That’s right, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with its 28 independent member countries across North America and Europe, represents several procurement contract opportunities worth in excess of a billion dollar for Canadian defence companies.

And NITEC17, the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) agency industry conference, is bringing more than 600 high-level defence experts from across the allied militaries, industry and academia to Ottawa for a three-day conference from April the 24th to the 26th.

The theme of this year’s event is Sharpening NATO’s Technological Edge: Adaptive Partnerships and the Innovative Power of Alliance Industry.

Vanguard Radio recently spoke with Peter Scaruppe, director of acquisition for NCI, and during our brief interview he outlined some of NATOs procurement needs and its current focus on building its cyber capabilities.

“NITEC17 will be of interest to the Canadian security and defence industry because it will inform them on what are the future contracting opportunities in the pipeline over the next one to three years within NATO,” according to Scaruppe. “The conference will help Canadian industry understand the NATO system better – how we do acquisition, which technologies are in demand with NATO, and how to successfully take part in the procurement process.”

Hear more of what Scaruppe had to say in our podcast…

Podcast time stamp:

00:55 – The role of the NCI director of acquisition

01:53 – NATO’s $1.5 billion procurement programs

02:13 – Why NITEC17 is important for Canadian companies

04:46 – What are the potential contract opportunities within NATO

07:25 – 10 upcoming main competitions

08:39 – NATO’s IT procurement needs

09: 18 – Focus on Infrastructure as a Service

10: 38 – Featured speakers and business and networking opportunities

13:19 – Advice on how to make the most out of NITEC17

NITEC17 highlights
• Business opportunities worth 3 billion EUR
• Breakout sessions on NATO-Industry collaboration
• Direct interaction with high-level defence experts
• Top speakers
• Small and Medium Enterprise Mentoring Sessions
• Next Generation Innovators Programme · Innovation Challenge

To find out more about NITEC17 and to register, click on this link