My Week at TechEX24: Damian Doyle from the University of Virginia

Doyle: This is a tough one. I think it comes down to a combination of content and presentation chops.The Cloud Technology track kicks off at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 10, with Rocking the Cloud Migration to AWS, a presentation framed around a rock concert and a great topic about the challenges of large-scale migration. It is hosted by a dynamic duo of presenters from Loyola Marymount University. I’m also really drawn to James Monek’s session, Lessons Learned from Architecting, Deploying, and Managing a Secure Research Cloud, at 11:20 am on Wednesday, Dec. 11. He dives into building and designing secure research clouds, something that a lot of universities are either dealing with or evaluating right now.

Doyle: There are a ton, but as people who know me will attest, I have a soft spot for networking since I spent the first 10+ years of my career in that field. But the Advanced Networking track session Empowering Women in IT to Help Bridge the Gender Gap at 10:20 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 11, is way more than just a talk about networking — it deals with working on one of our most critical issues of addressing the gender gap in IT. It tells the amazing story about what has been done with the Women in IT Networking at Super Computing (WINS), a program that has accomplished some really wonderful gains for our industry. I would encourage everyone to attend and listen to the framework they have established and then to get involved in the Internet2 Inclusivity Initiative, which is another amazing program that is focused on this issue. The Internet2 Inclusivity Initiative Lunch Presentation on Tuesday, Dec. 10, is open to everyone and a great way to get introduced to this community.

Doyle: I really want to understand more about the future of identity services. Our identity systems are looking at enabling passwordless authentication and evolving to meet the new challenges as the backbone of our security programs. As more and more services move to cloud applications, we can’t just put a firewall in front of something. Instead, we need to understand who is connecting, from where, and on what equipment to see a more holistic view of the end user and provide the appropriate access.

Doyle: Two activities stick out to me. Game Night is so much fun; I cannot recommend this enough. It is low-stress, very casual, and welcoming. Also, the Poster Sessions — new this year to TechEX — are a great way to sample a lot of information in a very digestible format while unwinding after an intense day of overloading your brain with a massive influx of knowledge.

Doyle: What keeps me coming back to Technology Exchange is right in the name — the Exchange. I always tell my folks this is the kind of event where you can really dive into your area of interest but also walk across the hall and get exposed to a whole new world you may not have dabbled in. It is a great way to break down silos within an organization and open up your mind to see what overlaps, what kinds of collaborations can be possible, and see what others are working on.

Doyle: Planning is hard. Walking to a random room and hoping for the best isn’t ideal, though. I generally use the website ahead of time and the mobile app while at TechEX to try and pick the sessions that jump out at me, then look at a few other track sessions. Then, I look at where I can connect with colleagues and peers and have some of those precious hallway conversations that often build on a topic. Those moments can be the absolute hidden gems of this kind of event.