A "Welcoming Reception" was held on Monday evening to kick-off the conference. This social event was hosted by FlightSafety (the Prime Host), who provided complimentary food & beverages, as well as a buffet luncheon in the Exhibit Hall on Wednesday. A great time was had by all continuing well past the allotted time.

The conference then opened on Tuesday morning with the Keynote Address: "Training the Force with Simulation in the 21st Century...opportunities and challenges" by Colonel Anthony "Tony" Krogh, US Army, Director of the National Simulation Center. This was the first time the US Army has provided the Keynote Speaker, and Col. Krogh's address was highly acclaimed by the attendees as one of, if not the best, keynote address ever given at an IMAGE Conference.

The Technical Program consisted of 21 technical papers; a US Military Training Requirements Panel Discussion; Distributed Mission Operations (DMO) Panel Discussion; two technical short courses; a sold out Exhibit Hall for the 15th year in a row; Hosting Organization Presentations by: FlightSafety, Barco, CAE, Presagis, Sony Electronics, Rockwell Collins, and TerraSim; Ad Hoc Meetings: the annual OpenFlight User Group meeting, USAF Common Dataset Meeting, and AFRL IDEAS Display Research meeting. There was a noticeable increase in enthusiasm and interest at this year's event demonstrated by the level of attendance and questions at the sessions which often extended past their allotted times. Even the last conference event on Thursday ran past its 5:00pm end time.

SPECIAL GRATITUDE is extended to: Col. Tony Krogh, Keynote Speaker; Dan Myers, Conference Chairman; Bob McGahan, Master of Ceremonies; Barco for providing audio-visual equipment & technical support; FlightSafety International for providing the conference computer & tri-fold programs; Scalable Display Technologies (Andrew Jamison) for providing the note pads, the Hosting Organizations at IMAGE 2011: FlightSafety (prime host), Barco, CAE, Presagis, Sony Electronics, Rockwell Collins, and TerraSim; the Technical Paper Session Chairs - Wade Allen, Art Banman, John Woytus, and Mike Sieverding (acting for Budimir Zvolanek); all of the Paper Presenters; the Course Instructors (Paul Lyon & Mark Green); all of the Exhibitors (FlightSafety, Barco, Presagis, CAE, Sony Electronics, Rockwell Collins, TerraSim, projectiondesign, Boston Dynamics, Westar Display Technologies, RPA Electronic Solutions, JRM Technologies, Digital Projection, and VDC Displays); Ad Hoc Meeting chairs: Mike Sieverding & Darryl Steward (AFCD Meeting), Steve Thompson (OpenFlight User Group Meeting), Jim Basinger (AFRL Display Evalation Meeting); and to all the Attendees that made IMAGE 2011 a success.