In-person events are back in force, but we're all a little rusty at networking. Anyone who has attended an in-person event recently has likely had the conversation with fellow attendees, "Wow, I'm not sure how to do this anymore." To help us all get back in our groove, we wanted to pull together a list of tried and true as well as some new tips to make your attendance at the next government networking event feel a bit more natural. Continue reading
Today's organizations know that stopping 100% of cyber-attacks is not a realistic goal. Rather, the focus has shifted to cyber resilience, "the ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks, or compromises on systems that use or are enabled by cyber resources."
A critical pillar in becoming resilient is communication and collaboration. The Cyber EO focused on improving the nation's cybersecurity and highlighted the need to improve collaboration with threat intelligence sharing between public and private organizations as well as the creation of cross-government cyber boards. In recent months, key strides have been made in facilitating information sharing around cyber best practices, resource availability, as well as process and policy. Continue reading
Like many industries, the pandemic forced the court system to rethink how they deliver services and carry out everyday business. Courts had been slow to adopt technology with e-filing and e-notarization being the biggest digital changes over the last several decades. Hearings were still in person with remote testimony a rarity. This meant that lawyers might have to travel hundreds of miles for a 15-minute hearing. Even in the face of this inefficiency, there was no big push to change. Then came COVID.
More Than a Pandemic Fix
Zoom-based hearings became commonplace to facilitate cases while keeping all participants safe. But as the pandemic restrictions on in-person extended, courts nationwide started seeing huge benefits to the online process.
Virtual hearings increased participation by defendants. In Arizona, between 2019 and 2020, a Pew study found that there was an 8% drop in default judgments - judgments where the plaintiff wins simply because the defendant failed to appear. Attendance among jurors also increased. Texas saw a big spike in juror attendance after the transition to an online system. Continue reading
As with other networking and professional development events, job fairs are also transitioning back to their in-person form, but not without changes. The beauty of a job fair is the convenience and efficiency for recruiters and job seekers alike - a place to meet possible matches all in one location. When pandemic restrictions moved events online, the convenience grew as people did not need to leave their house, but efficiency gains were not always realized. Just as the workforce is now hybrid, so too is the job seeking environment.
Virtual Job Fairs Mirror Virtual Work
Virtual job fairs are here to stay because of the convenience, time savings, and their ability to facilitate geographically inconvenient meetings. With more companies hiring a hybrid workforce, location is not as important-you could be in Washington, DC interviewing for a job in Austin, TX or vice versa. Many people have found they prefer remote work to in-office positions and those people will also look for virtual opportunities for networking. Continue reading
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been in the spotlight like never before with their critical role in managing the pandemic. While there is a lot of work still to be done on that front, other critical efforts are taking place across HHS agencies that will have an incredible impact on the health and well-being of citizens.
Data Sharing
The necessity of sharing data to understand and respond to the pandemic spawned a host of new applications and a new openness to data sharing across HHS as well as governmentwide. The first major HHS data sharing platform was launched in April 2020. Named HHS Protect, this platform provided visibility into more than four billion data elements from 225 sources providing intelligence on rates of infection and hospitalizations. HHS is committed to expanding its use and sharing of data in all areas of its mission with programs including the Data Optimization Initiative, Administration for Children and Families Data Sharing Solutions, and the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA). Continue reading
