Gregory Crabb, former CISO of USPS & Beth-Anne Bygum, CISO of Q2, one of America’s leading FinTechs, to discuss Cyber Survivability
Summit to convene local and national stakeholders in Little Rock, Arkansas, September 17-19th for national event.
Forge Institute today announced the initial speaker and sponsor lineup for the 7th Annual Forge Summit. Taking place September 17-19 in Little Rock, the summit will convene top experts from the front lines of corporate and national security to provide actionable strategies for defending America's critical industries and opportunities to securely leverage emergent technologies to advance critical technology capabilities for national security.
As emerging technologies, including AI, continue to rapidly transform society, the potential adversarial threats pose an unprecedented risk to our nation’s economy and security. The Forge Summit’s unique, closed-press setting is designed to foster candid, high-trust dialogue. In addition to keynote sessions, the Forge Summit will host "Innovation Alley" and “Researcher’s Row” technology showcases, highlighting the startup and research innovators in Arkansas and across the region developing and deploying critical capabilities to support the warfighter and enhance our national security.
“The gap between our understanding of the threats and our collective-defense capabilities are widening," said Lee Watson, Chairman & CEO of the Forge Institute. “We are specifically focused and uniquely positioned to empower private-public, intelligence-led-collective defense collaboration to advance critical technologies for national security and enhance active defense measures. This isn’t a theoretical exercise; it’s a call to action to technical and non-technical leaders. Each and everyone of us must do our part.”
This year’s summit builds on six years of successfully bringing together local and national stakeholders from industry, academia, critical infrastructure, military and the intelligence community from 11 states and Washington, DC. Each year the Summit provides an incredible opportunity for discussion across a wide array of topics and the forum to build trusted partnerships with private and public sector leaders. This year, we’ll have over 18 sessions, two dozen presenters, 300+ attendees, dozens of warfighters, and several leaders from the Department of Defense and intelligence community.
2025 Initial Speaker Lineup
Jim Richberg, Global Field Chief Information Security Officer at Fortinet
Lessons learned from his decades-long career and thoughts on AI.
Cherilyn Pascoe, Director of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at NIST
How the NCSC impacts the security of our national digital landscape.
Beth-Anne Bygum, Chief Security & Compliance Officer at Q2
AI is reshaping security and financial services - the intersection of business, tech, and compliance.
Srinivas Mukkamala, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Product Officer at Securin.io
Software may eat the world, but it expands the attack service. Learn how AI’s unconstrained learning creates novel threats, amplified by flawed data, but offensive and adversarial AI can turn the tide.
Gregory Crabb, Founder & Principal Cybersecurity Consultant at 10-8, LLC
Retired cop, global hacker-hunter and federal exec talks countering nation-state hackers.
Eric Wall, Chief Information Security Officer at the University of Arkansas System
A discussion on leadership, security, & technology transformation.
Bill Carter, Public Sector Cybersecurity Strategist at Fortinet
Is MITRE ATT&CK still relevant? Bill will share his thoughts.
Ramzi Harb, Senior Solutions Architect at Horizon3.ai
Why hacking autonomously can be key to a strong defense.
Andy Jones, Director & Solutions Architect at Secure Passage
Everyone has a threat feed, but it’s full of noise - good data analytics can drive operational defense.
Key Facts
When:
Unclassified Days: September 17-18, 2025 (all day)
Classified Day: September 19, 2025 (half day, see clearance requirements)
Where: Little Rock (exact location emailed to approved attendees)
Security: Attendees must be U.S. Citizens and adhere to Chatham House Rules. Not open to the press. No cameras or recording devices allowed.
Sponsors: Fortinet, Q2, Securin.io, Horizon3.ai, Heartland Business Systems, Semperis, Secure Passage, Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Bastazo, Arkansas Network Experts, Arkansas APEX Accelerator, & Renewal by Anderson
Clearance Requirements: Attendees registering for day 3 must have the appropriate security clearance.
Registration: Registration for the summit is now open. To register, view sponsorship opportunities, or learn more, please visit: https://www.forge.institute/summit.
