designed to be explored using different filters. Use the checkboxes to select by Conference subtheme/s or topics (as many as you like!) to browse the most relevant sessions.
This program is under development, and we suggest bookmarking this page to stay updated.
Since 2004, regularly scheduled independent intelligence reviews have charted the course for the national intelligence community, providing a uniquely Australian preference for ‘check-ups’ over ‘postmortems’. The 2024 review by Heather Smith and Richard Maude, released publicly earlier this year, sets out a vision for an Australian intelligence that is better integrated into broader policy and decision-making, skilled and enabled – and better prepared for future disruption and conflict. But what does this mean for Australia’s intelligence agencies, the nation’s intelligence professionals, and the private sector whose capabilities and services underpin their work? Where are the vulnerabilities and pitfalls? What was missed? And what will Australian intelligence look like by the end of the decade?
Chris Taylor is the head of the Statecraft & Intelligence Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) where his research focuses on emergent and emerging issues facing intelligence services internationally and in Australia, the place of intelligence agencies in democracies, and role of intelligence in the conduct of statecraft.
Chris’ more than twenty years as a senior national security official in the Australian Government included leadership of functions such as intelligence policy and coordination; protective security; enterprise capability; governance and oversight; and strategic futures.
In 2019-2020 Chris was a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science & International Affairs.