VetsinTech × Bay Area Council
NatSec + Space Innovation Summit
Invite-Only · San Francisco · October 8–9
VetsinTech, in partnership with the Bay Area Council, will host the NatSec + Space Innovation Summit during San Francisco Fleet Week. It is a two-day convening at the intersection of national security, space innovation, and veteran talent.
Set against the exciting backdrop of Fleet Week, attendees will take in naval maneuvers and ships on the bay, the Blue Angels flying overhead, and a drone exhibition, as they network with founders, defense technology companies, VCs, and government innovation leaders.
By anchoring the summit in Fleet Week, when the defense and maritime community is already concentrated in San Francisco, VetsinTech and the Bay Area Council aim to create an invite-only forum where veteran talent, government innovation units, and the venture and startup ecosystem can connect directly.
The summit opens with a hiring-focused agenda connecting transitioning service members and military spouses with space and defense tech companies and government entities actively recruiting for technical and leadership roles.
The program will provide insight to employers about the latest trends in attracting top talent to support growth. The day closes with a VIP reception bringing together workforce leaders, government partners, and industry hosts to build relationships ahead of Day Two's innovation programming.
The second day convenes senior leaders from each military branch's innovation unit alongside venture capital investors and early-stage defense tech founders.
Sessions will surface emerging technology priorities, funding pathways, and partnership opportunities across the NatSec and space domains.
Detailed session-by-session agenda to be published. Speaking inquiries are open now.
The NatSec + Space Innovation Summit is designed as an invitation-only convening of 250–300 of the most consequential people at the intersection of national security, space, and technology. This is not a general conference. Every seat is intentional.
Defense-tech venture capital partners and LPs actively deploying into national security and space, alongside corporate venture capital teams.
Founders and CEOs of dual-use and national security startups from Series A through growth stage, plus senior executives from frontier AI, autonomy, and space companies.
Program leads and technology scouts from DIU, In-Q-Tel, AFWERX, SBIR, and other service innovation commands, with academic and policy leaders shaping the framework.
The room is built for conversion, not attendance. Engineered 1:1 matchmaking, curated session formats, and private meeting space ensure that every attendee leaves with relationships that move their work forward.
The NatSec + Space Innovation Summit offers sponsors something most defense and technology events cannot: a room where the people who fund, build, buy, and regulate the next generation of national security capability are all present at once, and a venue, Fleet Week San Francisco, that carries visibility far beyond the event itself.
Fleet Week is one of San Francisco's most media-covered weeks of the year. Blue Angels flights, naval operations on the bay, and the city's concentrated defense and civic community create a broadcast environment that extends sponsor presence well beyond the summit's walls. Sponsors are positioned at the center of that moment.
Sponsors receive first-look access to the founders and startups presenting at the summit, along with priority placement in the matchmaking platform. For firms with investment, procurement, or partnership mandates, the summit is built to put you in the room with the people you need to meet.
Association with VetsinTech signals concrete commitment to the veteran community that is building and leading this ecosystem. With the summit anchored to VIT's national nonprofit mission, sponsorship carries earned credibility that paid placements at commercial conferences cannot replicate.
Investment in the inaugural edition of what is designed to be an annual, mission-focused growth franchise. Founding sponsors are not buying a single event. They are securing positioning at the origin point of a platform intended to grow in scale, reach, and influence each year. First-mover positioning compounds.
Sponsorship opportunities are available across multiple tiers. Early inquiries are encouraged, as each sponsorship category is limited.
VetsinTech is the leading national nonprofit connecting the military veteran community to the technology industry through education, employment, and entrepreneurship. With chapters nationwide and deep roots in Silicon Valley, VIT has spent more than a decade building the trust and relationships that make a convening like this possible.
The NatSec + Space Innovation Summit is the natural evolution of that work, moving from community support to ecosystem leadership at the moment the defense-tech sector needs it most.
The Bay Area Council is the region's premier business-sponsored public policy organization, representing the Bay Area's largest employers and most influential civic institutions.
Its forthcoming report on the Bay Area's defense tech ecosystem, framing the region's emergence as the nation's AI, technology, and defense innovation capital, serves as the intellectual and strategic foundation for this summit.
Institutional momentum behind this event reflects the broader shift underway in how the national security community engages with commercial technology. With the Defense Innovation Unit newly elevated as a DoD Field Activity, In-Q-Tel expanding its commercial technology mandate, and the Office of Strategic Capital deploying new financing tools for defense-relevant companies, the government infrastructure to act on what happens in this room has never been more developed. The summit is timed to that moment.
An event advisory board is being formed. Members to be announced.
The NatSec + Space Innovation Summit will happen once in 2026. The founding sponsor roster, the speaker lineup, and the attendee list are being built now, and each of those categories fills by design, not by volume.
For organizations that fund, build, or buy in the national security and space ecosystem, the question is not whether to be present at the convergence of veteran talent, defense capital, and commercial-first innovation. The question is whether to be present at its founding moment.
Sponsorship and speaking inquiries are open now.
The NatSec + Space Innovation Summit | The Klamath, San Francisco | Fleet Week, October 8–9, 2026
Hosted by VetsinTech in partnership with the Bay Area Council