Central Florida Tech Grove Final Demo Day

A3 Members Only executive forum focused on the economic and market forces shaping the automation industry, business performance, emerging technologies, leadership priorities, innovation, and business growth. The substantive program includes Welcome & Opening Remarks, Economic, Business & Automation Outlook, and Closing Sessions. Featured voices include Connor Lokar of ITR Economics, Dr. James Hewitt, and Josh Linkner. The forum brings together leaders in robotics, machine vision, motion control, artificial intelligence, and industrial automation.

The showcase focuses on manufacturing solutions for aerospace, mobility, and defense applications, with an emphasis on flexibility, speed, and adaptability. APEX Accelerators will host small-group Knowledge Bar sessions on conducting business safely and securely in the defense industry and other federal departments. The AeroDef Strategic Advisory Council curates the aerospace and defense tracks of the colocated RAPID + TCT Conference. Those tracks cover additive manufacturing applications and supporting technologies, including AI, automation, advanced materials, digital manufacturing, qualification, and inspection.

The workshop covers advancements, challenges, and gaps in flexible hybrid electronics, hybrid electronics, and bio-signal sensing for real-time cognitive and physical state monitoring and augmentation, and includes AI for Metrology (AI4MT) sessions. Day 1, the Innovation Forum, features technical presentations on advances from FlexTech and NBMC. Day 2, Technical Gap Analysis, uses collaborative breakout sessions to examine technology gaps and roadmaps, shape FlexTech and NBMC research priorities, and inform future Request for Proposal directions. Day 3, the AI for Metrology Workshop, explores connecting metrology, failure-analysis, and test data across the semiconductor supply chain. Topics include AI-assisted defect localization and root-cause analysis, non-destructive modalities, targeted physical characterization, chiplets, heterogeneous integration, and advanced packaging. Industry tours at SkyWater Technology and NeoCity Academy are also listed.

The forum focuses on the Army Aviation Roadmap and the industrial base, sustainment, and acquisition. Its program includes discussion of Army transformation and the organic industrial base, with opportunities for briefings involving project managers, Army aviation transformation and future-capability leaders, original equipment manufacturers, and other industry leaders. Professional sessions address the industrial base, the Army Aviation Roadmap, sustainment and the organic industrial base, acquisition, integration of the Portfolio Acquisition Executive for Maneuver Air portfolio, force modernization, the operating environment, the Pentagon landscape, and future warfighting concepts. Exhibit-hall open-mic panels cover cargo; attack and reconnaissance; utility aircraft; uncrewed aircraft systems; next-generation command and control; AMCOM sustainment; counter-drone systems; aviation mission systems and architecture; tactical aviation and ground munitions; and MV-75 Cheyenne opportunities.

A B2B event focused on aerospace and defense supply chains, manufacturing capabilities, services, and technologies. Suppliers, service providers, engineering, supply chain, procurement, and product development teams connect through pre-arranged one-to-one meetings; attendance is reserved for vetted professionals. The first day features presentations by executives and leaders covering commercial and military programs at Collins, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon. Topics include market-segment trends, challenges and opportunities, supplier expectations, manufacturing automation, and information integration.

The meeting focuses on transforming Department of War acquisition pathways and moving at the speed of relevance. It addresses challenges innovators, startups, and small businesses face in understanding customer needs, advancing technology with autonomy as the baseline, and communicating across customer and industry lines to develop capabilities that help warfighters complete missions more effectively.

The summit gathers Air Force and Space Force modeling, simulation, and analytics experts to learn about new initiatives and techniques and consider how modeling and simulation can move more training from the real world to digital. It provides a forum for shared information and connection across military services, the Department of War, industry, academia, and international partners. Focus areas include AI, machine learning and cloud; augmented, mixed, extended and virtual reality; analytics; digital engineering; healthcare simulations; joint coalition; multi-domain environments; and test evaluation and experimentation. Panel themes include senior leadership, Digital Space Range, NCO, Resilient, Ready & Responsive Airmen and Guardians, and Partner to Win. The summit also includes an industry exhibition and classified briefings.

The program focuses on training readiness and lethality for all-domain dominance, with papers, tutorials, workshops, special events, and exhibits on modeling, simulation, training, and education. Topics include military AI and autonomy; synthetic training; digital engineering and digital twins; defense acquisition and sustainment; wargaming; human performance and extended reality; cyber and electronic warfare; and skilled-trades workforce development for national security. Senior-leader discussions address translating operational needs into training capabilities, acquisition priorities, military AI, and service modernization. Other sessions cover NATO mission-space digital twins, small-arms direct-fire science and technology, data-driven readiness, and digital engineering ecosystems. The conference is hosted by the National Training and Simulation Association, an affiliate of the National Defense Industrial Association. Attendance is open to Five Eyes partners, NATO member countries, and countries that profess neutrality.

The first program day examines the move from automated processes toward intelligent, connected systems capable of decision-making, optimization, and adaptive control. Sessions cover programmable cloud laboratory nodes for AI materials and manufacturing, Sandia’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation, the Alabama Materials Institute, and an autonomous robotic metallurgist materials innovation platform. The program also connects self-driving and autonomous laboratory efforts associated with the Genesis Mission and Programmable Cloud Laboratories agendas to real-world applications, collaboration, and the future of autonomous manufacturing systems. An industry technology exhibition and demonstrations are included. The second program day explores Internet of Things for Manufacturing (IoTfM) use cases, implementation lessons, standards for connectivity and interoperability, and the future direction of IoTfM. Sessions address OPC UA, digital technologies and digital twins, factory-floor digital transformation, automation and additive manufacturing, manufacturing data, practical industrial IoT, and technologies shaping future factories. The program also includes advanced manufacturing pilot facility tour stations and demonstrations.

The week combines the SATELLITE Conference, GovMilSpace, a peer-evaluated Tech Seminar, an executive Inner Circle program, and an exhibit hall. Topics include satellite finance, M&A and market structure; 5G non-terrestrial networks and the road to 6G; direct-to-device connectivity; AI in satellite operations; software-defined networks; sovereign networks; launch economics; and ground-segment modernization. GovMilSpace addresses acquisition and commercial integration, resilient architectures, GEOINT, PNT, defense constellation services, optical communications, and the space industrial base. The Tech Seminar covers ground architecture, spectrum, propulsion, AI, and in-space operations, with white papers accompanying its technical sessions. The program also includes discussions of satellite manufacturing costs and supply-chain pressures, spectrum policy ahead of WRC-27, satellite-network security and interference testing, and orbital logistics. Some Inner Circle briefings and roundtables are exclusive to that executive program.