#DEFAUS16 to #DEFAUS19: Bringing Things Full Circle

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This year marks the fourth iteration of the Australian incarnation of the Defence Entrepreneurs Forum (having commenced in 2016). As we find ourselves rapidly approaching this year’s event, I’d like to offer the following short anecdote as an example of why this event is worth supporting (in case anyone was still undecided).

Three years ago, I sat in the crowd at the inaugural DEF Aus watching the guest speakers on the first day. They weren’t service members pitching an idea (that was day 2), they were established experts in their respective fields delivering engaging and highly informative lectures on their particular areas of expertise. One in particular stood out as being different.

August Cole, the co-author of Ghost Fleet and master of weaponising the written word, speaks at #DEFAUS16

The speaker was August Cole, author of Ghost Fleet (along with Peter Singer) and he was appearing via video link to discuss Ghost Fleet. And perhaps more accurately, what Ghost Fleet aspired to be which was a vehicle for professional military education wrapped up in an entertaining fictional narrative. Key to this was to use futuristic technologies and scenarios that while not yet realised, could plausibly be realised over the next decade or two (think, AI battle assistants, hypersonic weapons and all sorts of drones).

At the time the Australian PME ecosystem was still very much in its infancy. For example, one of the central pillars of the Australian PME ecosystem, The Cove, was announced on the last day of that first DEF Aus event and didn’t go live until a few months later.

Fast forward three years and as we approach the fourth instalment of DEF Aus, the Australian PME ecosystem has grown and diversified significantly (check out the PME Prezi to see just how big it is now). In addition to this, it has also linked up with similar movements in allied militaries, notably the “Five Eyes” nations (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States).

It is this network effect and the dissemination of knowledge across it that has become so powerful and attending an event like DEF Aus is an easy way to get involved.

When I attended the first DEF Aus in 2016, not many people in my workplace knew much about it. This has changed over time and one of my colleagues from that time has since gone on to write the Virtual Command FICINT series which has proved popular in its own right.

Now this is where things have come full circle. He confesses to having been inspired to get into writing FICINT (as its become known) in part after reading Ghost Fleet which in an Australian context has been popularised in part by events such as that initial DEF Aus video link (and the PME discussions that followed it).

Virtual Command has achieved sufficient reach (on social media) that it has caught the attention of Ghost Fleet’s authors with August Cole mentioning it on social media in an anecdote about how the concept of FICINT has gone global.

There’s an elegant sort of symmetry in that. One that is worth supporting.

About the Author: Chris Bulow is an Australian Army officer who holds a Master of Project Management and Bachelor of Engineering.