Back to Basics – The Handwritten Note

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The mass reach of technology has incredible advantages for the event planning industry and should be used to increase brand awareness. Social media also has the ability to build a connection with your audience through more personal interactions and real-time response. Even with this said, in our age of insta-everything, hashtags, texting slang, and emoticons nothing may make you stand out more than a handwritten note.

In the spirit of the lazy days of summer, we poured ourselves a glass of lemonade, set up the hammock, and took a moment to think about how even in today's fast paced world, event planners could use handwritten notes to their advantage.

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The 3 coolest things we saw at the SmartAmerica Expo

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Originally posted on FedScoop by Greg Otto.

The Internet of Things is so much more than a Google-backed thermostat or a refrigerator that connects to Facebook.

The expansive possibilities of IT were on display Wednesday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, as the first-ever SmartAmerica Expo showcased 24 projects from more than 100 different public agencies, private companies and academic institutions. The expo was part of the SmartAmerica Challenge, which launched in December as a call to action to show how the Internet of Things, or cyber-physical systems, can have serious socio-economic benefits for the country.

"This isn't gee-whiz technology for the sake of technology,"  said White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park during a keynote session. "As you listen to presentations and watch demonstrations, think about the potential massive societal benefits of the technology involved."

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10 Stats You Should Know about Federal IT

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Here's what CIOs told Congress about their current IT investments.

Federal agencies plan to spend at least $82 billion on information technology this year, including high-priority projects to improve health care delivery and national security.

But the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov and growing concerns about the government's use of IT to provide veterans better access to care have again spotlighted how agencies buy, manage and deliver IT services.

The Senate Subcommittee on the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Federal Programs and the Federal Workforce held a hearing June 10 to understand how IT investments are being monitored and coordinated governmentwide, what lessons agencies have learned from experiences and what IT workforce challenges they face. CIOs from the departments of Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs and the Office of Personnel Management were among those who testified at the hearing.

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Beyond the Beltway: San Diego

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As part of an ongoing series, we're looking at unique event locations in cities nation-wide. With government travel budgets cut, holding smaller events in multiple locations is a prudent way to continue to reach people with live events.

San Diego has a huge population of military personnel and employees. The metro areas boasts three Marine Corps bases, three Navy installations, and a large Coast Guard presence. The military presence is so large in the area, that the professional baseball team, the San Diego Padres, wear camouflage uniforms for every Sunday home game. The city is also within easy driving distance from Los Angeles and is easily accessed from Nevada and Arizona.

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CIA Live: Spy Agency Holds Public Summit

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Originally posted on NextGov.com by Aliya Sternstein

In the first public conference given by the CIA, the agency's head defended the practice of surveilling cyberspace for threats, but questioned the extent to which potent tracking capabilities should be applied.

"If we are to understand the world we cover and to provide our policymakers with the intelligence that they expect, if not demand, we must immerse ourselves in that frontier and adjust our tradecraft accordingly," CIA Director John Brennan said at the event held Wednesday. "In developing powerful tools to meet this challenge, CIA and the community partners face a question that may be unprecedented in our history: If we possess an extraordinary technical capability and are legally authorized to use it, should we necessarily do so?"

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