2026 Intel Summit Panels to Explore OSINT Tradecraft, Agentic AI Adoption & More
- Six panels bookended by three keynote sessions on either side
- Sessions to cover counterespionage, data governance and cybersecurity in an AI-driven threat landscape
- Event set for Sept. 24 at the Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park
Few dates on the fall calendar carry as much weight for the intelligence community’s industrial base as Sept. 24, when Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Intel Summit convenes at the Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park in Virginia. At a moment when agentic AI is rewriting how agencies fuse mission and enterprise data, and open-source intelligence is emerging as a frontline weapon against adversary networks, this year’s summit is shaping up to be the one date government contractors in the counterintelligence, data and AI space cannot afford to skip. Registration is now open: secure your spot today.
Quick Facts About the 2026 Intel Summit
- Date: Sept. 24, 2026
- Location: Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park
- Format: Keynote addresses from top IC agency leaders bookending six panel discussions with subject matter experts across two concurrent tracks
- Core themes: open-source intelligence tradecraft, agentic AI adoption, data governance, cybersecurity
Six panel discussions, split across two concurrent tracks, will run between the two sets of three keynotes. Topics range from unmasking adversary networks through commercially available data to the governance hurdles agencies face as they move AI agents out of pilot programs and into daily mission use.
Speakers have largely yet to be announced but will be very soon. You can trust the panels will be populated by both influential and highly experienced IC agency officials and industry business leaders. Past POC Intel Summits have featured high-ranking speakers from the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the FBI, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and many more.
What Will the Morning Panels Cover?
The 2026 Intel Summit’s first panel block, running from 9:50 a.m. to 10:50 a.m., opens with Illuminating the Adversary: Open-Source Data, Analytics, and Tradecraft Against Modern Threat Networks in Track A. The panel will examine how fusing open-source and commercially available data with advanced analytics helps investigators map supply chain exposure, unmask front companies and identify early indicators of risk from foreign intelligence services, transnational criminal groups and proxy networks.
Running concurrently, Track B’s No Mission AI Without the Data: Building the Governed Foundation for Agentic Advantage will feature Merrill Cook, director of strategic growth at SAP NS2. The panel will address how defense and intelligence contractors are consolidating decades of program, financial and mission data so agentic AI can reason across an enterprise without moving classified data to the AI itself.
Following a networking break, the 11 a.m. to noon block continues the two-track format. Track A’s Open Secrets: The Power of OSINT in Counterespionage of Intellectual Property Secret and Protection of the U.S. RDT&E Enterprise will look at how open-source data sets that appear unrelated to traditional intelligence domains can close collection gaps left by other forms of intelligence gathering.
Track B’s Agentic AI Across Mission and Enterprise: From Pilot to Production at the Decision Edge will gather program executives, chief AI officers and chief data officers to discuss what it takes for AI agents to reason across both mission and enterprise data, from readiness assessments to resource constraints, while maintaining trust and traceability.
What Is on the Afternoon Agenda?
After a networking lunch featuring a dedicated lunch panel from 12:10 p.m. to 1:10 p.m., the summit closes with a final pair of concurrent sessions from 1:15 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.
Track A’s Cybersecurity in the Age of Agentic AI will address how the window between zero-day discovery and exploit weaponization has compressed from weeks to minutes, and what that means for defense architectures built around agentic AI and foundation models.
Track B’s Elevating Intelligence Operations With AI will feature panelist Erik Blasch, program officer at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research within the Air Force Research Laboratory, discussing the path ahead for agentic AI adoption across the intelligence community, including obstacles to expanded use and how industry can support responsible deployment.
Why Is This the Must-Attend Event for IC GovCons This Fall?
For government contractors competing in the counterintelligence, data and AI markets, the 2026 Intel Summit is as close as the industry gets to a single-day briefing on where IC priorities are headed next. The lineup pairs the practitioners writing agency data strategy with the executives building the platforms meant to execute it, giving attendees a rare, unfiltered look at both sides of the capture equation in one room. Few other events on the calendar compress that much signal, from counterespionage tradecraft to agentic AI governance to cybersecurity’s shrinking response window, into a single day.
That density is exactly why seats will not last. Contractors who wait to register risk missing the sessions most directly tied to where their agency customers are placing bets for the year ahead. Register now to secure a spot at the panels shaping the next generation of intelligence community capability, and to be in the room where the relationships and insights driving 2027 budget and technology decisions will take shape.
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