2026 Spring Fling
On Tuesday, April 14, 2026, TGS Tech founder and CEO Sarrene Miller attended the AFCEA Bethesda Emerging Leaders Spring Fling, held at Silver Social in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Billed as the premier social networking event for government contracting professionals, the evening brought together a remarkable cross-section of federal technology leaders, defense contractors, cybersecurity professionals, and industry innovators for an evening of genuine connection in a relaxed and welcoming environment.
The event was organized by Alyssa Sherman and hosted under the leadership of AFCEA Bethesda Emerging Leaders president Sam Ziman, whose personal invitation made Sarrene's attendance possible. That kind of direct, intentional outreach is what distinguishes the best professional communities from the ones that simply fill a calendar. The Spring Fling delivered on the promise of its format: conversations that went somewhere, in a room full of people who had things worth saying.
The caliber of attendees was exceptional. The evening included senior leaders from FEMA and the US Army Corps of Engineers, among many others spanning federal civilian and defense agencies. Represented in the room were Acting CIOs, CISOs, cybersecurity directors, and program managers whose work touches national infrastructure, emergency management, cloud modernization, and zero trust architecture.
These are the professionals building and securing the systems that underpin government operations at scale, and the opportunity to connect with them directly in an informal setting is not one that comes around often.
For TGS Tech, events like the Spring Fling matter because the problems Apex Engine is built to solve are not confined to commercial markets. Cloud-native real-time collaborative infrastructure, authoritative state management, and scalable simulation environments are precisely the capabilities that government and defense organizations are actively pursuing.
Being in a room where those conversations happen naturally, without a formal agenda or a pitch deck in sight, is where relationships that lead somewhere actually begin.
The evening was exactly what it was designed to be. Good people, meaningful conversations, and a sense that this community is building something worth being part of. A sincere thankyou to Sam Ziman for the invitation and to Alyssa Sherman for putting together an event that lived up to its billing. TGS Tech looks forward to continuing to grow its presence in this community.
