The annual Concept Development and Experimentation (CD&E) Working Group Meeting will take place during 20-22 March 2012, at Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel, 777 Waterside Drive Norfolk, VA 23510-2102, USA.

Purpose:

At the 2012 CD&E Working Group, HQ SACT will offer nations to collaborate on the integration of national and ACT CD&E activities, as well as a more streamlined approach to achieve the necessary technical validation of experiments. Nations are also requested to express their areas of interest to HQ SACT in order to accurately target the CD&E related topics that could need further discussions in the benefit of the Alliance. Additionally, all nations are encouraged to forward their willingness in providing attendees with national presentations on any CD&E-related topics or activities.

Attendance:

The CD&E Working Group (WG) Meeting is targeted national and NATO organizational representatives in the rank of NATO OF-5 and below. Updates to the three day meeting agenda will be distributed through the CD&E WG representatives and the National CD&E Points of Contact with copies to ACT’s National Liaison Representatives and NATO Centres of Excellence. It’s of high importance that the Nations send representatives to the WG meeting that have extensive knowledge of CD&E activities within your National organizations.

Language and Classification:

The program will be "NATO UNCLASSIFIED" and will be presented and published in English. There will be no translation services available during the meeting.

Read-ahead, presentations and other materials:

The read ahead material for this year’s CD&E WG will be sent in two parts. The first read ahead package with the majority of the CD&E elements for the 2013-17 CDE POW is scheduled for distribution late January/the beginning of February. The second read-ahead package will be forwarded in late February with additional experiment proposals.

The conference presentations and other materials will be posted on the ACT CD&E Webportal (UNCLASS) shortly after the meeting. Previous registration for this web portal is required via http://id.act.nato.int/arf/cde.

Registration for the WG (before you arrive):

All attendees need to register for the CD&E WG by forwarding their name, rank, position, affiliation, address, e-mail, and phone by 08 MARCH 2012 to Jose.Cepedavilla@act.nato.int. Please also state if you plan to attend the No-host Ice Breaker at the hotel on 20 March.

Registration at the WG (immediately before the WG kicks off):

Registration at the hotel is open from 0800-0900 Tuesday 20 March in the meeting area on the second floor at the hotel. Please show a valid ID for registration and your ID badge will be issued.

Accommodation:

For accommodation at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel, all participants should make reservations online at NATO CD&E Working Group.

Reservations may also be made by telephone directly to the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel at 1-757-622-4571 or 1-757-6224571 (sales fax) on individual basis, referring to NATO Concept Development & Experimentation. Please also refer to the Admin Info issued by ACT.

Reservations should be made by 09 March 2012 in order to get the special rate and guarantee availability. Please note the hotel cancellation policy.

Working Group Coordinators:

LTC Jose Richard, Tel +1(757)747-3217. jose.richard@act.nato.int

LTC Soeren Soltau Petersen, Tel +1(757)747-3682. soeren.petersen@act.nato.int