Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      San Antonio Innovation Summit photoPatrick Bowar, Air Force Personnel Center director of technology and information, speaks at the San Antonio Innovation Summit, Aug. 3, 2021, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. More than 750 people attended the two-day forum which gave military, civilians, community members and industry a chance to bring innovation collaboration opportunities to an expanded installation and mission support audience. (U.S. Air Force photo by Luke J. Allen)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res
        


        San Antonio Innovation Summit photoLt. Col. Martin Salinas, AFWERX chief operating officer, presents at the San Antonio Innovation Summit on Aug. 3, 2021, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. AFWERX is a channel for Air Force engagement across industry, academia, and non-traditional contributors to create transformative opportunities and foster an Air Force culture of innovation. (U.S. Air Force photo by Luke J. Allen)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res

SA Innovation Summit takes on ‘accelerating change’Published Aug. 5, 2021
                    
                    By Shannon Carabajal
                    
                    
                    Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center Public Affairs
            **JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas (AFNS) --**With the theme of Accelerate Change, the Department of the Air Force pushed innovation forward during the inaugural San Antonio Innovation Summit Aug. 3-4 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.
With both in-person and live-streaming opportunities, more than 750 people attended the summit bringing leading government and industry innovation experts together with military members, community leaders and private-sector representatives to highlight successes, lessons learned and paths taken to successfully implement projects that are changing the Air Force.
“We have to remain competitive through technology, through the best and brightest Airmen, through lean processes,” said **Col. Kevin Mantovani**, A**ir Force Installation and Mission Support Center** vice commander, during his keynote address. “We have to design a better Air Force that’s quicker, more lethal, and deters and can defeat any adversary. That is what you’re here to do. You’re here to think about accelerating change and innovating.”
This year’s event, a partnership between AFIMSC, **Air Force Personnel Center**, **Air Education and Training Command**, **AFWERX** and the city of San Antonio, grew out of a smaller, virtual summit AFIMSC held in 2020.
“Building upon last year’s innovation summit, we’re really excited to have our military and community partners working together to provide our customers—the installations and the installation sparks—with the information they need to succeed,” said Marc Vandeveer, AFIMSC chief innovation officer. “The only way we can do that is by partnering, working together and letting everyone know what’s out there across the installation and mission support innovation ecosystem.”
Following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention protocols to allow for safe, in-person gathering, the event was a welcome opportunity for collaboration among organizers and attendees from across the Air Force and Department of Defense.
“It’s an exciting point for San Antonio,” said Will Garrett, vice president and director of cybersecurity development at Port San Antonio. “As a city, as a community, government and academia, our job is to create the connection points—the infrastructure, the activity outside the wire—that helps our mission partners seek that acceleration of change, find innovation and discover talent. This summit is kind of a convergence of all those entities that support the National Defense Strategy and (Joint Base San Antonio) mission partners getting to that pace of change we need with technology.”
Connecting the right people at the right time is important to helping the Air Force and DoD build a powerful innovation network, said Patrick Bowar, AFPC director of technology and information.
“Innovation does not happen in a bubble,” he said, adding that cross-talk and regular collaboration between organizations benefit everybody. “We can all leverage the same great ideas and the solutions we’re using to deliver those ideas.”
Throughout the event, attendees heard from leading innovators and attended breakout sessions, workshops, innovation panels and a vendor expo. The breakout sessions gave participants a chance to try unique problem-solving activities and get hands-on experience with technology and innovative programs that are changing the Air Force, including augmented and virtual-reality technology, small unmanned aircraft systems, **Air Force Gaming** and software platforms.
For 1st Lt. Kendall Hubbard, 341st Comptroller Squadron budget flight commander at **Malmstrom AFB**, Montana, learning how other organizations tackle and solve problems was the best part of the event because she believes it will help her move ideas forward at her installation.
“Hearing ideas from other bases, especially bases with other commands and other missions, and ideas from outside of the military ... I think bringing that back and being able to share that will open up more ways for information to flow. That will be my biggest takeaway,” she said.
Col. Thomas Wegner, director of the AETC Analysis and Innovation Directorate, echoed that idea, urging everyone in attendance to network, build relationships and learn how to navigate the innovation ecosystem so they can help the service continue to innovate at the speed of relevance.
“If there’s only one thing that they remember, it is that they’re not alone. There’s a network of teams across the DoD who want to do innovative things,” he said. “If an Airman or **Guardian** has a neat idea and doesn’t know what to do or where to go with it, there are organizations at their base and in their command that can help them take that idea from innovation to impact.”FS 



USAF 



AF 



Air Force 



innovation 



AFMC 



Air Force Materiel Command 



AFIMSC 



Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center 



accelerate change 



San Antonio Innovation Summit 



JB San Antonio-Lackland Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                DAF leaders talk budget, reoptimizing the force
                    
                    DAF leaders speak at National Character and Leadership Symposium
                    
                    DAF members recognized during BEYA STEM awards
                    
                    DAF senior enlisted advisors discuss Airmen, Guardians in the fight
                    
                    SecAF Kendall AFA Warfare Symposium Q&A: Reoptimizing for Great Power CompetitionInnovation
                AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalists
                    
                    Chief Digital, Artificial Intelligence Office to host hackathon in HawaiiMAJCOM News
                Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
                    
                    AMC rises to increasing global tension
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil