The NATO Chiefs of Transformation Conference, organized by HQ SACT, took place from 10 to 12 December 2013, at the Sheraton Waterside Hotel, in Norfolk, Virginia, United States.

The JALLC delegation was led by the JALLC Commander, BGEN Mircea Mîndrescu,, and included COL Santiago San Antonio (Plans & Programming Division Head), LTC Vasileios Tsamis (Plans & Programming Staff Officer), and LTC Fernando Duarte (Public Affairs & Protocol).

During the Conference the JALLC, in coordination with HQ SACT Capability Engineering and Innovation ( CEI) Division, led a breakout session on “Capturing into Doctrine Lessons from Afghanistan—Before They are Lost”. The aim was to increase awareness of the need to share lessons—from NATO to Nations and vice versa—in order to contribute to the development of NATO and national doctrines.

The JALLC team opened the session by briefing national representatives on the LL process in NATO and ISAF. Main conclusions from some JALLC reports were cited as examples of the successful transformation of policies triggered by lessons; obstacles to the sharing of lessons between the Allies were also identified.

The subsequent discussion between HQ SACT CEI, JALLC and national representatives, centred on experiences of and approaches to collecting lessons from Afghanistan; sharing them within the Alliance; and using them to foster necessary transformation of doctrine.

Exhibitions in the Main Conference Room, by NATO entities and Centres of Excellence, highlighted some of their products. The Lessons Learned display allowed participants to familiarise themselves with JALLC products—the Lessons Learned and Joint Analysis Handbooks, Project Factsheets and flyers on the JALLC, the JALLC Advisory and Training Team ( JATT) and the JALLC Project Approach—and raise issues or questions with LTC Duarte.

On the second day of the conference, Commander JALLC presented the “key takeaways” of the breakout session to the national chiefs of transformation in plenary session. .