On the eve of the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Tim Thomasson of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Public Safety welcomed over 500 DoD, IC, and Industry representatives to the City of New Orleans kicking off the Synergy ’07 Conference & Expo.

The Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, The Honorable James R. Clapper, Jr., co-sponsored the event along with the National Military Intelligence Association (NMIA) and the Government Emerging Technology Alliance (GETA).

Brigadier General Billy J. Bingham, USAF (Ret.) led the conference agenda as the Chairman of Synergy ’07. Formerly Assistant Deputy Director of Operations at the National Security Agency and J2 Commander at PACOM, Mr. Bingham was a very fitting choice to make this conference meaningful and relevant.

Monday night festivities were at the House of Blues, New Orleans and featured live music by local blues band, Rennaissance. The Networking Social was open to all attendees and exhibitors and drew over 500 people out to the event. Thank you to General Dynamics for their generous sponsorship!

The Tuesday highlight was a briefing from LTG Russel Honoré, Commanding General, First Army. LTG Honoré’s session presented the pertinent topic of the Aftermath of Katrina – The Need for Synergy Among Local Responders and National Support Organizations. The presentation was intriguing and very well received by all attendees.

The Synergy ’07 Conference & Expo housed over 50 different exhibitors showing their latest products and services. After visiting with each company in the exhibit hall, Honorable James R. Clapper, Jr. closed the conference addressing the strengthening of DoD/DNI collaboration to support military and crisis operations.

Thank you to all who participated and assisted in successfully launching this ground-breaking conference. We look forward to seeing you in 2008.