SIGNAL Connections April 2013

If you have ever called Kent Schneider, president and chief executive officer of AFCEA International, or arranged his attendance at your chapter’s upcoming function, chances are you have either spoken to or interacted with his ebullient executive assistant, Jennifer Argote. Now celebrating two years on the job, Argote is a native of Worcester, a town in the British midlands, and she attended an all-girls secondary school. After what she calls some “technical education,” she went to work for the British Ministry of Defense.

It should come as no surprise that inertia within the federal government has companies coming to a halt at a time when they should be moving full speed ahead.

The Emerging Professionals in Intelligence Committee (EPIC), one of AFCEA’s services to young professionals, sponsors its first speaker series event that will delve into congressional funding practices.

The 2013 Air Force ISR Industry Day scheduled for June 21, 2013, at the TASC Heritage Conference Center will now take place on October 31, 2013, at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Springfield, Virginia.

The deadline for submitting technical papers drafts, tutorial proposals and panel proposals for MILCOM ’13 is now April 30, 2013, and the requirement for submitting abstracts has been eliminated.

The AFCEA International Awards Banquet will be held on September 25, 2013, in the East Hall of the iconic Union Station in Washington, D.C. Gen. Keith Alexander, USA, commander, U.S. Cyber Command, and director, National Security Agency, will be honored as the 2013 Sarnoff Award winner; Gen. Dennis Via, USA, commanding general, U.S. Army Materiel Command, will receive this year’s Adm. Jon L. Boyes Award; and Randy Cieslak, chief information officer, U.S. Pacific Command, and Gen. Vlastimil Picek, CZA (Ret.), minister of defence, Czech Republic, will be presented with the Gen. James M.

AFCEA International’s Industry Department will host a webinar on April 29 at 1 p.m. EDT to explain the corporate membership appreciation activities that will begin on May 1. Among the topics that will be discussed during the call-in webinar will be who can take advantage of this promotional activity and how chapters will be able to earn “finders fees” by taking part.

SANS NetWars, an interactive security challenge, gives participants the chance to compete while earning continuing education units (CEUs) to help sustain certifications. The event will take place May 15 and 16, 2013, at the Virginia Beach Convention Center during AFCEA’s East: Joint Warfighting event.