Webinar Provides Advice to Maximize I/ITSEC Opportunities

By Shane Klestinski, Associate Editor

 

Three veterans of Orlando’s Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) shared their experience to help modeling, simulation and training (MS&T) professionals make most of I/ITSEC 2024 during a webinar, Oct. 29.

 

Carol Ann Logue, Central Florida Tech Grove director, hosted “Tech Grove Connect – Maximize Your ROI from I/ITSEC 2024,” where she spoke with Leslie Faircloth, small business officer with the Naval Air Warfare Command Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD), and Daniel Ketchen, founder and principal of Technology Associates & Products.

 

The National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA) holds I/ITSEC every year during the week immediately after Thanksgiving at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. C-suite industry leaders and top academics from leading universities are regular attendees at I/ITSEC – the world’s largest MS&T industry event – as well as congressional representatives and senior Defense Department officials. While I/ITSEC has a largely defense-oriented focus, civilian government agencies who rely on MS&T capabilities also attend, such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy, and NASA.

 

High-ranking individuals from throughout the MS&T community often share their insights with attendees during panel discussions or keynote addresses at the conference. Logue noted that current registration trends indicated that this year’s event was on track to be the biggest ever, with projected attendance ranging from 18,000 to 20,000.

 

A defining trait of I/ITSEC includes the multitude of networking opportunities for future business due to the intense concentration of so many MS&T professionals in one place at the same time. The panel recommended that attendees should properly prepare if they hope to make the most of their efforts. They also addressed questions viewers submitted prior to, and during, the webinar.

 

The discussion began with Faircloth addressing “creature comforts” that help I/ITSEC participants maintain their energy and stay physically productive. I/ITSEC takes up a lot of space at the convention center, so participants should expect to do a great deal of walking over the course of the week-long conference. As such, Faircloth’s first recommendations were comfortable shoes, layers, water and snacks.

 

“You’ll be running from one booth, one meeting to the next, and you’re not necessarily going to have time to stop,” Faircloth said. “If you do have time to stop, the line [to get something to eat can be] really long because everyone else has the same idea.”

 

Later in the webinar, Ketchen concurred with Faircloth’s point on proper footwear, saying that during I/ITSEC 2023, he walked 12,000 to 16,000 steps every day – and he spent a third of his time at a client’s booth.

 

Faircloth highly recommended downloading the I/ITSEC app for convenient access to the full program for planning purposes, and to stay updated with sudden changes to the schedule. Faircloth advised webinar viewers against attending I/ITSEC “with a haphazard approach.” Participants should know why they are present, understand what they hope to accomplish, and make a plan to engage specific people at specific companies and government entities to avoid wasting time.

 

“It can be overwhelming if you don’t have a plan and you just show up and expect to take it all in – I don’t recommend that,” Faircloth said. “But be flexible because things are going to change. Maybe you get that call or text from that particular customer you were trying to reach, who you didn’t have on your schedule, and now you have to reconsider.”

 

The panel also mentioned that I/ITSEC visitors should be familiar with the exhibit floor. This not only includes the landscape of where certain booths represent certain entities, but also where specific events will occur, and knowing the floor’s business hours, which can vary from day to day. Logue noted that the type of ticket participants purchases will also affect the times they can visit the floor and which events they can attend during the conference.

 

In engaging with leadership of specific government agencies, attendees should try to understand the “who’s who” of that entity, and organizational websites (with org charts, etc.) can be helpful in determining such information. While business owners may sometimes assume they should “go to the top” and approach the commanders of military-led organizations, those commanders do not always have the intimate knowledge of the program the owners are asking about. They should not be surprised if that commander ends up referring them to a program manager, a contracting officer, or a small business liaison, with whom that business owner can actually have the conversation they want.

 

Faircloth said that certain organizations – such as NAWCTSD, for example – won’t necessarily have one decision-maker, but those organizations might have teams that address certain specific opportunities and contracting actions. Having that understanding can help conference-goers introduce themselves, specifically with what they do and the opportunities they are pursuing, for example, as a prime contractor or a subcontractor. An organization’s website will also often have opportunities listed for I/ITSEC attendees to research and later inquire about at the conference.

 

Ketchen also emphasized “planning and preparation” when working the exhibit floor, comparing the I/ITSEC experience to Disney World. He noted that an enthusiastic theme park guest would likely perform active research with maps, access apps, and look for information on attractions, food and other areas of interest, “and that level of preparation is critical because there is so much to see [at I/ITSEC].”

