Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference

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.^[2]

I/ITSEC 2020 was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This decision had an estimated economic impact of $45M based on the financial impact of previous years. RADM James Robb, USN (Ret), President, National Training and Simulation Association^[3] was quoted as follows, "We cancel this year’s I/ITSEC with a heavy heart and are working on ways the technical content prepared for the conference can be provided to the training community,”^[4]

The ancestor of I/ITSEC was the “Naval Training Device Center/Industry Conference,” first held in 1966. The conference later expanded to include land, air, and sea systems, and in 1980 its title was changed to reflect this broader scope.^[5]

The Orlando area became the predominant location, particularly after construction of the Orange County Convention Center (the second-largest convention complex in the United States).^[5] This shift was driven by the availability of nearby hotel accommodations, convenient access via Orlando International Airport, and the development of eastern Orlando and Orange County as the Department of Defense’s primary hub for modeling, simulation, and training.^[6] This growth was supported by the establishment of the Central Florida Research Park^[7] adjacent to the University of Central Florida, as well as the relocation of various DoD training and simulation activities from the now-closed Naval Training Center Orlando to the newly established Naval Support Activity Orlando within the research park.^[8]

DoD activities located at Naval Support Activity Orlando include:^{[citation needed]}

- U.S. Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI)
- U.S. Army's Synthetic Training Environment Cross-Functional Team (STE CFT)
- U.S. Army's SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC)
- U.S. Navy's Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCSTD)
- U.S. Marine Corps' Program Manager for Training Systems (PM TRASYS)
- U.S. Air Force's Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation (AFAMS)
- U.S. Space Force's modeling, simulation and training activity under the aegis of Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM).

With the exception of the aforementioned USAF activities in Orlando, all others have acquisition authority and life cycle program management responsibility for all training systems in their respective services.

The conference includes an exhibit hall, which typically encompasses approximately 200,000+ square feet and features more than 50+ organizations and agencies. In addition to commercial vendors, academic institutions and military organizations regularly maintain exhibit booths. Many organizations also bring live demonstrations of their technologies.^[9][1]

Previous exhibit displays have included computer-based 3D graphics; flight simulators (fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and tilt-rotor); Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) training systems for air-to-air and air-to-ground weapon ranges; armored vehicle and tank crew simulators; convoy trainers; aircraft and vehicle maintenance trainers; dismounted small-unit ground combat simulators; command and control center simulations; first-person shooter simulators; shipboard simulators; virtual reality and augmented reality (VR/AR), SCORM, information technology, advanced distributed learning, aerospace, communications, and public safety training systems.^[9][1]

Annually, the NTSA publishes short video clips highlighting notable booths on its YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/NTSAToday

Each year, I/ITSEC requests submissions for papers and tutorials to be presented at its annual conference. In 2025, the conference featured 122 Technical Papers, 33 Tutorials, and 9 Professional Development Workshops.^[10] 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.^[11] 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, 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)^[12] at the tutorials, the professional development workshops,^[12] and all paper sessions.

Each year, I/ITSEC hosts a series of special events that reflect emerging topics in modeling and simulation, training and education. These special events are developed by the committee members who organize the conference, and participants are invited rather than required to complete the peer-reviewed paper or tutorial submission process.^[13]

In 2025, the conference featured 49 Special Events.^[10] These events are a mix of Signature Events, Floor Events, and Focus Events covering topics such as live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) simulation; predicting and managing Black Swan events; artificial intelligence for social interaction simulation; transmedia learning; geospatial environment database standards; cybersecurity; and an Ignite (event) session featuring invited speakers.^[12]

These special events frequently involve panel discussions, often including high-ranking military officers and senior civilian officials as invited panelists. For example, each year the conference includes the “Congressional Modeling and Simulation Event,” during which elected officials discuss modeling and simulation policies. Similarly, the “General/Flag Officer Panel” features active-duty military officers and government civilians from the general/flag officer or Senior Executive Service (SES) levels, often including service chiefs and/or service secretaries.

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.^[12][14] 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.

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

• Simulation
• modeling
• Military Simulation
• Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization
• MORS
• Operations Research
• NDIA