Opening up a dialogue about public sector data management, albeit important, can sometimes be seen as dry or unapproachable. The conversation can quickly get lost in the technical weeds or is too high-level to glean any actionable insight from. Or, depending on the platform, can make subject matter experts seem inaccessible. However, given today’s circumstances, the value of candor and accessibility has never been more important for public sector IT decision makers.
To meet the expectations of these decision makers while also taking advantage of a more captive audience than normal, Snowflake has kicked off its Data Champions 2020 monthly virtual meet-up series. These meetups feature various technology experts from across the public sector covering topics that matter to IT decision makers facing new challenges in unprecedented scenarios – like ramping up an entirely remote workforce for an entire government agency at the drop of a hat, for example.
Perhaps the most notable differentiator for these meetups compared to the undoubtedly long list of other virtual events that IT experts (and pretty much everyone else) are attending these days is the concerted effort to make these conversations both informative and casual. It is possible! Snowflake and its partners encourage attendees and guests to share best practices and examples of leveraging data as a strategic asset, but sans slides and formal presentations.
The first of these meetups took place in June, focusing on the topic of workforce management. Tony Scott, former U.S. Federal CIO was featured along side Nick Speece, Chief Federal Technologist at Snowflake, Monica McEwen, Vice President – Public Sector at ThoughtSpot, and Michael Kravec, Center of Excellence at Alteryx. These experts discussed many of the tough questions facing federal agencies at the moment like “Who should work? Who is essential? What IT resources are available?” Everything from drink of choice for the happy hour to meetings with President Obama about data dashboards were touched on during the chat, with all of the speakers offering frank advice and personal flavor in their insights.
For August, the featured topic will be “What’s Next for Federal CDOs?” and will feature guest speaker Maria Roat, Deputy Federal CIO, and Vishal Kapur, Principal, Strategy Analytics, Deloitte Government and Public Services. These experts will join Snowflake and ThoughtSpot to discuss what role collaboration has in the overall Federal Data Strategy and what tools public sector CDOs can leverage to take advantage of the opportunities presented.
Snowflake and ThoughtSpot look forward to another approachable discussion about the challenges keeping public sector IT leaders up at night and what valuable advice these seasoned professionals have to share.
You can register for the August Data Champions event here.
