Meeting and Greeting in Sweden

In early June, we had the opportunity to travel to Stockholm, Sweden, for our first exhibition at the annual ITEC conference. ITEC bills itself as “the only conference and exhibition outside the USA dedicated to defense training, simulation and education,” and it covers all types of training solutions, systems, methodologies, and procurement ideas. The conference, which is managed by the European Training and Simulation Association (ETSA), was held in Sweden for the first time, in honor of the country’s participation in this year’s multinational training and simulation exercise — the Partnership for Peace Exercise: Viking 2008.

Why did we go to the ITEC 2008 conference and exhibition? For one thing, we like to keep up to date with new simulation technology, techniques, and applications that are evolving in other parts of the world. There’s a lot happening outside the confines of our continent, and nothing beats a hands-on experience.

Another reason we went to ITEC — and this one is equally important as the whiz-bang watching — is that the conference is a great opportunity to network with European military and defense experts. ITEC provides one of the best venues for us to find out what our allies are doing and compare notes about their needs versus those of our U.S.-based security and armed forces clients.

The event is the smaller version of the I/ITSEC show, held in Orlando every December, which is so large and heavily attended that we find ourselves jumping every day (and night) to keep up. While many international defense professionals attend I/ITSEC, ITEC is the show that’s devoted to the international defense community. Because of its smaller size, we got to spend much more time talking, demonstrating, and learning about the international needs in modeling and simulation.

Highlights of the trip included:

• Briefing a NATO delegation on modeling and simulation. We were one of four companies that met with a group of military officials from the organization to discuss current implementations of modeling and simulation (M&S) technology. The discussions were focused on ways in which to exploit game technology for M&S, and several people from the meeting came to visit us on the show floor for further demos. The bottom line is that the international appetite for game technology is huge – there is great enthusiasm for it, particularly among nations that have not made the same kinds of investments in the development of large-scale simulation tools, as we have in the U.S.
• Talking with foreign defense professionals from all over Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and gaining an understanding of how our technology fits into the worldwide training picture. Although the U.S. military enjoys an arsenal of modeling and simulation tools to select from when creating training programs, many other nations do not have the same degree of choice available to them. Smaller forces and correspondingly smaller budgets mean they’re looking for a lot of bang for the buck. Game technology delivers on value-for-money propositions — we’ve been saying that for years — and there is a hunger internationally for the solutions we offer.
• Getting to know our competitors better (and realizing we are more equals than rivals). Even hardcore gamers can play nice. We spent time with the Aussies behind Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2), which is a high-fidelity, first-person training simulation toolkit built from game technology created by Bohemia Interactive, in the Czech Republic. VBS2 is embraced by defense forces worldwide as a virtual and constructive simulation tool for military training. With our focus on the strategic, commander-level view, and their emphasis on the soldier’s tactical training view, we’re much more complementary than competitive. We have a mutual interest in advancing the use of game technology, and shared passion for turning over tools to our customers so that they can harness the technology on their own.

Probably the best reason to attend a meeting such as ITEC is to get away, to break out of the routine, head out to find ideas and inspiration away from the workplace, and ultimately to see clients and key industry players in one place, sharing a common experience. And you can’t beat Stockholm in June for providing stimulating surroundings and meeting places. We came back feeling energized and fully motivated for generating some exciting news and events this fall. So stay tuned.

Did you attend ITEC 2008 or a previous version? Tell us your impression of the event.