We were thrilled to welcome our partners and colleagues back in person for OSAC's hallmark event of the year, the OSAC Annual Briefing!

Over 1000 guests gathered in the beautiful Capital One Hall in Tysons, Virginia, where esteemed public figures such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Gentry Smith, Diplomatic Security Director Carlos Matus, and numerous Regional Security Officers hailing from around the world offered remarks. Private-sector security leaders at Coca-Cola, Nielsen, Samaritan’s Purse, and Chemonics International, explored how Russia's war in Ukraine caused ripple effects spanning from reputational risk to strained supply chains to forcing calls on pausing, pivoting, or pulling up stakes in the region. CSIS, US AID, and Bureau of African Affairs representatives focused on the invasion’s impact as felt in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Representatives from Harvard University, Salesforce, and Diplomatic Security discussed how intelligence organizations can thrive in a volatile world; strategic team building and tapping into security teams’ potential to play a more active role in business development, recruitment, sustainability, and bridging organizational divides. And small-group panels paired security managers with OSAC Analysts to discuss the unique needs of diverse travelers, facing "hard-to-measure" and nontraditional threats. Speakers from Notre Dame and the Diplomatic Security Bureau dove into the importance of developing contingency plans: best practices for creating and executing strategies, pondering unique considerations, and walking through real-life examples of plans that worked and others that didn’t. We  heard from the Department's Rewards for Justice and Insider Threats programs, DAS Gharun Lacy, Mitre, PJ Lapp, and others on cybersecurity and insider threat mitigation. Representatives from Netflix, Peloton, and Jacobs joined DS Diversity and Inclusion. Officer, Cassondra Searight in a discussion on recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce. And so much more.

We are grateful to the many partners from U.S. organizations of every kind who joined from all corners of the world. This was an extraordinary chance to share vital information, form new bonds and reinforce old, and to look ahead to a stronger, safer future together.

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