LEDxSi Logo - Leadership Educational Development Experience Social Innovation

22 Oct 2025 | The Eagle Institute | All Day Event

The Perience

The Air University Innovation Accelerator (AUiX) presents LEDx: Destruction and Creation—a timely and provocative event exploring the emerging battlespace of Cognitive Warfare. Drawing inspiration from Colonel John Boyd’s seminal essay Destruction and Creation, this LEDx challenges participants to confront the reality that in modern conflict, the mind itself is the terrain. Thought leaders from across the Department of Defense, academia, and industry will come together to examine how adversaries target human orientation—our mental models, narratives, and decision-making processes—as a deliberate act of warfare.

LEDx: Destruction and Creation offers a dynamic blend of experiences, including visionary keynotes, thought-provoking panel discussions, and immersive breakout sessions. Attendees will explore topics such as narrative disruption, information overload, memetic influence, and the strategic implications of perception manipulation in the age of algorithmic warfare. Sessions will emphasize the need for mental agility, institutional adaptability, and the continual destruction and reconstruction of outdated paradigms—principles at the heart of Boyd’s thinking.

The event’s “Destruction and Creation” theme evokes Boyd’s dialectic engine, a process of unlearning and synthesis vital for cognitive survival in contested information environments. As Boyd argued, orientation—not firepower—is the decisive domain in fast-moving, uncertain conflicts. This LEDx will embrace that insight, offering practical and philosophical tools to help leaders, educators, and strategists navigate ambiguity, resist manipulation, and build resilient cognitive architectures in themselves and their organizations.

Whether confronting disinformation threats, reimagining strategic decision-making, or engaging in Boydian war-gaming for the mind, attendees will emerge with fresh perspectives on how to thrive in complexity. This event is an invitation to embrace intellectual maneuver warfare—by destroying what no longer serves, and creating what the future demands.

Join us at LEDx: Destruction and Creation and be part of the conversation shaping the future of strategic cognition and leadership in an era of invisible conflict.

Opening Keynote Speakers

Mark McGrath

Strategist, Writer, and Partner at AGLX

Cognitive Warfare

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Brian “Ponch” Rivera

Brian “Ponch” Rivera

KeyNote Speakers

Sarah Kernion

Founder of Saturday’s Story, the Inchstones Substack and podcast

Cognitive Warfare

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Dr. Michael Hankins

Curator for US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps post-World War II Aviation at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, and the author of Flying Camelot

The F-15, F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia

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Closing KeyNote Speaker

Lieutenant General David A. Harris

Deputy Chief of Staff, Air Force Futures, Headquarters, United States Air Force

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Welcome Speakers

Dr. Bill DeMarco

AUiX, Director

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Mo Barrett

Lifelong Catalytic Comedian

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Breakout Sessions

Breakout Session #1

SMSgt Jen Thurman

China Strategist and the Senior Enlisted Leader of Development Programs at Fort Meade

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Andy Christiansen

Author of The 40:40 Principle®, life and business coach, creator of the 12-Hour Day®

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Breakout Session #2

Ray Powell,

Executive Director of SeaLight, Stanford University

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Breakout Session #3

Nathan Fry

Entrepreneur, National Guard battalion commander in the US Army’s famed Mountain Battalion, Mountain Buide, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Vermont

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Future Cain

CEO and Founder of The Future of SEL

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Agenda

0800

Check-in

Ballroom, 3rd Floor

0800-0830

Coffee & Networking

Prevail Coffee, 1st Floor

0830-0845

Welcome and Introduction

Dr. Bill DeMarco; Mo Barrett

Ballroom

0845-0945

Opening Session

Mark McGrath; Brian “Ponch” Rivera, AGLX

Cognitive Warfare

0945-1045

Session 2

Sarah Kernion

Cognitive Warfare

1045-1100

Break

1100-1200

Session 3

Dr. Michael Hankins, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

The F-15, F-16, and the Weaponization of Fighter Pilot Nostalgia

1200-1315

Lunch

TBD

Breakout Session #1

 SMSgt Jen Thurman

Military Track: Cognitive Warfare and China

1300-1415

Andy Christiansen

Leadership Track: Topic TBD

TBD

Breakout Session #2

Ray Powell, Stanford University

Military Track: Topic TBD

TBD

Breakout Session #3

Nathan Fry, Spire

IA vs AI: Same Letters, Different Approach

1300-1415

Future Cain, The Future of SEL

Leadership Track: Topic TBD

TBD

Break

TBD

Closing Session

Lieutenant General David A. Harris, Deputy Chief of Staff