The Intelligence and National Security Summit is the United States’ premier unclassified forum connecting government intelligence agencies, academia, and the private sector on the most pressing national security challenges of the moment. Hosted annually by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) International and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA), the summit draws more than 2,000 senior leaders from across the intelligence community, defense sector, and technology industry for two days of plenary sessions, breakout discussions, and exhibits.
The 2025 summit — held September 18–19 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland — positioned artificial intelligence, OSINT integration with large language models, and national security workforce development as its defining themes, reflecting the intelligence community’s accelerating transformation under pressure from AI-enabled adversary capabilities.
What Is the AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit?
The AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit is an annual two-day conference established as the nation’s foremost venue for unclassified dialogue between government intelligence agencies, defense organizations, academic institutions, and private sector technology providers. The summit operates under a public-private partnership model: AFCEA brings its defense and technology industry membership, while INSA connects intelligence community professionals and policy experts.
Organizers and Mission
AFCEA International, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, has served the national security community since 1946, advancing technology collaboration across the military, government, and industry. INSA, the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, is the preeminent non-partisan policy and professional organization dedicated to advancing the intelligence and national security communities. Together, they host what SIMS Software calls “the nation’s premier forum for unclassified dialogue” — creating a space where classified constraints don’t prevent substantive discussion of shared challenges.
Summit Format and Scale
The summit’s two-day program typically includes five to six plenary sessions featuring senior government officials and intelligence community leaders, parallel breakout sessions covering specialized topics, a technology exhibit floor with 30+ private sector exhibitors showcasing intelligence tools and platforms, and a career fair connecting students, academic institutions, and industry with intelligence community employers. The career conversations component has grown significantly as the intelligence community addresses persistent workforce gaps in data science, AI engineering, and cybersecurity.
Attendance regularly exceeds 2,000 professionals — a scale that reflects the summit’s unique positioning as the largest unclassified gathering of the U.S. intelligence enterprise. Decision-makers across government agencies, defense contractors, and academic research centers use the event to advance relationships and evaluate emerging technologies under consideration for intelligence applications.
2025 Summit Highlights: September 18–19, National Harbor, Maryland
The 2025 AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit drew more than 2,000 intelligence and defense professionals to the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland — a venue that has anchored the event for multiple years given its proximity to Washington, D.C. and its capacity for large-scale government gatherings.
Key Themes and Sessions
Artificial intelligence dominated the 2025 agenda across multiple formats. Sessions explored how large language models (LLMs) are reshaping OSINT tradecraft — enabling analysts to process vastly larger volumes of open-source intelligence but creating new verification and adversarial manipulation challenges. AI and emerging technologies represented a formal track, reflecting the intelligence community’s institutional recognition that AI integration is no longer a future consideration but an immediate operational reality.
Additional themes included homeland defense posture against state and non-state threats, space acquisition and the growing role of commercial space intelligence, counterintelligence in an era of AI-enabled foreign influence operations, and what summit organizers described as “redefining national security for a new era” — addressing how the intelligence community’s core mission expands as threats converge across cyber, physical, economic, and information domains.
Speakers and Private Sector Participation
Dr. Chris Scolese, Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), represented the senior government leadership that gives the summit its authoritative weight. Military intelligence leaders from across the service branches contributed branch-specific perspectives on intelligence requirements and collection challenges. Dr. Joshua Sinai, Professor of Practice in Intelligence and Global Security Studies at Capitol Technology University, documented the conference in detail, noting in the Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security International that private sector exhibitors — more than 30 companies — played an “integral role” in providing “valuable networking and exchange of knowledge opportunities” alongside the formal program.
The exhibit floor showcased AI and machine learning tools, cybersecurity platforms, supply chain assurance technologies, robotics, quantum computing applications, and specialized communications systems — reflecting the breadth of technical capability the private sector is developing for intelligence community application.
What to Expect at the 2026 Summit and Why It Matters
The 13th annual AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit is scheduled for August 26–27, 2026. The date shift from September to late August reflects organizer efforts to align more closely with the government fiscal year planning cycle, giving decision-makers a forum to discuss priorities and technology investments before the October budget cycle closes.
Anticipated Focus Areas for 2026
Building on 2025’s AI-forward agenda, the 2026 summit is expected to address agentic AI in intelligence operations — autonomous systems that can conduct multi-step analysis and decision support without continuous human oversight. Adversarial AI, including the use of deepfakes and synthetic media in influence operations, is likely to feature prominently given the community’s growing exposure to AI-generated disinformation. OSINT methodology in an LLM-saturated information environment will continue as a core track, with increasing focus on distinguishing authentic intelligence from AI-generated synthetic content.
Why the Summit Matters for Intelligence and Security Professionals
The AFCEA/INSA summit is one of the few venues where unclassified discussions can reach the depth and specificity that classified settings enable in restricted channels. For industry professionals seeking to align their technology roadmaps with intelligence community priorities, the summit provides direct access to senior government consumers. For academics and researchers, it bridges the gap between research agendas and operational requirements. For intelligence analysts and security practitioners, the career fair and networking opportunities remain among the most productive of any intelligence-focused event in the annual calendar.
Registration and exhibitor information is available at intelsummit.org, the official AFCEA/INSA summit website. Early registration typically opens four to five months before the event date.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where is the Intelligence and National Security Summit 2025?
The 2025 Intelligence and National Security Summit was held September 18–19, 2025, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. It was co-hosted by AFCEA International and INSA and drew more than 2,000 attendees.
Who can attend the AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit?
The summit is open to government intelligence and defense officials, private sector technology and services providers, academic researchers, and students. While many sessions address classified topics by inference, the event itself is unclassified — making it accessible to the full spectrum of the intelligence and national security ecosystem without requiring a security clearance for attendance.
What topics are covered at the Intelligence and National Security Summit?
Topics span artificial intelligence and machine learning in intelligence applications, OSINT tradecraft including LLM integration, counterintelligence, cybersecurity, data management and analytics, homeland defense, space acquisition, quantum computing, and workforce development. The 2025 summit specifically featured tracks on OSINT and LLMs, AI and emerging technologies, space acquisition, and redefining national security for a new era.
When is the 2026 Intelligence and National Security Summit?
The 13th annual AFCEA/INSA Intelligence and National Security Summit is scheduled for August 26–27, 2026. Registration and program details are available at intelsummit.org.
The summit’s influence extends well beyond its two days on the calendar. Technology demonstrations at the exhibit floor often catalyze formal evaluation processes — vendors who demonstrate capability in front of senior intelligence community buyers at IntelSummit frequently receive follow-on meetings and RFI responses in the weeks afterward. For small and mid-size companies seeking a foothold in the intelligence community market, the summit represents one of the most efficient entry points in the government technology landscape.
Academic partnerships have also emerged as a meaningful byproduct of the summit’s career fair component. Universities with intelligence studies and national security programs — including Capitol Technology University, which publishes formal academic reporting on the summit’s proceedings — use the event to place students in intelligence community internship pipelines and build faculty relationships with practitioners. The intelligence community’s long-standing workforce challenge in data science, AI engineering, and cyber operations makes these academic connections increasingly strategic for agencies seeking to build future talent pipelines outside the traditional cleared-workforce channels.
For professionals evaluating whether to attend the 2026 summit, the decision typically comes down to two factors: the seniority of government access the event provides, and the quality of unclassified technical dialogue achievable in a public setting. On both metrics, the AFCEA/INSA summit consistently delivers at a level few other events match — which explains its consistent attendance above 2,000 despite the proliferation of intelligence and security conferences across the annual calendar.
