Alamo ACE Conference Draws a Crowd

The Alamo Conference Event, or Alamo ACE, kicked off with the annual golf tournament on Monday and ended with an Acquisition Day on Thursday. The chapter was happy to see all who attended after spending over a year in a pandemic. This year's ACE was the biggest to date and did not disappoint with the first Women in AFCEA event. Brand-new Chapter Vice President of Diversity Karen Rolirad introduced the guest speaker, Diane Janosek, Senior Executive Service, the National Security Agency National Cryptologic School commandant. Janosek explained that although the school had to overcome the challenges of training in a hybrid environment due to the pandemic, they still did it. Over four million hours of training with 50,000 people worldwide were logged.

Cyber doesn't sleep. Brig. Gen. Brad Pyburn, USAF, deputy commander, 16th Air Force, explained that to achieve digital dominance in cyber, the United States must stop playing checkers and start playing chess. With response time a critical factor to mission support, Lt. Gen. John Evans, USA, commanding general, U.S. Army North, Fifth Army, explained that the force needs to make some changes and leverage capabilities. "We are learning each and every day on how to dominate in the digital environment." A big piece to that is to continue to train forces to be cyber-ready.

Digital dominance and being cyber-ready today, tomorrow and into the future was a common thread and topic of discussion for this year's ACE. The chapter hopes to see everyone again for the professional engagement that only this forum brings.

Event Photographs: