Braxton Taylor
AURORA, Colorado — More attendees are wearing suits than fatigues. There are empty parking lots and no wait at the hotel coffee shop. Scattered applause rises from the participants in a half-filled resort ballroom. These are the sights and sounds of what is, typically, one of the busiest military conferences of the year.
This week’s Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center — one of two major professional development conferences hosted by the organization focused on airmen, Guardians and defense contractors for the services — has had significantly and noticeably lower attendance than past years. While usually jam-packed with service members, the dip in attendance is due, in large part, to President Donald Trump’s executive order last week aimed at curbing government spending.
“It did affect our attendance,” Amy Hudson, the director of communications for the Air and Space Forces Association, told Military.com. “We’re still excited to be offering professional development opportunities but, obviously, if you’re looking around the hall, you will notice significantly less bodies.”
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The Air and Space Forces Association’s conference comes amid massive change within the federal government and military under Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership. Typically, the meeting is a chance for the services to announce major policy decisions, airmen and Guardians to network and meet service leaders, and reporters to speak with top officials.
But many major Department of the Air Force initiatives have been paused as Trump’s nominee to lead the services still waits to be confirmed and military officials are trying to stick to what they believe is the intent of the president’s executive orders to curb government spending, even at the expense of not letting airmen and Guardians attend one of the military’s largest professional development conferences.
“The Department of the Air Force has limited attendance at this year’s Air Warfare Symposium to comply with the spirit of the president’s executive order, ‘Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency’ cost efficiency initiative,” according to an Air Force official, who spoke to Military.com on condition of anonymity to relay information from other government sources.
“Attendance has been limited to individuals with a direct role in the conference, such as speakers, moderators, panel members, award winners and their supervisors, senior leaders with previously scheduled industry engagements, and local participants that attend at no cost,” the official said.
Edwin Oshiba, who is performing the duties of under secretary of the Department of the Air Force, issued a memo, shared with Military.com, dated March 2, just one day before the conference.
The memo said travel was being curbed in accordance with Trump’s order, which directed Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and his team of young, unappointed staffers to fire thousands of federal employees — many of them veterans — and dismantle parts of federal agencies, including the Defense Department, without the consent of Congress. The potentially illegal move has triggered numerous lawsuits.
“Effective immediately, the [Department of the Air Force] will limit travel to only essential purposes,” the memo said.
Oshiba said the Air Force will allow travel only for professional military education, training, performance of an official duty, permanent change of station orders, or “other travel as deemed essential by the first general officer in the chain of command, or Senior Executive Service supervisor.”
The Air and Space Forces Association conferences also typically serve as an opportunity for members of the media to question top Air Force and Space Force brass, who hold roundtables where reporters can ask a wide variety of questions.
Many of those scheduled media engagements, including for Air Combat Command and Air Force Special Operations Command, were canceled.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin gave a keynote speech Monday evening, but did not meet with reporters; the service’s top uniformed officer had to travel back to Washington, D.C., ahead of Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress. Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force’s top officer, did meet with reporters, and was also in attendance for Tuesday night’s address.
“We still have about 130 speakers on the agenda, and 36 sessions over three ballrooms, and we are still seeing really great interaction between the [Department of the Air Force] folks that are here and the industry representatives,” Hudson told Military.com. “So, we still see value in the conference.”
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