Author: Charles Lyons-Burt|| Date Published: November 6, 2025
Baird will host its annual Defense & Government Conference on Tuesday, Nov. 18, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in Virginia, uniting senior executives, investors and government leaders for a day of dynamic discussion, company presentations and market insight.
The 2025 event, themed “Innovation, Mission, and Capital Market Convergence,” will showcase how defense and government technology are intersecting with investor enthusiasm and new opportunities in public markets. Attendees will hear from Wash100 Award winners, 4×24 Leadership Series members and Baird executives across company presentations, fireside chats, panels and detailed presentations from the firm’s leadership team.
“We’re really leaning into the technology evolution happening across the defense and government landscape,” said Jean Stack, managing director at Baird and Wash100 Award winner. “It’s about innovating, doing more with less, and aligning with where the market dynamic is today.”
John Song, a fellow managing director at Baird and a Wash100 winner who has put the conference on with Stack for the last eight years, said this year’s lineup expands beyond the traditional GovCon focus.
“We have some big-name tech companies participating — like OpenAI, Anduril’s going to be there, Google’s going to be there,” Song said. “We’re pretty excited about that because there’s a larger commentary … about how these companies are helping change the face of broader societal shifts related to AI.”
Notable GovCon leaders Jesse Klempner, SVP of corporate strategy and development at RTX and John Serafini, CEO of HawkEye 360, will also sit on panels.
Baird’s own leadership will deliver a State of the Market update, while fireside chats and panels will explore acquisition reform, venture capital, M&A, and IPOs. Government panels such as AI in Action: Impact on the Battlefield, Acquisition Reform: Are We There Yet? and Government Perspectives on National Security Space—stocked with representatives from U.S. Space Force, the U.S. Army and Navy and the General Services Administration—will round out the day.
“We’re going to talk about what’s reopened, which is the public markets,” Stack added. “Now we have this monster window that’s opened for space tech and defense tech players to raise capital … with incredible momentum.”
The conference concludes with The Reality of AI Today: Perspectives from Technology Leaders, featuring representatives from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google Public Sector.
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