By Scott Taylor
Since its inception in 2011 the Best Defence Conference has had a challenging name to live up to. Having attended almost all of these show annually for the past 13 years I can attest that the organizers have certainly grown this event into that moniker.
Held in London, Ontario from 15-16 November 2023, the Best Defence Conference has firmly established itself as a must-attend event for defence industry reps, military brass and procurement officials.
What Best Defence lacks in terms of scale – it is far smaller than the Halifax based DEFSEC Atlantic trade show and the annual CANSEC expo in Ottawa – the event in London makes up for with enhanced business–to–business (B2B) networking opportunities. It was originally the brainchild of Heather Pilot, who organized the inaugural event on behalf of the London Economic Development Corporation.
In 2016 Heather formed the company Pilot Hill Ltd. and began producing Best Defence as a private venture. It was Pilot’s successful entrepreneurial spirit in creating this annual defence conference that led to her being selected as one of Esprit de Corps’ ‘Top 20 Women in Defence’ in 2018.
This year, once again, Best Defence was a full two-day conference. It kicked off with a Wednesday 15 November, CAF Mini-Outlooks with representatives from all three military branches -Army, Navy, Air force - giving a 20 minute summary of the future procurement needs of the CAF.
The highlight of Day One was the Pan Domain Command and Control panel, featuring Lt Gen (ret'd) Stu Beare, Col Guy Parisien, Director Air Domain Development RCAF, Derek Dobson of Microsoft and Keith Pringnitz of MDA, moderated by John de Boer of Blackberry Canada.
General Dynamics Land Systems generously sponsored the end-of-day reception.
Once again, a Best Defence highlight was the Tech Showcase Presentations segment in which company spokespersons were allowed just five minutes each to describe their innovative products and services.
This year was the best-formatted and slickest organized Best Defence event yet. Everything from the graphics, the event schedule and even the handy large font nametags worked well.
Kudos once again to Heather Pilot and her team, Esprit de Corps is already look forward to seeing how Heather’s team makes Best Defence even better in 2024.
