International Intelligence Conference 2022: Collaboration in a complex and uncertain World

The Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO) is the peak representative body for intelligence professionals in Australia. Our vision is Integrated Intelligence: people and practice and our objectives are to promote and contribute to the professionalisation of intelligence in Australia and globally. We work to grow and sustain the intelligence profession and we do this through advocacy, thought leadership and partner engagement. Our vision is to be instrumental in promoting intelligence as a widely recognised profession. Please go to the website www.aipio.asn.au for more information about the Institute and our aims and operations.

The origins of AIPIO can be traced to 20 November 1990 when 40 intelligence officers voted to approve a constitution and form AIPIO on 2 May 1991. Today, the Institute’s membership reflects all domains of intelligence practice, including national security, defence, law enforcement, banking and finance, regulation and compliance, business, and academia. 

To conduct advocacy and thought leadership, AIPIO works to a theme each calendar year. This year the theme is ‘Collaboration in a complex and uncertain world with subsets of Ethics, Partnerships and Capability’. The Institute delivers a range of events including the National Conference, Seminar and Forum Series, Round Tables and regional events that explore aspects of the theme and streams. AIPIO has also developed a White Paper series to reflect the learnings from those events and particularly from the prominent and influential international and local speakers we attract and invite to speak at our events over the past three years. More information about our on-going events can be found at https://www.aipio.asn.au/menu-4/event-calendar/

AIPIO is also working to develop a significant body of knowledge about the intelligence profession and encourages the publication of academic articles, practice notes and book reviews in our internationally peer-reviewed journal, published three times a year. The journal is an accredited Australian Research Council (ARC) Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) journal. The third edition for 2022 will be a special edition taking in as many of the presentations given at the conference as we are able to publish.

The journal, our quarterly newsletter and the AIPIO White Paper Series build to the body of knowledge. We are always looking for additional opportunities to expand our holdings, which are available to members and non-members alike and the third edition of the Journal now focusses on publishing articles arising from presentation at the conference.

In 2021 the Institute launched a group of Communities of Practice supporting Emerging Intelligence Professional, Cyber Intelligence, Regulatory Intelligence and Financial Intelligence with more to come. The communities of practice bring together, support and mentor intelligence professionals with an interest in the specific subject matter. The programs form an integral part of the AIPIO engagement strategy that also includes Student Recruitment, Internships, Continuing Professional Development, Publications, Mentoring and Regional Events programs. This approach delivers a network of support and engagement for intelligence practitioners throughout and after their careers in the profession.

Our partner engagement is growing, and our outreach includes close ties with other Institutes and associations in the United States, Europe, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. We are also pursuing engagements with emerging and established institutes in other countries.

The AIPIO website https://www.aipio.asn.au/ provides information about the programs and events we run, memberships and other news. The Board, Regional Representatives and Community of Practice convenors are ready and willing to help with advice and information.

The Institute’s membership reflects all domains of intelligence because intelligence has become a global profession practiced in almost every area of endeavour from the traditional agencies to business, industry, financial institutions; from large organisations with global operations to small companies and businesses operating almost at a neighbourhood level. Intelligence practice areas are ever evolving methods, tactics, and approaches, to meet emerging demands in application, technology, and style.

International Intelligence Conference 2022

It is timely therefore to bring international intelligence professionals together for II2022 and consider how together we can improve collaboration.

This is the first international event of its type. This initiative from the AIPIO, includes partnerships with like-minded organisations, from the 5Eyes community, to bring this event together. The AIPIO is, along with our international partners, IALEIA, IAFIE, CASIS, CAPIA, ACIA and NZIIP, and our generous and valued sponsors, and we take great pleasure in hosting the inaugural International Intelligence Conference (II2022) at the Sofitel Hotel, in Melbourne, Australia, between the 23^rd and 26^th of October 2022.

The theme of the conference – “Collaboration in a Complex and Uncertain World” – was developed by leaders in the intelligence profession who identified the increasing need to improve collaboration and cooperation between intelligence professionals within the expanding intelligence community. For additional information please refer to the website https://www.aipionationalevents.asn.au/theme

This International Conference on Intelligence is held for intelligence leaders, managers, and professionals across the myriad of practice domains as well as academe, industry, government, and the private sector. It will include keynote presentations and combine plenary, breakout, interactive panel sessions for all delegates as well as a series of tradecraft workshops for professional development. There will also be an active social program for delegates attending in person.

Changes to the way we all work over the past few years has meant exploring new ways to deliver events in particular, conferences, and the AIPIO has adopted online, in person and hybrid events to reach our members and social connections regardless of their location and / or situation.

II2022 will be conducted as a hybrid event enabling participation from “in person” and virtual delegates globally. For more information including the program and speakers over the three days of the conference visit: https://www.intelligenceinternational.asn.au/

We will run conference elements – sessions, networking, and exhibition – as hybrid events, integrating interactive technologies to link in-person meetings with online live streaming components. Delegates, speakers, and exhibitors can either attend / meet / present in person in Melbourne, or from their own home or office location, if necessary, to fit around altered business operations. II2022 will offer an attractive and alternative option if international delegates and speakers who are not able to travel to Melbourne.

The conference will consider issues that hold intelligence back and which see intelligence considered as a discipline or industry and not as a profession. These issues can include culture; funding; research; capability and lack of collaboration.

The theme, “Collaboration in a Complex and Uncertain World” was a deliberate choice for the AIPIO annual theme and for the conference. It asks questions about the changing environment within which the profession has evolved and what might come next. From the Cold War to terrorism to cyber threats to global pandemic – we will consider what the intelligence community must do to demonstrate value and results from their efforts. In this complex and uncertain world one thing that is certain is the need for collaboration between every level of intelligence practitioner and every organisation large or small.

The challenges of 2020 and 2021 have highlighted an increasing requirement for improved collaboration and cooperation between intelligence professionals, and within the expanding intelligence community. In times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, the need to leverage partnerships and relationships has never been more prescient. The COVID-19 global pandemic demonstrated the need to ensure relationships between partners and agencies remain strong, to meet increasing demands for greater connectivity, and embrace the rapidly changing technological and information management landscape. Navigation of the increasingly diverse intelligence and information custodian communities will effectively leverage change and identify opportunities for future collaboration.

There are many areas to be explored to enhance collaboration and our sub themes for Intelligence International 2022: Ethics where changing expectations of data usage and information requires increasing consideration about the ethical application of technology, intelligence techniques and tradecraft; Partnerships where increasing amounts of information held by commercial entities, monetised by information brokerage, and driven by a mobile and connected society, provides new opportunities for near real time insights.

The benefits of brokered information, including the ‘adtech’ ecosystem, is well known within the commercial community and the intelligence community will increasingly need to look beyond its ‘business as usual’ data holdings and seek non-traditional partnerships within the private sector to access these expanded data sources to better inform decision-making; and Capability where the global intelligence community is facing an increasingly complex series of challenges. Whilst the fundamental business of ‘intelligence’ has not changed, effective capability planning is an essential part of an integrated global intelligence approach. 

We look forward to welcoming members and other delegates to the conference in person and online and to generating great discussion and discourse around the issues identified above and explored in the program of the first international intelligence conference of its type to be held in Australia. I hope to see as many as possible in person in Melbourne and extend and warm invitation to all who can make it.