Tag Archives: government-events

Monitoring the Readiness for In-Person Events

Posted on by

In May 2021, shortly after the CDC revised their guidance saying that vaccinated individuals did not need to wear masks, we surveyed our members to get a pulse on their comfort level attending in-person events. At that time, we found that 75% of respondents would be comfortable attending an in-person event in 2021. Size or location (need to travel) did not seem to affect their willingness to attend. Things were looking up for in-person gatherings while enthusiasm for online events also remained high.

Continue reading →

Putting a Value on Trust — Introducing Zero Trust Security Approaches

Posted on by

With so many high-profile hacks this year, it's easy to want to throw up your hands and say, "Is there nothing that can be trusted?!" Interestingly, that lament is what is driving the latest approach to cybersecurity -- zero trust. Zero trust is what it sounds like, a security approach centered on the belief that organizations should not automatically trust anything accessing their systems either inside or outside their perimeters. Instead, all people and devices must be verified before access is granted. To the untrained eye, this seems untenable. How, in this day and age, when we depend on digital information and connection to do most anything, can we use a process where we have to constantly verify identity and access permissions? Luckily, the practice of zero trust is more sophisticated than its premise.

Continue reading →

In-Person Events a “Go” for Government — But Don’t Take Away the Online Option

Posted on by

This May, after the CDC updated their public health guidance around masking and social distancing for vaccinated individuals, GovEvents surveyed its members to find out what government professionals were comfortable with in terms of in-person events. Feedback from event planners at the beginning of 2021 showed they were beginning to plan toward a hybrid event schedule, looking to introduce in-person events in the late summer or fall. Now that schedule seems to be a reality based both on health guidance and attendee attitudes.

The GovEvents survey of 275+ public sector professionals found that nearly 75% of respondents would be comfortable attending an event in-person sometime in 2021.

Continue reading →

Inside President Biden’s Infrastructure Plan

Posted on by

President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan is far-reaching, impacting the way we manage, use, and maintain our nation's critical infrastructure. It also has a considerable impact on the job opportunities available in private companies and government agencies at all levels.

 

  • Transportation spending is focused not only on improving existing roads and bridges but paving the way for clean energy and modern transit systems  to include electric vehicles, Amtrak repairs, and airport and waterway improvements.
  • Housing and community spending is focused on retrofitting older buildings to be more energy-efficient. Schools also get funding for upgrades and new construction.. Water systems and electrical grids are also being funded for safety and environmental upgrades. For communities at large, $100 billion is earmarked to improve broadband connectivity.
  • Improving care for the elderly and disabled is also a focus of the funding, with $400 billion dedicated to improving wages for caregivers and improving access to care and care facilities.

Continue reading →

Government Security: Looking From the Inside Out

Posted on by

With a number of high-profile security hacks involving widely used software, government agencies are retraining their focus on their organization's security measures and those of the vendors and service providers that work with them. This shift in focus was actually on the rise before the recent hacks in anticipation of cyberattacks just like the ones we've recently seen.

In January of 2020, the Defense Department implemented the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), a unified standard for implementing cybersecurity across the defense industrial base (DIB), which includes over 300,000 companies in the supply chain. Contractors have always been held responsible for implementing and documenting their IT systems' security that touch sensitive government data. Under CMMC, this continues, but adds the need for a third party to assess the contractor's compliance.

Continue reading →