OODAcon 2023
Event Summary and Imperatives For Action
Download a summary of OODAcon including useful observations to inform your strategic planning, product roadmap and drive informed customer conversations. This summary, based on the dialog during and after the event, also invites your continued input on these many dynamic trends. See: OODAcon 2023: Event Summary and Imperatives For Action.
Session Summaries
The Future Now: Overall Themes from OODAcon 2023
OODAcon 2023 brought together leaders, experts, and practitioners to address the challenges and opportunities presented by rapid technological advancements. OODA CEO Matt Devost’s “Welcome and Scene Setting” opening remarks at OODAcon 2023 focused on the theme of disruptive innovation and the current state of technology – providing a broad overview of the OODAcon 2023 themes and the fast-paced advancements in disruptive technologies.
Backing the Mavericks and Mad Scientists the Nation Needs Now
This post captures the gist of a discussion at OODAcon 2023 between Michael Gibson, author of Paper Belt on Fire and founder of the 1517 Fund, and OODA CEO Matt Devost.
The key takeaways from the conversation between Michael and Matt included a discussion on disruptive innovation, the current state of technology, the importance of maintaining societal trust, and the role of leadership and collective commitment in ethical action and risk mitigation within the tech ecosystem. The conversation highlighted the importance of fostering innovation from unconventional avenues and the role that everyone within the tech ecosystem plays in harnessing potent technologies for challenging missions – with a caution of not conflating credentials with character or capability, and the importance of backing mavericks and mad scientists to drive innovation.
Maintaining Societal Trust During Technological Disruption
How do we maintain societal trust as individuals migrate from platform to platform, identities get impersonated, and technologies like ChatGPT and Midjourney produce conversations and images indistinguishable from the truth through malicious prompts or hallucinations? This topic was examined at length OODAcon 2023, exploring the trust threats and emerging trust wars and looking to identify solutions that help alleviate these risks.
The following captures insights from a discussion between Heather McMahon, UMD Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security and SJ Terp, Cognitive Security Expert.
The Cyber Risks of Emerging Technologies
While the field of cybersecurity is easily over 30 years old, it continues to be a nexus for significant risk in emerging technologies. This session explored how threat actors are adapting to new environments and adopting disruptive technologies to achieve their goals. OODA network members examining this topic at OODAcon included:
Kristin Del Rosso, Field CTO, Public Sector, Sophos
Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Sr Director of SentinelLabs, SentinelOne
Sarah Jones, Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst, Microsoft
Visi Stark, cofounder, The Vertex Project
The Space Economy: Opportunities and Risks
After decades of stagnation, space innovation keeps pushing the boundaries of the possible with new firsts emerging on a monthly basis. This topic was explored at length OODAcon 2023, with a deep dive into the emerging opportunities, economies, and risks associated with the rapid development of space-based technologies, resource acquisition, and shift from the public to private sector.
The following captures insights from a discussion between Ryan Westerdahl, CEO Turion Space and Sita Sonty, CEO Space Tango.
Building Trust Into Blockchain
What is the future of blockchain innovation? And how might blockchain technologies enable new models for business and governance? The topic of building trust back into the blockchain was examined at length at OODAcon 2023.
The following captures insights from a discussion between Angela Dalton, CEO and Founder, Signum Growth; David Ackerman, CCO MobileCoin; and Mohsan Farid, Co-Founder, LedgerOps.
The Next Generative AI Surprise
At OODAcon 2022 conference, we predicted that ChatGPT would take the business world by storm and included an interview with OpenAI Board Member and former Congressman Will Hurd. Today, thousands of businesses are being disrupted or displaced by generative AI. This topic was further examined at length at OODAcon 2023, taking a closer look at this innovation and the impact it is having on business, society, and international politics.
Following are insights from an OODAcon 2023 discussion between Pulkit Jaiswal, Co-Founder NWO.ai and Bob Flores, former CTO, CIA.
New Genetic Frontiers
There have been groundbreaking advancements in genetic engineering and new medical technologies are poised to disrupt the dialogue on health, ethics, global security, and the future of humanity. We explored these disruptive technologies at OODAcon 2023, such as the revolutionary CRISPR gene-editing tool, breakthroughs in synthetic biology, and the emergence of exponential medical treatments that demonstrate rapid adoption properties.
In this OODAcon 2023 session, Natalie Barrett, Phaedrus Engineering, Biomedical Engineer, Marc Salit, MITRE Fellow, Synthetic Biology, and Andre Watson, CEO, Ligandal, Biomaterials Scientist, shared the following really actionable and forward thinking insights.
Robots, Autonomy, and Automation
From Amazon warehouses to military conflict in Ukraine we have become increasingly dependent on automated and autonomous platforms. This OODAcon 2023 session explored the current state of the field with a specific focus on the impact to national and economic security.
Following is a summary of the insights and takeaways from the session, which inclided panelists Matthew Steckman, CRO, Anduril Industries, and Duyane Norman, Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).
OODAcon Global Risk Briefing for 2024
The annual OODA Global Risk Briefing was the penultimate session at OODAcon 2023.
Jen Hoar spoke with Johnny Sawyer about the strategic prism business leaders need to apply to the geopolitical risk environment. Following are the insights from the discussion.
Space and National Security
All indications are that we are entering a new age of exploration and human expansion into space. Explore the new national security and economic realities of this new space rush in this OODAcon 2023 Closing Keynote conversation between OODA CTO Bob Gourley and the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of the US Space Force, Lisa Costa.
The full agenda for OODacon 2023 can be found here – Welcome to OODAcon 2023: Final Agenda and Event Details – including a a full description of each session, expanded speakers bios (with links to current projects and articles about the speakers) and additional OODA Loop resources on the theme of each panel.
