A Friends Summit on Cybersecurity and Intelligence

Just a few days ago I was listening to Peter Attia’s The Drive podcast where Ric Elias was Peter’s guest. Ric was telling Peter about his idea for a “Friends Summit” where Ric would host maybe one hundred of his friends, many of whom are accomplished in their own right, but who don’t know each other. Ric would ask those interested to give a short talk about a subject that they’re passionate about in order to stimulate discussion and hopefully create new friendships among those who attended. As Ric says during the podcast, it’s not easy to make new friends at our age, especially ones that aren’t transactional; ones that exist because you want to encourage and support the efforts of someone else that you resonate with.

I immediately loved that idea. When you think about it, the thing that most of us like the most when attending events or conferences are meeting new people and having interesting side channel discussions.

For the Friends Summit, to be held on the water at the Annapolis Maritime Museum in Annapolis, MD, our speakers will give a short 20 minute talk that will challenge and stimulate your thinking, and be available for the rest of the night to speak with you and the rest of our attendees about it.

To date, our speakers include:

• Colonel Andy Milburn
• Robi Sen
• Julia Mossbridge, Ph.D.
• Adam Flatley
• Tim Roxey
• Michael Bloch
• More to come

Even more fun will be lightning rounds where our attendees can nominate themselves or others to give 5 minute talks on the subject of their choice. Thank you O’Reilly Social Science Foo Camp for the concept!

It’s a low fee to attend, and if you’re a full-time employee of the U.S. government (including military), you can attend for free.