Category Archives: Gov/Mil News

Gov/Mil News on GovEvents Blog includes editorials and media pertaining directly to current events happening in Government & Military.

Seeking Job Seekers?

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The hiring market for top technology talent is always competitive. Finding not only technical experts, but the right mix of personality and clearances is critical for business success. Many organizations turn to hiring events to broaden the pool of talent in their pipeline. But what type of event is right for your company? And how do you ensure your hiring event is a success?[Tweet "How do you ensure your hiring event is a success? #GovEventsBlog"] Continue reading →

Federal Travel Restrictions: Adapting to the New Normal

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Three years since the travel restrictions went into effect, federal workers are settling into a new normal around how they meet professional development, training, and networking goals. A recent study by Market Connections looked at the types of content most in demand by government IT buyers and decision makers as well as what is being produced by the vendor community and found some interesting gaps between the two.

What immediately caught our eye was the response to the question, "With the recent budget and travel restrictions in place and the cancelation of events, what are you or others doing to get the information and/or training you previously acquired from events (i.e., trade shows, conferences, seminars)?"  The top two responses from the government officials surveyed were: Continue reading →

Speaking From Experience: Event Attendance Tips

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In a new series here on GovEvents, we'd like to share some of the best tips and tricks we've found in navigating the world of events. From attending to exhibiting, we hope our tips (some discovered through missteps) will help you get the most out of events. In today's post, we'll focus on tips for attending events.

  • Go in with a plan - look at the agenda and exhibitor list the week before the event and take some time to plan out your time there. Block sessions you want to attend into your calendar and make notes on the booths you want to see. Make sure you build in time to check emails or grab coffee with people you meet. Doing this a week out also gives you time to confer with colleagues. If others are attending how do you best divide and conquer? If you are going alone, are there sessions or companies they'd like you to see while you are there. Jot down questions you want to make sure you get answered while there.

Continue reading →

Government Meetings Still in Freefall

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From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:

Originally posted on meetingsnet.com

Corporate meetings have seen steady positive growth over the past year, but the government meetings segment continues to struggle, showing little sign of regaining its footing, at least not in the quarterly Meetings Outlook report published by Meeting Professionals International.

MPI asks planner and supplier respondents, "Compared to one year ago, which client segment of your organization's meeting and event-related business has seen the greatest decrease in activity?" In the Winter 2015 report, whose data was collected in November 2014, almost half of respondents saw government meetings in decline. That's even more than the 43 percent who reported declines in the August 2014 outlook, which itself was a dramatic increase over the 31 percent who saw declines in the May 2014 survey. (And in response to the converse question in the current report--asking which segment showed the greatest uptick--no one said government.) Continue reading →

Going Big

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When it comes to booking big name speakers, Strata +Hadoop World scored what was probably the biggest win of the 2015 conference year. President Obama appeared via video to talk about the critical role open data should play in innovating government service to citizens.  The President also introduced DJ Patel, the new data scientist for the federal government. This appearance underlies that data is big (not just Big Data).

New positions are being created throughout government focused solely on data. The new Federal Chief Data Scientist and Chief Data Officer roles are being created in agencies across the government. The addition of data to c-suite roles shows that data is serious business.[Tweet "The addition of data to c-suite roles shows that data is serious business. #GovEventsBlog"]

According to the President and Patel, data science is a team sport - meaning that working together is key to utilizing all of the data that the government has opened to industry and the public.[Tweet "Data science is a team sport...Working together is key #GovEventsBlog"] We are being challenged by the administration to find ways to apply this data to everyday life. How can organizations and event professionals incorporate this call for collaboration into our everyday efforts? Perhaps we can look at adding a session or even just a talking point to all of our events or gatherings where attendees can brainstorm on what data exists that could be used to meet a challenge being faced within that community. This ad hoc collaboration around data could provide a unique experience for attendees and perhaps result in the next big (data) thing.