Vanguard Magazine

16 APRIL/MAY 2023 www.vanguardcanada.com C 4 I S R & B E Y O N D "The improvements to this year's event were a direct result of the relationship between CAF/DND leadership and the conference's advisory committee," said Col. Caron. "I look forward to seeing that relationship grow, with more focus on how to advance the Digital and C4ISR capability agendas in modern and mean- ingful ways." And a promise for the future It has been my privilege to bring military, industry, academia, and government to- gether every year. We have learned much from our past experiences, and we have become more intentional about soliciting contributions from CAF and DND, gov- ernment, international partners, and local industry leaders. It's our intention to keep practicing what we preach. In that spirit, we introduced digitally en- abled survey participation this year, skillful- ly enabled by Accenture, one of our spon- sors. The findings were instructive: • Eighty percent of respondents reported learning something important and new. The same number ranked their satisfac- tion with the speakers, panels, and net- working as good to high. • Unsurprisingly, a third reported low confidence and the balance only medium confidence that real progress in deliv- ering interoperable C4ISR capabilities needed across CAF/DND was likely to be made any time soon. • Interoperability, integration, data, cloud, procurement and infrastructure, were the most notable conference themes that struck participants. • Respondents noted a need to make C4ISR capability a matter of policy, and to enable it with the right knowledge and talent. • Procurement reform for equipment and technology, services, talents, and ways of working was a key point of feedback. So too were the needs to identify gaps and risks to interoperability, deliver on the centrality of data and cloud, and go digital by leveraging ideas from allies and industry. • For the conference itself – respondents were complementary about its overall design and delivery. Diversity in organi- zation, roles, subject matter experts, eco- system partners and represented geogra- phies was also commended. • Many commented on the need to further drive the "how to...?" discussions with a belief that we can overcome any obsta- cle. One respondent suggested we create a classified sidebar forum for topics and participants. We're exploring it. My intention is to share this feedback with the 2024 advisory and see it applied. To the Vanguard team, to our advisory committee, and to all those who got on stage (live or virtual) – salutations for your tremendous work to bring all of this to life. And to the more than 450 professionals who attended C4ISR and Beyond 2023, I sincerely thank you for your presence. I commend you for your contributions to a safe Canada and an effective Armed Forc- es. And I appreciate you enabling our men and women in uniform. I look forward to serving you into the future. See you in January 2024! People. Technology. Innovation. Innovating and delivering Canada's land requirements solutions and in-service support SCAN TO LEARN MORE

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