Threat Conference

The Cipher Brief Threat Conference is the premier national security event in its category: an invitation-only gathering of 250 leaders from the public and private sectors, running across three days of sessions, workshops, and exercises. It has operated since 2016. The people in the room are cabinet officials, intelligence community leaders, defense technology executives, and senior journalists. The standard they hold events to is set by the most serious rooms in Washington and the most well-produced conferences in the private sector. When I came to the conference in 2023, the visual and experiential execution didn't match the caliber of its audience or its programming. The design was staid in the way that DC events often are — functional, serious, but not particularly considered. The physical environment in particular, the stage set, the furniture, the way speakers were framed on camera, had received less attention than the agenda. I came in to change that.