Event Recap: Capital Week 2025

Finding Opportunities at Capital Week 2025

The 2025 Capital Week broke attendance records with more than 700 attendees coming together at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center to support the SAME Foundation, gain valuable insights on upcoming programs across the uniformed services and federal agencies, and discuss pressing issues facing the A/E/C industry. Between the briefing sessions, collaborative discussions with government leaders, and industry-government engagement summits, attendees came out of the week energized and positioned for success in a dynamically shifting environment.

Incubating Innovation

Capital Week events began Monday morning with the much anticipated IGE Summit, back for its third year. This year, a pair of summits convened experts and senior leaders from government and industry to share perspectives and knowledge in the goal of getting after some of the most pressing issues facing our service branches.

The first summit, Elevating Partnering Across DOD Projects, took an in-depth look at partnering success on federal projects, with the goal of teasing out insights on how success can be grown and shared with more projects in the federal sphere, which would contribute directly to improved project delivery. In this interactive, facilitated discussion, participants began by hearing a series of viewpoints from leaders across both industry and government in order to set the stage and contextualize the concept of partnering. Participants broke into groups to identify best practices, dove into their topics, and identified actionable parts to take back and implement in their own real-world projects.

Another pressing issue across the A/E/C industry centers on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and was the focus of the the second IGE summit, Aligning AI with A/E/C, Understanding Technologies & Applications. This session drew a lively and curious crowd of industry professionals together for an interactive session geared toward understanding AI and applying the rapidly evolving tech into their own industry-government interactions.

At this summit, expert presenters discussed AI applications, how they can be aligned with real-world experiences, and weighed the potential risks moving forward. As the presenters opened the session with a detailed background of the many types of AI, it was quickly apparent that use and knowledge of AI is still in its infancy. After an hour of discussion, attendees formed groups that would have each tackle a particular use of AI and its potential benefits, costs and safety.

Questions of balancing risk versus mission readiness and competitive advantage versus safety were top of mind as participants considered ways to weave the massive potential of AI into their industry. What was not in question was that AI should, for now, be considered a useful and powerful tool that still needs the human element as a critical piece of the oversight process

This third IGE Summit at Capital Week reiterated SAME’s ardent commitment to industry-government engagement and how critical the Society is as a platform to building the relationships that guarantee our national security. Conversations at both of these summits advanced essential issues, sharing ways forward and producing actionable insights for members in both industry and government to leverage in their next project. From these incubators of innovation, new ways of doing business are being delivered.

An Evening for the SAME Foundation

Adding to the energy of 2025 Capital Week, the SAME Foundation hosted their annual Fundraising Reception to kick off the conference. This much anticipated event attracted SAME members from every branch of the armed forces and government, and professionals across the A/E/C spectrum. A highlight of the reception was the Silent Auction, where auction items were generously donated by SAME members from across the Society. The event included original art, luxury travel stays, rare whiskeys, a wine collection, and unique hand-made items. By the end of the day, the auction helped to raise over $72,000 for the Foundation. 100 percent of all ticket and auction proceeds will benefit the SAME Foundation and its Leader Development Program, Camps Mentoring Program, and STEM Pathways Program. 

These programs target students and mid-career professionals to ensure the nation maintains a pipeline of dedicated STEM professionals ready to address the grand challenges of the future. Through these world-class programs featuring hands-on training, activities, discussions, mentoring, and more, the SAME Foundation is driving the development of the next generation of military, government, and industry leaders our nation needs.

Time of Change, and Opportunity

Tuesday morning saw the start of the FY2026 DOD & Federal Agency Program Briefings, with a morning general session headlined by the engineering service chiefs of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The general session played to a full house of attendees as the engineering service chiefs took to the stage to discuss upcoming opportunities and focus areas during a time of rapid change across the federal landscape.

The message delivered by senior leadership was loud and clear—ensure the readiness of our warfighters and weapons systems and leverage innovative tools to gain speed in procurement and control costs. As the morning’s discussion revealed, within this charge are opportunities for industry and a mission-critical need for the partnership that SAME’s premier platform provides.

In getting after rebuilding and restoring deterrence capabilities, addressing aging infrastructure, and maintaining readiness, the key identified by the service chiefs was partnering with industry. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of partnerships and how we simply can’t do it without partnerships,” Gen. Hartless said. When collaboration between industry and government happens, as it does every day at SAME’s events, communities, and Posts, innovation happens, new ways of doing business are forged, and our nation grows more secure and ready for the future.

Attendees also enjoyed a “Lunch on the Hill,” sponsored by Capital Week’s Titanium Partners and headlined by a presentation with representatives from SAME’s lobbying strategic partners: Jordan Howard, Counsel/Federal Regulatory Affairs, AGC; Bradley Saul, Vice President, Federal Procurement, ACEC; and Jeff Johnson, Executive Director, Government Affairs, IFMA. In their luncheon presentation, the speakers shared their perspectives from the initial days of the new administration and provided insight into their own roles and work. With time being limited during the luncheon, a follow-up session for members looking for further discussion was held later that afternoon, offering attendees another chance to ask questions and learn more.

On Wednesday, the conversations continued with a meeting of the Ukraine Work Group to discuss ongoing engineering projects in Ukraine and preparations for eventual rebuilding activities. In addition to the perspectives shared by industry members during the meeting, Brig. Gen. John Lloyd, USA, North Atlantic Division Commander and Division Engineer, provided a brief update on USACE activities and partnerships in the area. The conversation also covered topics of how U.S. companies can best position themselves now for a future time of peace, how best to build up the capacity for skilled project managers in Ukraine to drive the rebuilding effort, and how contracting and funding may be handled to minimize risk to industry.

At the end of Capital Week 2025, attendees were uniquely positioned to take advantage of upcoming opportunities in the federal and military engineering field. Facing a quickly shifting landscape, the federal briefings, collaborative discussions, and personal connections made at Capital Week pay off as attendees left on confident footing, prepared to deliver for the mission.