Quantum-Safe in Practice: What Every Enterprise Needs to Know Before the Federal PQC Mandate Hits

The post-quantum cryptography (PQC) transition is no longer theoretical — it’s a procurement requirement. With the U.S. federal government moving toward mandatory PQC compliance for contractors (expected by 2029–2031) and allies like France already refusing to certify non-PQC-compliant software, large enterprises across financial services, healthcare, insurance, and beyond are being forced to act, whether or not they sell directly to government.

This session brings together practitioners who have actually started — or are deep into — their quantum-safe journey to share what the work really looks like once you move past the slide deck. Moving beyond vendor pitches and theoretical timelines, this panel focuses on the operational reality: where organizations get stuck, how they get unstuck, and what “crypto agility” actually requires on the ground.

Topics will include:

• Crypto-asset discovery — the unglamorous starting point: do you actually know where your cryptographic materials live? Why this is fundamentally an asset-management problem before it’s a cryptography problem.
• Building toward crypto agility — what’s required organizationally and technically to be able to swap algorithms without a multi-year fire drill.
• Third-party and supply chain exposure — your PQC readiness is only as strong as your weakest vendor. Practical lessons on managing certificate lifecycles and compliance across an extended supply chain.
• Networking and key distribution challenges — where PQC migration intersects with existing network and infrastructure architecture.
• Federal connectivity as a forcing function — what changes operationally once “PQC compliant” becomes a contractual requirement to connect into government systems, and how to build a transition plan that can flex as deadlines and standards continue to shift.
• Speakers will share their experience in general terms — focusing on the practicum of the journey rather than naming specific internal initiatives — so the audience leaves with a transferable playbook rather than a case study they can’t apply.

Who Should Attend
CISOs, infrastructure and network leaders, risk and compliance teams, and anyone responsible for preparing their organization’s transition plan toward post-quantum cryptography — especially those whose business depends on continued federal government connectivity.