Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference

The Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) is an annual conference in Orlando, Florida organized by the National Training and Simulation Association held at the Orange County Convention Centre, a large conference and exhibition centre located on Exhibition Drive on the south side of Orlando.

Attendance
Peak attendance at I/ITSEC occurred in 2010 and 2011 (see the table in the next section) with approximately 20,000 attendees. Attendance declined to about 14,000 in 2013 and 2014 due to new restrictions with US military and government travel. As a result, conference leaders are taking steps to attract more international attendees, and they have begun expanding I/ITSEC's offerings to appeal to modeling, simulation, and training professionals who work in sectors outside of the defense and security sectors, such as healthcare, civil aviation, transportation, and disaster relief.

Growth and Evolution
The ancestor of I/ITSEC was the “Naval Training Device Center/Industry Conference” in 1966. The conference expanded to include land, air and sea systems and in 1980 the title changed to a more general one. Below is the history of I/ITSEC locations and attendance from 1980:

I/ITSEC attendance  figures

No.        Year          Exhibitors   Attendance     Venue

40         2019          550          17400          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

39         2018          491          16500          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

38         2017          485          15200          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

37         2016          489          17100          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

36         2015          470          14700          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

35         2014          500          14000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

34         2013          400          14000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

33         2012          561          16000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

32         2011          600          20000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

31         2010          595          20000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

30         2009          550          18000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

29         2008          575          17900          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

28         2007          539          16000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

27         2006          500          16000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

26         2005          500          17000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

25         2004          480          16000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

24         2003          495          14000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

23         2002          460          14000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

22         2001          429          12000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

21         2000          417          14000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

20         1999          347          12000          Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

19         1998          341          3000           Orlando, Orange County Exhibition Centre

18         1997          248          3000           Orlando, Marriott

17         1996          242          3300           Orlando, Marriott

16         1995          229          2700           Albuquerque

15         1994          212          2608           Orlando, Marriott

14         1993          191          2003           Orlando, Marriott

13         1992          157          1985           San Antonio, TX

12         1991          162          1954           Orlando, Marriott

11         1990          165          1415           Orlando, Marriott

10         1989          187          1700           Fort Worth

9          1988          161          1861           Orlando, Marriott

8          1987          96          1976            Washington DC

7          1986          115          1583           Salt Lake City

6          1985          96          1976            Orlando, Sheraton

5          1984          97          1498            Washington DC, Hilton

4          1983          84          1334            Washington DC, Hilton

3          1982          84          1469            Orlando, Hyatt

2          1981          57          1142            Orlando, Sheraton

1          1980          39          885             Salt Lake City

Papers, Tutorials, and Workshops
Each year, I/ITSEC requests submissions for papers and tutorials to be presented at its annual conference. The peer-reviewed process spans half a year as prospective authors must pass multiple quality assurance gates. Authors must first submit an abstract to one of the six sub-committees: education, emerging concepts and innovative technologies, human systems engineering, simulation, training, or the policy, standards, management, and acquisition subcommittee. Each subcommittee consists of government, industry, and academic members. At the abstract meeting, each submission is carefully considered and either accepted or rejected. If accepted, the full paper submission is required a few months later to again be reviewed and either accepted or rejected. Lastly, accepted authors must prepare presentations that are again reviewed by committee members. Abstract submission typically opens in February each year with full, accepted papers due sometime in June and presentations due around September.

If accepted, authors present their tutorials on the first day of the conference (always held on a Monday). Speakers present their papers during concurrent sessions, held across the subsequent three days of the conference (Tuesday-Thursday). Finally, on the last day of the conference (Friday), invited speakers present special workshops, which are like the Monday tutorials but longer. Typically, each conference includes more than 160 of these educational sessions or special events. Attendees can earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) at the tutorials, Friday workshops, and all paper sessions.

Exhibit Hall
The conference includes an exhibit hall, which typically comprises approximately 192,000 square feet and features over 550 organizations and agencies. In addition to commercial vendors, academic institutions and military agencies typically have exhibit hall booths. Frequently, organizations and agencies bring demonstrations of their technology wares. Previous exhibit displays have included: Computer-Based 3D graphics, Flight Simulators, Convoy Trainers, SCORM, Information Technology, Advanced Distributed Learning, Aerospace, Communications, Public Safety. Annually, the NTSA publishes short video clips of notable booths on their YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/NTSAToday

Special Events
Each year I/ITSEC hosts a series of special events that reflect emerging topics in the modeling, simulation, and training domain. Special events are devised by the committee members who organize the conference, and special event participants receive invitations versus completing the peer-reviewed paper/tutorial submission process. In 2015 there were 18 Special Events (a mix of Signature Events, Floor Events, and Focus Events) that included topics such as Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC), How to predict and manage Black Swan events, artificial intelligence for social interaction simulation, transmedia learning, geospatial environment database standards, cybersecurity, and an Ignite (event) session with invited speakers. Frequently, these special events involve discussion panels, with high-ranking military and civilians personnel among the invited panelists. For instance, each year the conference includes a special event, called the “Congressional Modeling and Simulation Event,” where elected official discusses M&S policies; similarly, another special event, called the “General/Flag Officer Panel,” included active duty military officers and government civilians from the general/flag officer or Senior Executive Service echelons.

Serious Games Showcase and Challenge
The Serious Games Showcase and Challenge is a competition and a showcase event that was created to encourage video game developers to create products that are useful for non-entertainment purposes. The annual event, made its first appearance as an exhibit space at I/ITSEC in 2006. The event accepts games from universities, businesses, and government organizations as entries in competition for awards prizes. Each year the event awards a Special Emphasis Award, Students’ Choice Award, Best Business Game, Best Student Game, Best Government Game, Best Mobile Game, and finally, attendees at the conference can also vote on the People's Choice Award.

Best Paper and Best Tutorial Awards
I/ITSEC presents annual awards in the following areas: Below are the Best Paper and Best Tutorial winners for the past 10 years. To see the full archive of winners, see the Best Paper and Best Tutorial I/ITSEC page.
 * Best paper per subcommittee
 * Overall best paper, selected from the best papers from each subcommittee
 * Best tutorial

Outstanding Achievement Awards
The NTSA confers professional achievement awards at the I/ITSEC conference to individuals, organizations, or project teams that have made significant contributions to the M&S discipline. These include the following categories: training, analysis, acquisition, cross-function (multiple uses), and individual/lifetime achievement.

I/ITSEC Fellows
The NTSA established a Fellows recognition award in 2010. Conference leaders bestow the "I/ITSEC Fellow" title to an influential person whose contributions have fundamentally shaped contemporary simulation and training capabilities. Individuals receive this recognition by being nominated and meeting conference leadership's standards for merit; consequently, the number of Fellow awards varies by year.

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Student Scholarships
Since 1990, the conference has awarded academic scholarships to graduate students. In 2019, the conference started to award scholarships to undergraduate students as well.

Outreach
During I/ITSEC, the NTSA conducts outreach to students and teachers, primarily from the K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Outreach programs include the following:
 * America’s Teachers Program: Sponsors the travel and conference attendance for K-12 teachers and school administrators
 * Future Leaders Pavilion: Exhibit hall venue for secondary school students to demonstrate technical projects they have developed in modeling, simulation and training topics
 * Student Tours: Guided tours of the conference, designed for school field trips