Events
The Midwest Defense Forum leaders and network are featured regularly at events promoting the Midwest’s unique capabilities to design and build defense tech solutions, assessing the geopolitical landscape and educating citizens on the democratic principles and free trade that US warfighters defend around the world.
October 2025
The second annual MIDWEST DEFENSE forum AT TITLETOWNtech
Event Snapshot
Palantir and Anduril are considered to be the “New Primes” in the defense industry, leading the way in tech-enabled solutions to defend the West. Leaders from those companies—Palantir Head of Defense and former Congressman Mike Gallagher and Anduril Co-Founder Trae Stephens—used the Bengals at Packers game to joust over their hometown team’s superiority while fiercely agreeing that the Midwest is essential to improve America’s defense industrial base at the second annual Midwest Defense Forum.
Three Big Things
- MDF brought together a cross-section of national security and industry leaders, where their differing specialties and viewpoints coalesced around the necessity of defense innovations rooted in the Heartland.
- Our partners at TitletownTech hosted a pitch showcase of their defense-related portfolio companies, highlighting how advances in battery manufacturing and AI-assisted image recognition, among others, provide dual-use capabilities for national defense and domestic economies.
- Before the game at Lambeau, Palantir's Mike Gallagher sat down for a conversation with Anduril's Trae Stephens, where the two discussed how Anduril has flipped the script on traditional defense manufacturing with a focus on integrated software development and off-the-shelf production, as well as the company's big investment in Midwest Defense in Trae's home state of Ohio with its Arsenal-1 facility.
august 2025
Renewing America's Maritime Industry
Event Snapshot
In August 2025, Sagamore hosted a discussion with Indiana Senator and Naval Academy graduate Todd Young on America's shipbuilding industry and the industries, technologies, and ideas needed for naval deterrence and global stability. Building on policies laid out in the bipartisan SHIPS for America Act, Sen. Young made the case for a shipbuilding renaissance that increases American competitiveness at sea and promotes domestic maritime production, particularly in the Midwest and Great Lakes Region.
Three Big Things
Moderating the conversation was Sagamore Institute Senior Fellow Dr. Jerry Hendrix, who is currently on detail to the White House and leading the charge from Washington on a renewed maritime industry.
Sen. Young highlighted how the Hoosier state stands to lead and benefit from this maritime renewal, such as the historic Corn Island shipyard along the Ohio River, and the essential role of Indiana's steel industry.
We convened at Dallara's facility just blocks away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the IndyCar manufacturer is leveraging its high-speed safety expertise to also design seats for the U.S. space program.
November 2024
The Inaugural MIDWEST forum AT TITLETOWNtech
Big Idea
The inaugural Midwest Defense Forum at TitletownTech brought together senior leaders from the Pentagon, investors and entrepreneurs building AI and other tech-enabled defense solutions across the Lake Michigan region. TitletownTech hosted this event across from Lambeau Field, where the Packers-Lions played the same weekend.
August 27 - 28, 2024
Midwest defense tech @ Rally
Big Idea
RALLY is one of the nation’s largest cross-sector innovation conference in the world including a $5 million pitch competition. This year’s event featured a panel organized by the Midwest Defense Forum and moderated by Lisa Hershman, former Pentagon budget official and chair of Purdue University’s Applied Research Institute.
August 12-13, 2024
Sagamore National Security CONFERENCE at the university of notre dame
Big Idea
Held in August of 2024, the inaugural Sagamore National Security Conference hosted prominent national security voices to consider topics of grand strategy, the challenges of the legislative process, the task of expanding our nation’s defense industrial base, required changes to our nation’s military force structure in light of the current threats and the vital role of the American citizen in our nation’s ongoing quest to “form a more perfect Union.”
May 16, 2024
Hudson Institute Announces Mike Gallagher as Distinguished Fellow
Big Idea
On May 16, 2024, Hudson Institute announced the former US Rep. Mike Gallagher would be joining the think tank as a Distinguished Senior Fellow. Hudson CEO John Walters interviewed Mike hosted Mike for a conversation about his congressional leadership and his ideas about there is no substitute for victory in America’s great powers competition with China.
3 Takeaways
1) Hudson CEO John Walters noted the alignment between Gallaghers expertise and Hudson founder Herman Kahn’s focus on technology and national security.
2) Gallagher noted his scholarly collaboration with Matt Pottinger and coined the term “Pottinger Paradox” to argue that opposite the fear that aggression will spur Marxis-Leninist regimes to war, it is indeed military power that is a deterrence to war.
3) Gallagher said that his congressional committee discovered China manufacturing and trafficking deadly fentanyl precursor chemicals in the US via Mexican drug cartels.
Read More
https://www.hudson.org/events/no-substitute-victory-mike-gallagher-winning-competition-china
https://www.hudson.org/experts/mike-gallagher
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2024/05/21/china-bans-mike-gallagher-from-entering-the-country/73790307007/
May 22, 2024
Big Idea
AOL founder Steve Case hosted the third annual Beyond Silicon Valley Summit coinciding with the 10th anniversary of his Rise of the Rest platform. TitletownTech is one of Rise of the Rest’s featured partners and CEO Craig Dickman collaborated with Case to feature former US Rep Mike Gallagher alongside Wisconsin entrepreneur Corey Jaskolski.
3 Takeaways
1) The conversation between Mike and Corey featured AI innovation between the coasts, geopolitics and the future of tech policy.
2) Growing a startup ecosystem is about building critical mass. Initiatives like constructing a sizable airport or developing a city’s waterfront can help rally communities, attract talent, and grow the region’s innovation economy.
3) Our current immigration system makes it incredibly difficult for skilled talent to live and work here, putting the US at risk of losing entrepreneurs and innovators to other countries.
Read More
https://blog.revolution.com/building-connections-and-the-industries-of-the-future-beyond-silicon-valley-b1da04e2c42a
https://revolution.com/beyond-silicon-valley-report/
https://www.stevecase.com/
October 5, 2022
Big Idea
On October 5th, 2022 Sagamore hosted its 8th annual Indiana Conference on Citizenship. The conference explored the role that Indiana’s defense assets and technological innovations play in defending democracy around the world.
Game Day Program
https://sagamoreinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ICOC-2022-game-day-program-FINAL-WEB.pdf
Read More
https://sagamoreinstitute.org/indiana-conference-on-citizenship-2022/
