Safeguarding Australia 2024 welcomes two major sponsors

Synergy Group, a consultancy that offers a full range of professional services uniquely tailored to address challenges of government.

Point Trading Group, a 30 year old Australian company providing mission critical equipment, maintenance and services for defence, law enforcement, national security and emergency service sectors throughout Australia and overseas.

Attendees will get opportunities during breaks and networking sessions to connect with both of these sponsors throughout the two day summit.

Change of Date - Safeguarding Australia 2022

Following consideration of the latest health advice provided by our Commonwealth government on the projected major increase of Covid-19 infections throughout August, leading to federal and state public service agencies (and significant private sector businesses) directing staff to work from home, the program committee have just made the decision to change the summit dates to 16th - 17th November, where projections indicate a significant diminution of the risk. In particular, the Federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly and their state government counterparts are urging and advocating return to remote working, with staff to work from home to help curb rising Covid-19 cases and other respiratory illnesses. We feel a primary need to address our duty of care for managing the health risk to attendees and secondarily, the associated risk of a poorly attended event if we were to proceed with the September dates. Additionally, we do not wish to be incidentally contributing to a Covid-sustained environment as a spreader event.

 

The summit will still be held at The Commonwealth Club; although this is a hybrid event, the majority of our attendees (over 90%) have registered to attend in-persons so far as well as majority of our international speakers, on this aspect alone, we feel that moving it to late spring would ensure we maximise our chances to host a successful networking event.

Save This Date — Safeguarding Australia 2022 to be held on 7 & 8 September in Canberra

Safeguarding Australia 2022 - 18th National Security Annual Summit - A hybrid format offering in-person, onsite platform which will be held at The Commonwealth Club as well as virtual platform, BOOK NOW for early bird discounts.

“GEOPOLITICAL RIVALRY: DEMOCRACY’S EXISTENTIAL CHALLENGE — IMPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY”

Check website for regular summit program updates.

A Virtual Summit - Safeguarding Australia 2021 has gone online over March 3rd - 5th

Safeguarding Australia 2021, the 17th National Security Annual Summit is going virtual on March 3rd -5th due to the uncertainties associated with the Covid19 outbreaks over Christmas and the subsequent travel restrictions and state border closures. We wanted to ensure that Summit attendees and speakers would not be adversely compromised.

The virtual event will be over three days of live presentations from 3rd - 5th March allowing you to participate in the comfort and security of your office or home environment. Furthermore, we will be offering streaming-on-demand after the event for you to revisit or for missed presentations.

Safeguarding Australia 2021 summit featuring key government and renowned international speakers are focusing on four key threats — espionage, foreign interference, right-wing domestic terrorism and pandemics — are all at unprecedented and increasingly dangerous levels, while one, Islamist terrorism remains in continuing focus. These four areas of threat will be addressed with key senior security experts from the Australian and international community.

The Pandemic Forum – New Insights for National Security will be built around key security and emergency planning elements and seek to address the role of National Resilience Initiative in mitigating the consequences of future events with prevention, mitigation and lessons learnt.

Although we are unable to offer any face to face physical meeting for the time-being, we will ensure that the summit will be highly interactive to ensure you remain connected and we will also be offering networking sessions as an added option. We hope to see as many of you as possible.

Postponement of Safeguarding Australia 2020 to 3rd and 4th March 2021

This year’s Safeguarding Australia summit has been cancelled altogether due to the current and on-going virus outbreaks, lockdown and border closures. Our summit committee has not taken this postponement lightly as this is a national conference.

However, our optimism is not completely daunted as we have commenced plans for re-convening it for 3rd – 4th March early next year at the same venue, QT Canberra.

Our key speakers have all re-committed to present in March as well as the Secretary of Home Affairs, Mike Pezzullo AO who will be delivering the Dinner Keynote Address on the evening of Day 1, Wednesday, 3rd March.

Announcing Pandemic Forum – Insights for National Security

Safeguarding Australia 2020 has extended its scope to include the National Security implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic at a one day forum which will be drawing on the recent national and international experiences.  The program will also take advantage of the work done by members of the Program Committee in this area through 2007 to 2009 in a series of conferences and seminars on planning and preparation that responded to the Swine and Bird Influenza (H1N1) threats.

Please note: change of dates for Safeguarding Australia 2020

As you might be aware of COVID-19 pandemic that is unfolding here and overseas, the Safeguarding Australia summit committee have taken prudent measure to postpone the summit to later half of the year.

In case you have not yet received notification, I wished to make sure you were aware that Safeguarding Australia 2020 will now be held on Wednesday, 9th September & Thursday, 10th September at QT Canberra.
 
The action was not taken lightly but it is in the best interest of the health and well-being of everyone from delegates to speakers and venue staff and with many security professionals of whom are also involved in responding to various COVID -19 incident management plans.

We will be monitoring the evolving pandemic situation closely and if necessary, we will limit the delegate numbers for social distancing measures for the safety and well-being for all.
 
I am very pleased to announce the following keynote speakers profiled below have indicated their intent to participate in September namely,  Lt Gen Ed Cardon, Rear Admiral Kevin Lunday and Sir Angus Houston.

We have also received inquiries about addressing the security issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic declaration and implementation and we will now convene a one day forum on the National Security implications of a pandemic at Safeguarding Australia 2020 in September. We have previously addressed this issue, in respect to SARS and Swine Flu a decade ago with numerous forums and workshops and it will be timely to review actions and outcomes to date. More information about the program will be announced shortly.

We will be sending out regular updates and program development in coming weeks. If you wish to keep abreast of future event updates, please subscribe at footer of this page.
 
Best Regards,
Jason Brown
Summit Chair
Safeguarding Australia Summit