Purpose-driven exercises focused on ground truth understanding, threat identification, and tangible solutions.
DEFx convenings are built around one hard problem. Over two to three days, at home or abroad, we curate a small, invitation-only group of subject-matter experts from national security, intelligence, diplomacy, entrepreneurship, and fields that rarely get a seat at the table.
They bring perspectives that institutional habit hasn't shaped. Alongside them are the operators, decision-makers, and resources needed to carry the strongest ideas through to execution. We choose the setting as carefully as the guest list, because where people gather shapes how they think.
Every DEFx follows the same arc. We start with ground truth, from the people closest to the problem, describing what they actually see rather than what the reporting assumes. From there we work backward from the symptom to the cause, because most failed solutions solve the wrong problem well.
Two or three days. One challenge. People who can actually do something about it.
Previous DEFx Events
DEFx + Ethical Hacker Force
March 29th 2025
(Complete)
DEFx - Ethical Hacker Force was held to frame out what an unconventional ethical hacker capability might look like for presentation at the US Naval War College's Cyber & Innovation Policy Institute's (CIPI) Annual Sumer workshop 2025
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DEFx + USAREC
July 27th 2024
(Complete)
Tasked by Col. Kris Saling (Ret.) with the US Army Recruiting Command Innovation Directorate to re-think strategies for talent attraction and retention.
Concept paper generated
DEFx + Mexico
May 3 - 6, 2024
(Complete)