Each year during the last full week of the month of August the Capital City of the State of Alabama – Montgomery has an experience that may be somewhat unique among metro areas of its size (over 192,000) – Its population increases by more than 4000+ individuals for 3 days due to its hosting of a 30+ years old “tech conference” – Department of Air Force Information Technology & Cyber(DAFITC) Conference.
Historically our city’s/region’s promotional efforts for this event to the greater IT community has been sub-par but here is the thing, those within the information technology industry know that THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCES in the IT infrastructure components and management that operates within the United States Air Force and that which operates within the confines of a small business – all of the services, protocols and technologies ARE EXACTLY THE SAME! Although applicable to various use case scenarios, a primary purpose of the breakout sessions, the exhibits/exhibitors and the entire DAFITC Conference is to perpetually work towards the effective use of current and emerging technology on behalf of Warfighters to achieve the Department of the Air Force’s mission and business outcomes.
For the past number of years, including the 2025 Conference, attendance has hovered in range of 4000+ US Airmen, Civil Servants, Contractors and IT Companies and Professionals who operate in both the DOD and non-DOD business spaces.
Some may be surprised that such an event happens in Montgomery, AL but the thing to keep in mind is the local presence of both Maxwell Air Force Base and the Gunter Air Force Annex. Both institutions have very unique missions that heavily revolve around both the strategy of our nation’s IT cyber posture as well as the day to day tactics involved in the operations and management of software systems management for the entire USAF.
Actually, these cutting edged missions are nothing new to Maxwell, Gunter and the City of Montgomery. Almost 50 years ago as the Federal Government and its DOD affiliates were in the early days of deploying the predecessor of today’s Internet – the
This year’s event had nearly 200 exhibitors with names like
- Amazon Web Services
- Anduril Industries
- Broadcom
- Juniper Networks
- GitLab
- Google Cloud
- IBM
- Red Hat
- SolarWinds
- And Many, Many More…
Over the course of three days over 120+ breakout sessions, possibly better know as training workshops, covered an array of technical subject matters from Generative AI to that of the strategic management of drones.
The keynote speakers were stellar and the overarching vibe among the conference attendees was one reflective of the fact that everyone was having a good time.
DAFITC also had a major component for high school students with its Student Educational Day. During this segment of the conference hundreds of high school students from around the Central Alabama River Region have an opportunity to tour the vendor exhibit floor along with interacting with a panel of both DOD and non-DOD industry leaders.
One of the better publicly shared perspectives and synopsis of the particulars of DAFITC 2025 were summed up by the President & CEO of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce – CEO Anna Buckalew. The members of our small team at the I85Cyber.org believe there to be no better overview of this entire week’s events. To listen to the details please click the video clip below.