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Conference 2021

Participation, Partnerships, and Protection in the Intelligence Profession

Conference

14 October 2021 – Tiakiwai Conference Centre at the National Library, Wellington

8.30am registrations open, 9.00am start

The NZIIP year started out with a strategic planning day resulting in a new vision of creating a connected and skilled intelligence community to enable excellence for people in the intelligence profession. From this, our new mission has become to grow and connect the intelligence professional and profession through participation, partnerships, and protection.

This year’s conference focuses on this theme throughout, through a more interactive event with panel discussions and working groups.

Setting the scene, it will start with strategic views of the intelligence sector to then establish where we currently are. Next we’ll be delving into what this means for the profession practically through a panel and working groups. The panel will hear from a Māori Biosecurity Intelligence Network, among others, to develop understanding on a properly organic approach to kaitiakitanga and intelligence.

This is followed by working groups facilitated by Mubin Shaikh in Toronto and Andy Roberts in Washington DC, to hear their views respectively on the intelligence professional’s role in partnering with vulnerable communities and increased participation through open-source intelligence activities among our communities.

Andy Roberts was previously head of DIA Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) (US Defense Intelligence Agency) and is now a fellow at the Rand Institute. He will lead a facilitated discussion on OSINT career paths and future skills, focusing on greater collector representation across intelligence professional development.

Meanwhile Mubin Shaikh, Professor of Public Policy at Seneca College Toronto will lead a facilitated discussion on analysing and partnering with vulnerable communities. Mubin was previously a Jihadist with the Taliban, who self-de-radicalised and has since led de-radicalisation programmes and partnerships with at-risk communities. Mubin’s facilitated discussion was made possible by Babel Street.

The conference will also discuss the NZIIP Diversity Assessment shortly to get under way, and a panel on the practical applications of cultural competencies in intelligence workplaces.

We’ll then finish with a strategic commentary on the future of a more diverse and inclusive intelligence profession, considerate of how participation, partnership, and protection can be woven appropriately through organisational and cross-sector intelligence efforts.

Click here to visit the conference website and register now.

The NZIIP Intelligence Community Awards

Evening of 14 October 2021 –Parliament, Wellington

The NZIIP Intelligence Community Awards are an annual event where we celebrate the wealth of talent and diversity across the New Zealand intelligence community that has contributed to the continuing potential and achievements of the sector. These awards are means of recognising outstanding contributions to single agencies, across the intelligence sector, as well as outstanding performance as a new member, experienced practitioner or manager, as nominated by colleagues and superiors.

The NZIIP Intelligence Community Awards are held every year in conjunction with the annual conference.

The NZIIP Intelligence Community Awards nominations are now open! Click here to visit the website or contact your agency’s NZIIP rep to nominate now.

The Award Categories

Two New Categories

Two new categories have been added, as a result of feedback from the NZIIP Diversity Assessment survey feedback, and in consideration of the 2021 Conference theme Participation, Protection and Partnerships in the Intelligence Profession. 

These categories are: The Emerging Leader Award and The Classified Recognition Award.

  • Classified Recognition Award
  • Developing the Practitioner Award
  • Emerging Leader Award
  • Babel Street Innovation in Intelligence Award
  • Intelligence Training Award
  • The Oli Harper Award for Inter-Agency Excellence (formerly the Intelligence Community Award)
  • Practitioner Achievement Award

View more information about the Award Categories here.

Change to the Intelligence Community Award

Lastly, the Intelligence Community Award has been updated and renamed in honour of the late Oliver Harper. The Oli Harper Award for Inter-Agency Excellence sets out to recognise those individuals who have pursued and enabled the greatest inter-agency cohesion, ensuring more effective intelligence across the sector. It has been updated to better reflect the standards and dedication needed from intelligence professionals working across the sector and at an all-of-Government level. It recognises those intelligence professionals who give the most in developing whanaungatanga either between a select number of agencies or broadly across the sector.

Oli Harper was the standard bearer for greater intelligence collaboration across New Zealand government agencies. While working for New Zealand Customs Service, Geospatial-Intelligence New Zealand (GNZ) and the New Zealand Defence Force, Oli worked tirelessly to tap into the potential caught between agencies’ responsibilities. As a NZIIP Committee member, Oli introduced and maintained excellent inter-agency relations between the Institute and domestic agencies. He was also responsible for establishing the NZIIP Intern programme to better shepherd new members of the profession into the intelligence community. “To me he was the epitome of community – easy-going, embracing, and encouraging in his manner and outlook,” says the inaugural NZIIP Intern, Grace Carroll. Despite being described as quietly and diligently working away more often than not, Oli inspired countless aspiring and young intelligence and security professionals.