This blog is part 3 in a series about GSOF Symposium Europe, our 7th annual such event. It took place from 24-26 OCT 2023 in Brno, Czech Republic.
To see other blogs in this series, click here.
To see event photos, click here.
There is a lot happening in the world right now. Brutal conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. COVID spikes occurring across the globe. Ongoing irregular warfare and great power conflicts impacting the economic and defense landscapes.
Despite all of that, hundreds of members of our Special Operations community joined us to converge on Brno last week–the second largest city in the Czech Republic and home to our 7th Annual GSOF Symposium Europe.
The issues we’re seeing in the world only emphasize the need for a capable and unified global Special Operations network, and one way that our team supports that is through events like this international symposium.
Before we dive into the happenings of the week, here’s a quick welcome video from GSOF’s COO, Meaghan Keeler:
Day 0 – Trains, Planes, and a large manual Automobile that we thankfully didn’t crash
Brno takes a little bit of an effort to get to—especially for those traveling from outside of Europe. Its relatively small airport welcomes limited flights per day, so most travelers needed to take a car or train from a larger hub.
However, the city is quaint and beautiful and features wonderful cultural opportunities. It is also home to much of the Czech Republic’s defense industry, which made it an appropriate venue for our event.
Many members of our team had some interesting journeys—delays, flight plan changes, re-routed baggage. All things that seem to come with the territory of international travel these days, but in the end we all arrived safely and with all of our bags on Sunday! #winning
Our team went out looking for some local Czech cuisine, which we luckily found in spades just steps away from our hotel. The food was filling and tasty, although it’s strongly possible we ordered far too much cheese.
Monday morning, however, we were back to business. The GSOF team had a lot to divide and conquer, from setup at the venue to running errands around town.
The errand-running team consisted of Jenn (GSOF VP of Partner Relations) and Chelsea (VP of Marketing and Events). We learned a lot on the journey, including:
- Don’t trust an online van reservation from Sixt…
- When you do finally get a van, check if it is a manual or not before you put Chelsea behind the wheel…
- Always have a Jenn with you to drive around a European city in a large van like a CHAMPION.
While Team Errands bought our ever-important greenery, delivered signage to hotels, and kept the team well-fed, the rest of the staff was working hard to get the Exhibition Hall and Theater(s) set up.
It was a busy day with a to-do list that never quite ended, but networking and food is also important so we headed back to our hotel.
The host hotel for this year was Hotel International Brno, located right in the city center. We try to get as many of our attendees as possible staying in the same area so that we can all benefit from the networking and camaraderie that inevitably comes from the “lobby hangouts.”
This year was no exception—the reunions and introductions were fast and frequent across the multiple levels of bars and restaurants, unofficially breaking the ice for the week!
Day 1 – 24 Nations, Matchmaking, and Beer Tasting
Tuesday, 24 OCT was Day 1 of the Symposium. The day featured three primary elements:
#1: Government-Only Seminar
We always open our international event with sessions only open to Active Duty Military and Government attendees. This provides a more intimate and private setting for this group to discuss shared issues and learn from one another.
The room was packed with 115+ attendees representing 24 Nations.
Speakers included:
- Mr. František ŠULC, First Deputy Minister of Defense – Czech Republic
- Lieutenant General Karel ŘEHKA, Chief of Defense – Czech Republic
- Mr. Tomáš POJAR, National Security Advisor – Czech Republic
- Lieutenant Colonel Daniela SEDLIAKOVA, Executive Officer of the Special Forces Directorate – Czech Republic
- Ms. Cynthia HETHERINGTON, Founder & CEO – Hetherington Group
- …and many more!
Topics of discussion ranged from “SOF Operations in Denied Spaces” to Open Source Intelligence.
We can’t share much from these closed discussions, but we did have one quote that seemed safe to share from Ms. Cynthia Hetherington: “I love AI…but I also think of AI like I do public toilets. They are very useful, but you should use them with caution.” Valid point, Cynthia!
It was a productive and engaged afternoon, and many conversations continued on through the coffee break and evening reception.
#2: B2B Matchmaking
At the same time, we had an opportunity centered around our non-government attendees: B2B Matchmaking.
We like to provide this opportunity at many of our events to help facilitate introductions between organizations that might be able to partner with or benefit from one another.
Over 120 attendees signed up to participate in these quick, rotating meetings. As one attendee said, “It was good…even if I already knew the person, it gave us a chance to have a quick, one-on-one catch up.”
#3: Welcome Reception
The evening culminated in the Welcome Reception in the exhibition hall. While events #1 and #2 were in action, our exhibitors were hard at work getting their booths setup and preparing to engage with attendees.
From 5 – 7 PM, we welcomed ALL attendees to the reception for a first look at the Exhibition Hall and a more informal networking atmosphere.
One of our favorite features of the Welcome Reception was Czech Beer Tasting at our GSOF booth.
If you don’t know, the Czech Republic drinks the most beer per capita of any nation in the world–so we thought it was important to showcase their finest to our attendees. Seating was limited to 12 participants per session and the tastings were led by our resident showman, Mr. Jason Garo of the Partner Relations team and Mr. Trevor Burnett of the Marketing and Events team!
The team gave tasting notes, ran trivia questions, and by all accounts entertained the hell out of all the beer tasting participants!
Across the rest of the exhibition hall, you could find other capabilities for the SOF community ranging from comms equipment to UAV/UAS to medical training and more.
Thank you to everyone who joined us for this amazing kick-off! Check out this quick video recap of Day 1:
To see more blogs in this series, click here.
Here We Go To Brno
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