By
Glenn Lipscomb - Associate Vice President of Marketing and Events
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
With 6 Weeks to Go, We’re All Abuzz About What to See and Do at This Year’s Event
It’s the best time of year. (No, I don’t mean the holiday season or the fresh start of a new year.)
I’m referring to the best time for our community to connect and cultivate meaningful relationships with global peers. Explore fresh ideas and exchange best practices vetted through experience. Upskill and reskill with community experts to address workforce gaps.
These are the hallmarks of the Internet2 Community Exchange (CommEX24), which returns March 4-7, 2024, to convene the global research and education (R&E) community in Chicago. Through the diverse and robust discussions slated for CommEX24, this is the event where our community is collectively co-creating a future with new technologies, innovations, and solutions that will further collaborations and advance research, scholarship, and education.
Glenn Lipscomb
As we approach CommEX24, here’s your guide to what sets this event apart. Find out how we’re making the experience even more memorable for attendees in 2024.
Something for Everyone in Research and Education
What I love most about the Community Exchange is that it brings together individuals from across the Internet2 and global R&E communities. From first-time attendees to long-time colleagues, all bring their diverse backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge to critical conversations.
You’ll find your peers at CommEX: CIOs and their leadership teams, state and regional network operators, international collaborators, cybersecurity leads, identity and access management (IAM) professionals, cloud computing experts, procurement officers, community anchor institution representatives, researchers, research computing and data professionals, and more.
This unique gathering of individuals across the R&E ecosystem provides unparalleled collaboration opportunities. Through sessions, workshops, social receptions, and just plain hallway time, attendees come to CommEX to cultivate meaningful relationships with their peers. Similarly, they establish fresh connections with those who just recently joined the community.
New this year, we’re hosting a fun 5K walk/run. If I can catch my breath — I look forward to connecting with people on a personal and professional level. I hope to see you there.
Expert-Led Program Developed By and For the Community
Working with community members to help formulate the Community Exchange program is one of the highlights of my job! Thoughtful and productive, the program committee for CommEX24 has curated a program chock full of outstanding sessions you won’t want to miss. With close to 60 track sessions and over 30 working meetings, there is truly something for everyone.
ChatGPT didn’t help me write this — but unsurprisingly, one of the big topics sweeping the industry and this year’s Embracing Emerging Technologies program area is generative AI. With many issues to consider, CommEX24 will provide timely and fruitful ground for compelling discussions on the topic. We’ll kick those off with the opening keynote featuring AI and robotics expert Kate Darling.
But that’s only the beginning. Enjoy talking about the cloud? You’ve come to the right place. Do cybersecurity threats keep you up at night? Our community has the latest information about implications and solutions.
Is creating a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion top of mind at your organization? The positive community impact of DEI is a cross-cutting program theme. This year, we’ll also have an NCWIT-hosted workshop to help you create a strategic action plan for inclusion that identifies and equips change leaders at every level.
Want to know more about the future of IAM and the InCommon Futures2 report? Click that register button. And who knows more about advanced networking in R&E than Internet2 members and our global partners? Join us at CommEX24 to hear about the impacts directly from community experts.
If you’re still not convinced, don’t just take our word for it. Read on to discover what past attendees say about why they’re joining us again at CommEX24.
Don’t Just Take Our Word for It
“I attend the Community Exchange for the incredible networking opportunities and to get perspective on other institutions’ successes and challenges in higher education IT. This year, I’m really looking forward to being on a panel about IT vendor management. I think this is an area of opportunity for higher ed and hope to encourage others in the business, procurement, and legal realms to become more involved in these discussions at community events.”
— Emily Perry, Manager of Software Supply Chain, University of Arizona
“As an event tailored to the R&E community, Community Exchange is far more valuable than just a generic big IT or security conference. I’ve met so many people at different types of institutions who are always willing to help or share information about how they do things. Being able to go up to someone before or after a talk or during the Exchange social events is super valuable to me! I’m also excited to host a session on ‘Influencing Technology Policy’ with Andrew Gallo and Mark Johnson. We have a monthly tech policy reading group, and we’re using events like Community Exchange to get people at all levels in R&E to become more vocal and active in shaping future directions of policy that affect us.”
— Anita Nikolich, Director of Research and Technology Innovation and Research Scientist, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
“Attending Community Exchange gives me the opportunity to catch up with colleagues and friends from RENs around the world. One aspect of all conferences that is always important is the opportunity to engage in less formal settings, from the coffee breaks and lunches to the social events. This year, Internet2 is planning a morning run where I know I will meet people that I otherwise would not. Overall, the benefit of attending is hearing about the latest developments whilst ensuring valuable face-to-face time.”
— Tom Fryer, Head of International Relations, GÉANT, and CommEX24 Program Committee Member
About the Author(s)
Glenn Lipscomb is the associate vice president of marketing and events at Internet2. Glenn has over 30 years of marketing and communications experience with 15 years in the research and higher education space. Glenn has a strong passion supporting the mission of Internet2 and servicing the R&E community.