Registration and Morning Refreshments

Ballroom A

Opening Remarks

Ballroom B

Nate Denny, Secretary and Chief Information Officer, Department of Information Technology, State of North Carolina

Keynote – EMBRACE THE SHAKE: Transforming Limitations into Opportunities

Ballroom B

Success, especially in today’s fast-changing business environment, depends on our ability to make creativity and innovation a continuous process. Leaders want to know how their teams can rise above any challenge and succeed no matter what comes their way. Whether the goal is to embrace change, overcome obstacles, sustain growth, or take your success to the next level, leaders and teams want to learn how to “Embrace the Shake.” The term “Embrace the Shake” is coined from artist Phil Hansen’s personal story of transformation. After developing a career-ending tremor in his drawing hand, Phil embraced his “shake” both physically and metaphorically by redefining his limitation as an impetus for creativity. Phil not only restored his artistic abilities, but he also became a much more creative and innovative artist than ever before. Phil’s powerful message of finding creativity within limitations will inspire you to stop looking outside and start looking within for the resources that can transform your challenges into opportunities for success.

Phil Hansen, Artist, Speaker, Author and Innovator

Sponsored by: Talent International

General Session - 9-1-1’s Response to Hurricane Helene

Ballroom B

When Hurricane Helene made landfall in September 2024, western North Carolina lost roads, power, and critical infrastructure for 911 centers — but it did not lose the ability for citizens to reach 911. This session walks through how the state's NG911 investment performed under real-world catastrophic conditions. Hear from the team behind the statewide ESInet, hosted call handling, and statewide GIS data set about what the NC 911 Board planned for in advance, what routing partnerships between PSAPs made possible when centers went offline or over capacity, and where the plan met reality.

Pokey Harris, Executive Director, North Carolina 911 Board

Matthew McLamb, State Geographic Information Officer/CGIA Executive Director, State of North Carolina

Tom Rogers, NG911 Network Engineer/Program Manager, North Carolina 911 Board

Networking Break

Ballroom A

Refuel and reconnect over premium refreshments courtesy of Recharge Break Sponsors: SimpliGov and Soteria LLC

Concurrent Sessions

From Prompting to Delegating

301AB

This session shares how the public sector is leading a new era of innovation. Attendees will get an introduction to the latest generation of frontier models — the most powerful yet, built on a foundation of agentic reasoning and multimodality — and see how no-code agents grounded in enterprise data can automate work using a library of pre-built tools and actions. The session closes with a practical look at getting started, walking through an agent catalog and real day-one use cases drawn from state government.

Moderator: I-Sah Hsieh, Deputy Secretary of Policy & AI, Department of Information Technology, State of North Carolina

Christina Adams, Digital Accessibility Expert, Siteimprove.ai

Scott Wiltsey, AI Workforce - Solution Sales Leader, Microsoft

Building a Workforce Ready for What’s Next

302A

The pace of change in government technology has outrun most training programs — and the gap between the tools agencies are deploying and the skills their people have to use them is widening. This session focuses on practical approaches to workforce development that actually stick: how to assess where your organization stands, how to build internal champions who can carry learning across departments, how to design training that reaches people at different levels of technical comfort, and how to make the case for sustained investment in upskilling when budgets are tight. The conversation draws on real examples from across state and local government and leaves room for attendees to share what's working — and what isn't — on their own teams.

Moderator: Zach Thorn, Senior National Conference Director, Government Technology

Alexis Cruz, Senior Manager, T-Mobile for Government

Karen Lee, Workforce Development Manager, Department of Information Technology, State of North Carolina

Rob Reynolds, Chief Information Officer, Orange County

Privacy and Data: Building the Foundation for Secure Information Sharing

302B

Data-mature agencies that get this right are the ones that can move faster, share more confidently, and avoid the kind of headline-making incidents that set everyone back. This session cuts through the compliance-speak to talk practically about what good data governance actually looks like on the ground: how to get a real handle on what data you have and who should be touching it, how to build privacy protections that actually get followed, and how to make data sharing between state and local partners work without introducing new vulnerabilities in the process. Bring your messiest data problem — this is a judgment-free zone.

Moderator: Martha Wewer, Chief Privacy Officer, Department of Information Technology, State of North Carolina

Dr. Bonnie Brown, Chief Data Officer, Wake County

Anthony Dina, Field Chief Technology Officer, Dell Technologies

Azhar Rahman, Chief Data Officer, Department of Information Technology, State of North Carolina

Jonathan Shaw, Director of State Strategy, Fortinet Inc.