 

Ketchen recommended that attendees should pace themselves, considering that the conference occurs over four days (or five in certain cases), and that they should not schedule back-to-back meetings all day. The networking opportunities I/ITSEC offers can also present the complication of having an overwhelming number of business cards by the end of a day, and then trying to remember all the interactions associated with those cards.

 

“You can be old school and write notes on the back of the business card,” Ketchen said. “I recommend that, after you meet with somebody… get your phone and make a voice recording of about 30 seconds of what you talked about with that person, and the next steps that the two of you agree on.”

 

Advanced users of this tactic can make one long, continuous recording that they simply keeping adding to, and after the conference, upload the recording to an AI-based translator. According to Ketchen, this technique can provide the user with a single, AI-generated document that lists an entire week of contacts, which provides a trip report for those who need to justify the return on investment (ROI) of their conference attendance to employers. It can also make for an easy copy-and-paste task into a customer relationship management platform for later use and additional ROI tracking.

 

“ROI is not measured in dollars at this conference,” Ketchen said. “[I/ITSEC] is not a sales conference where you take orders… it is a business development conference. Your ROI is in meaningful contacts that are going to lead to meaningful conversations. You’ll still need that classic ‘12 touches’ [of sales] before you get an order from anybody – this is going to be your first touch with a lot of them.”

 

In contacting certain organizations, Ketchen recommended that businesses owners have their opening pitches ready – with an emphasis on specificity – to get a meeting with significant government officials. A vague, general description of, “I’m looking to get involved with this industry and I’d like to meet with some people from the government,” is unlikely to yield successful results.

 

“Everybody’s going to ask what your company does, that’s why we’re all there,” Ketchen said. “If you can be specific with, ‘We do this better than anybody else,’ or, ‘We have these particular experts [and] I have three retired general officers on our board of advisors, and they have said that this particular vector on AI is perfect for modeling and simulation, so who can I talk to about this particular thing?’ you’re going to get a meaningful conversation.”

 

Faircloth followed up by recommending that a helpful way to start such conversations would also address a company’s capabilities and what problems it can solve for the government.

 

“Don’t lead with, ‘Here’s my socioeconomic status, I’m an 8A, I’m a service-disabled, veteran[-owned company],’” Faircloth said. “That might be important, but nothing is more important than understanding what problem you’re solving and what capabilities you’re bringing to the table.”

 

Ketchen added to Faircloth’s advice by saying that larger, private sector business primes would also want to know the same information as government officials with decision-making authority. Specific accomplishments that establish a record of past performance and a history of successful partnerships (or being on teams) are also legitimate points that add to a company’s credibility in business conversations at I/ITSEC. Logue emphasized answering the question of what makes a particular company different from its competition.

 

Other general tips the panel offered, which previous I/ITSEC guests have learned the hard way, included:

 

-Don’t assume that you can depend on the venue’s wi-fi access if you’re on the exhibit floor, especially if you’re an exhibitor with a demonstration to conduct.

 

-Know who you’re talking to and understand their background in specific matters, particularly if conversations get highly technical. Not every booth representative or agency official will necessarily have the background in your field required for an in-depth conversation (or their resident expert might be unavailable at the moment), so tailor conversations appropriately.

 

-For exhibitors offering conference hand-outs, less is more. The panel was partial to compact postcards that contained meaningful links and easy-to-find contact information, as opposed to a 50-page catalog.

 

-Have business cards ready for sudden, unexpected networking opportunities, and be ready to talk to people at any time. Productive conversations have often occurred while standing in line for coffee, or after the exhibit hall has closed and attendees head to the bar after working hours. Different organizations will also schedule various social events in the evening apart from the official I/ITSEC agenda that can provide impromptu networking moments.

 

-The attendee registration list is not publicly available, and only NTSA has access to it. Any communications trying to sell this list are scams. Delete any emails making this claim.

 

-I/ITSEC offers a career fair that features a variety of government entities and companies seeking talented candidates. Those intending to attend should also plan their approach like one would if working the exhibit floor. Note that the HR representatives of these organizations will not be present. Like many I/ITSEC interactions, job seekers should approach these conversations as networking opportunities with an expectation of making initial contact, not necessarily scheduling a job interview that day.

 

The entire webinar is available for viewing at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM9yjbnSLUU.