Annual Dinner 2007
Summary of Meeting:
On 12 December 2007 Chapter The Hague organized its Annual Dinner Meeting in “Kasteel Oud Wassenaar” in Wassenaar, the Netherlands. Host for this special event was the NCIM Group. The evening started with a reception in the foyer of the Castle, which was followed by the official part of the Meeting.
After a warm welcome to members and their partners, Chapter President Naval Commodore (rtd) RNLN Willem Voogt gave a short overview of the major activities of the Chapter in the year 2007 and a preview of planned events for the next year 2008. This was followed by the formal (re-)election of the Officers of the Board of Afcea Chapter The Hague for the year 2008. The proposed Officers of the Board were unanimously approved by the Chapter members.
After mentioning that the NCIM Group recently was singled-out by CRF as the Top ICT Employer for the year 2007, Commodore Voogt gave the floor to the President and CEO of the NCIM Group, Mr. Toon Akkermans. Mr. Akkermans told the audience that the NCIM Group specializes in seconding highly educated professionals to manage projects, consult, develop software, and manage systems in technical environments. The NCIM Group was established in 1988 and has offices in the Netherlands in Leidschendam and Eindhoven, as well as in Brussels, Belgium; Camberly, United Kingdom and in Fort Worth, Texas in the United States. The company's headquarters is in Leidschendam.
More than 150 skilled NCIM professionals with a passion for technology work on IT solutions for customers in the defense and security, energy and utilities, telecommunications, transportation and media, and technical automation sectors. Amongst the clients of NCIM one will find NATO (NC3A, NCSA), EU, Dutch Forensic Institute, Europol, Dutch Ministry of Defence, Agusta Westland, eBay, Corus, Philips.
The main speaker of the evening was Mr. Thomas Kreitmar, Principal Scientist at the NATO C3 Agency (NC3A). His topic was the NATO project MAJIIC, which stands for “Multi-sensor Aerospace-ground Joint ISR Interoperability Coalition”. This project is a multinational effort to maximize the military utility of surveillance and reconnaissance resources through the development and evaluation of operational and technical means for interoperability of a wide range of ISR assets. In close co-operation with industry, the nations participating in MAJIIC are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The nations have appointed the NC3A as a facilitator for the project and to provide overall technical management.
Under the program, standards and technologies are being developed that will allow NATO commanders to instantly tap into real-time data from a number of NATO and national systems. In September 2007, MAJIIC had its first full-blown test during a major NATO exercise in Norway, Trial Quest 2007, which included real-time manoeuvres by several thousand air and ground forces.
Through this approach, MAJIIC will provide a true network-enabled capability enabling a wide variety of users at different locations and levels of command to access and retrieve data in accordance with own tasks, needs, priorities and preferences. The MAJIIC architecture is also compliant with the NATO Network Enabled Capabilities initiative.
Since the NATO Project “MAJIIC”
was the main briefing topic of the evening, “Magic” was chosen as the theme of the Annual Dinner Meeting 2007. This was illustrated with a world-class performance by the famous Mr. Eric Eswin, international President of the World
Federation Magic Societies and his team of magicians, who performed a number of conjuring tricks during the Annual Dinner. For an
even more relaxed atmosphere big band music from the 1930’s and 1940’s
was brought by Bill Baker’s Big Band. This all together made the Annual Dinner 2007 of Afcea Chapter The Hague an unforgettable
experience.
Definition of used acronyms:
NCIM = Netherlands
Centre for Information Management
Commodore = 1-star General
Rtd = retired
RNLN = Royal Netherlands Navy
CRF = Corporate Research Foundation
ICT = Information and Communications
Technology
CEO = Chief Executive Officer
IT = Information Technology
NC3A = NATO C3 Agency
NATO =North Atlantic Treaty Organization
C3 = Consultation, Command
and Control
NCSA = NATO CIS Services Agency
MAJIIC = Multi-sensor Aerospace-ground
Joint ISR Interoperability Coalition
ISR = Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance
CIS = Communications and Information
Systems
EU = European Union
Guest Speaker(s):
|
Speaker’s Full Name |
Position |
Rank |
Branch of Service |
Organization |
|
Willem Voogt |
President Chapter The Hague |
Cdre (rtd) |
Navy |
RNLN |
|
Toon Akkermans |
President and CEO |
Civilian |
|
NCIM |
|
Thomas Kreitmar |
Principal Scientist |
Civilian |
|
NATO C3 Agency |
Photograph #1:
Commodore RNLN Willem Voogt, President of Chapter
The Hague, presents a Certificate-of-Appreciation
to the
main speaker
Mr. Thomas Kreitmar, Principal
Scientist at
the NATO C3 Agency for his Presentation on the
NATO Project MAJIIC
|
Position |
Full Name |
Rank |
Branch of Service |
Organization |
|
Left |
Willem Voogt |
Cdre (rtd) |
Navy |
President Chapter The Hague |
|
Right |
Thomas Kreitmar |
Civilian |
|
NATO C3 Agency |
Photograph #2:
Commodore RNLN Willem Voogt, President of Chapter
The Hague, presents a Certificate-of-Appreciation
to
Mr. Toon Akkermans, President and CEO of the NCIM Group
for his presentation
and for hosting the Afcea Chapter
The Hague Annual Dinner 2007
|
Position |
Full Name |
Rank |
Branch of Service |
Organization |
|
Left |
Willem Voogt |
Cdre (rtd) |
Navy |
President Chapter The Hague |
|
Right |
Toon Akkermans |
Civilian |
|
President and CEO of NCIM |
Photograph #3:
An impression of
the very animated reception in the foyer
of the beautiful Castle
“Oud Wassenaar”