Mirror Image: Staff Experience = Citizen Experience

302C

The experience a constituent has with a government service and the experience the employee has delivering it are two sides of the same system — when the internal tools are clunky, the public feels it, and no amount of front-end polish fixes a broken back end. This session reframes user experience as a single connected problem, exploring how improving internal workflows and public-facing services together produces better outcomes than tackling either alone — all while meeting the mandate to make government genuinely accessible. The throughline is staying anchored to the outcome: the real problem being solved, and the people on both sides of the desk it's being solved for legal, communications.

Moderator: Torre Jessup, Senior Advisor for Digital Experience in the Office of Governor Josh Stein

Arthur Higbee, Managing Director, KPMG

Anthony Okwechime, Applied AI Specialist, Google Cloud

Demarc Ramanand, UX/UI Designer, City of Charlotte

Paul Tine, Commissioner, Division of Motor Vehicles, State of North Carolina

Lunch

Ballroom B

General Session - WNC Recovery: Making Communities Safer and Stronger

Ballroom B

Short Break

Please proceed to the concurrent sessions

Concurrent Sessions

The Delivery Problem: Modernizing How Government Builds

301AB

The hard part of modernization isn't the public-facing storefront — it's the delivery model behind it. Legacy systems are aging, budgets won't cover wholesale replacement, and procurement often moves slower than the technology it's meant to acquire. As new tools lower the barrier to building software, the build-versus-buy line is shifting fast, raising hard questions about what teams can credibly build themselves, who owns the path from prototype to production, and how to keep delivery evolving when the old "30/60/90" playbooks no longer fit. Join state and local technology leaders for a candid exchange on modernizing how government actually builds.

Moderator: Raymond Thomas, Innovation Director, Department of Information Technology, State of North Carolina

James Tanzosch, Chief IT Procurement Officer, Department of Information Technology, State of North Carolina

Jessica Nash, IT Modernization Manager, City of Asheville

Mike Ware, Chief Information Officer, Department of Transportation, State of North Carolina

Identity, Fraud, and the Future of Digital Trust in Government Services

302A

The fraud landscape facing government agencies has changed significantly: rings are more dispersed, identities are easier to fabricate, and the pressure points have shifted to corners of government that weren’t previously high-risk targets — including education benefits, where ghost student schemes have become an increasing concern. This session examines where fraud is heading across the full identity lifecycle, from enrollment and eligibility verification through ongoing account management and re-authentication. Panelists will discuss how fraud tactics are evolving, what detection capabilities agencies need to keep pace, and how identity proofing strategies can be strengthened without creating friction that drives away legitimate residents. Designed for agency leaders responsible for benefits administration, eligibility programs, and digital identity infrastructure.

Moderator: Jennifer Fix, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer, Department of Information Technology, State of North Carolina

Rob Birmingham, Chief Information Officer and Technology Officer, North Carolina Office of the State Auditor

Lisa Jones, Chief Information Security Officer, Wake County

Watching Responsibly: The Future of Public Safety Technology

302B

Public safety is being reshaped by new technology, drones as first responders, license plate readers, and interconnected camera networks that see more, faster, than ever before. But every new sensor raises questions about privacy, data minimization, and public trust: How much data do you really need to collect, how long should you keep it, and what has to be disclosed to the public? This session brings state and local leaders together for a candid conversation about adopting public safety technology responsibly — capturing only what serves a clear purpose, building retention and disclosure practices that sustain public trust, and getting legal, privacy, and operational voices to the table before deployment, not after.

Moderator: Mick DiGrazia, Chief Information Officer, Department of Public Safety, State of North Carolina

Jason Compton, Director of Emergency Services, Wake County Sherrif’s Office

Marina Kelly, Chief Information Security Officer, City of Raleigh

Ellen Thomas, Public Safety-Application Development Support Manager, City of Charlotte

Exclusive Briefing for Industry Partners

302C

Networking Break in the Exhibit Area

Ballroom A

Refuel and reconnect over premium refreshments courtesy of Recharge Break Sponsors: SimpliGov and Soteria LLC

General Session - Before Q-Day: Getting Post-Quantum Ready

Ballroom B

Q-Day—the moment quantum computers can break today's encryption—is coming, and adversaries are already harvesting encrypted data to decrypt later. This session explains what quantum computing means for your agency's security, why post-quantum readiness can't wait, and the concrete first steps to take now: inventorying your cryptographic dependencies and building a migration roadmap that puts you ahead of the threat.

Moderator: Bernice Russell-Bond, Chief Information Security Officer, Department of Information Technology, State of North Carolina

Phil Emer, Vice President of Business Development, MCNC

Saba Eskandarian, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Networking Reception

Ballroom A

Network with your colleagues and discuss technology solutions with the event sponsors.

End of Conference

Conference times, agenda, and speakers are subject to change.