Connected DMV is hosting a global quantum conference in December

It might be a little early to plan your late fall, but for those with ties to the quantum industry, Connected DMV wants you to clear your calendar for early December.

The DC-based organization works in the private, public and academic sectors to foster growth in social, digital and physical infrastructure. This year, it’s hosting the Quantum World Conference, a two-day event to solidify the region’s ties to quantum.

Connected DMV’s CIO George Thomas told Technical.ly that the event is intended to make the DMV area the go-to destination for the quantum industry. The conference will be held in partnership with Destination DC, the University of Maryland, the Quantum Industry Coalition, George Mason University, Howard University, the Mid-Atlantic Quantum Alliance, The MITRE Corporation and the National Quantum Literacy Network.

The two-day conference, taking place from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Thomas expects anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 attendees from all over the world.

“We imagine this as an annual event of a very high-level set of players: people who invest, people who regulate and establish policy, people who are inventing stuff and the people who will end up buying it,” Thomas said. “The innovators who are in the companies that are building products towards this and, of course, workflows, education, academia and research that will fuel all of the above.”

Quantum, Thomas said, has been one of Connected DMV’s foci over the past few years, alongside other initiatives such as building a hydrogen economy. Since 2019, the organization has been developing the Potomac Quantum Innovation Center to bring quantum stakeholders across the region together. Quantum, according to Thomas, is much broader than just quantum computing.

With the conference, the organization hopes to bring together players in research, development, manufacturing and other disciplines who are building assets regularly — especially those that go beyond the scientific and academic circles. Attendees can select from tracks in science and engineering; market acceleration; government and security and business development. They can also attend large presentations on tech, business, policy and societal implications in the main hall and plenary track. The conference will additionally offer trainings and workshops on the pre-event day on Nov 29, as well as a few site trips to IonQ and other local labs.

“If you think of the applications of [quantum], across everything from medicine to pharmaceuticals to manufacturing to cryptography to defense, it’s tremendous…” Thomas said. “The world is going to get redefined with the stuff that they’re discovering, have been discovering over the last decade and will be discovering. So quantum is a big focus for the DMV.”