Nextgov Event: Tech Refresh Thursday

IT modernization is kind of a big deal in the federal government right now.

It’s one of the main priorities of the newly created White House Office of American Innovation, and one of the few truly bipartisan efforts in Congress.

Legislation authored by Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform IT subcommittee—the Modernizing Government Technology Act—unanimously cleared the House and currently awaits action in the Senate. Hurd’s legislation received input from the White House and from top Democrats, including “FITARA father” Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and ranking member of the IT subcommittee Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill.

On Thursday, Nextgov will sit down with Kelly to kick off a morning event on IT modernization. We’ll discuss Kelly’s unlikely rise from counseling to U.S. representative, and how a nontechie made improving government technology one of her key issues. For Kelly, improved government technology—including legislation she’s authored to improve the quality of government websites—means more opportunities for constituents back in her district.

We’ll also host two panel sessions with chief information officers across government on “doing more with less” and security implications inherent to outdated and legacy technologies.

Speakers will include Agriculture Department CIO Jonathan Alboum; Commerce Department Acting CIO Rod Turk; Robert Wuhrman, enterprise architect of the General Services Administration’s Unified Shared Services Management; Brig. Gen. Kevin Kennedy, principal director to the deputy chief information officer for C4IIC; and Richard Spires, former CIO at the Homeland Security Department and the Internal Revenue Service and now CEO at Learning Tree International.

For more information or to register, visit our website.