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Past luncheons:

January 2020 - WatchGuard CTO's 2020 Threat Landscape Predictions and a Review of How He Did on the 2019 Predictions He Presented Last January

WatchGuard CTO Corey Nachreiner is the host of The 443 Podcast and every year, the WatchGuard Threat Lab team imagines what the threat landscape might look like the following year. These predictions offer a fun way to talk about the future threat landscape, they’re based on serious real-world trends that that all IT and security practitioners should know about.

Whether or not any of these predictions come true, this session will inform you about the latest cyber-attack trends and corresponding tips and defense strategies to avoid them. This year, the team went a little dystopian with their cyber security predictions, imagining a bleak future if we don’t start winning the cyber security war. However, the goal of this presentation is to spread the awareness necessary to ensure these dark predictions don’t come true. We hope you join us for and interesting, fun, and educational dive into the future of cyber security.

Corey Nachreiner

December 2019 - Managing Statisticians and Data Scientists

Analytics is one of the most looked for capabilities of this decade. For those of us in the field, the demand is nothing short of amazing. Everyone is looking for data scientists, statisticians, analysts, and modelers, because with them companies can lead, or even disrupt, their industry.

This enthusiasm is exciting, but, at the same time, it does present new challenges for analytical teams in hiring, managing and retaining the magical creatures that are statisticians and data scientists. How do we build teams when the talent gap is so large? How do we enable and organize the teams to truly impact the business? How do we develop and challenge our team so that they are with us for a long time? We will discuss these questions in more detail and give suggestions that you can take back to your own organization.

Chuck Kinkaid

November 2019 - Cybersecurity:  Adopting Concepts From the World of Police SWAT Teams

There are many lessons and skills the Cybersecurity industry can learn from the intense, life and death world of Police SWAT Teams.  Chris Gebhardt is a former Police Lieutenant and SWAT Team Leader who also specialized his career in IT and InfoSec.  He will share some specialized skills he has applied to Cybersecurity operations to create an always win, eyes open mindset.  You'll hear stories from the field and server room about 'keeping your head on a swivel' and 'two is one, one is none.'  He'll show you how you can adopt these concepts to augment your cybersecurity thinking for the better.

Chris Gebhardt

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October 2019 -  Intelligent Artificial Intelligence:  How to apply AI to evolve customer experience and differentiate in the marketplace.

Artificial Intelligence is being applied in the contact center in different ways and allows companies to evolve the customer and agent experience in ways that may be differentiated, both expected and unexpected. We will explore the ways AI is being applied today, how it may be applied in the future, and how AI can be used to manipulate customer perception and reaction.   We’ll also discuss some of the possible unexpected consequences that could arise as AI appears more frequently in the contact center

Scott Trichon

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September 2019 - How is the Intelligent Edge going to affect your Business?

Sanchaita Datta shared what the intelligent edge is and why it will change the way businesses, governments, schools, and the consumer will access information to help decision making in the future.  The ramifications of the intelligent edge have wide spread impact on latency, cost, security, and distributed networks including IoT. Come learn more about this future trend and how it will impact us all as IT leaders.

Sanchaita Datta

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May 2019 - Capitalizing on Big Data Disruption

It’s no longer just the sexy Silicon Valley Social Media, Ride Sharing, AdTech, FinTech, and Gaming companies who are gathering massive amounts of data. Virtually every company in every industry has massive amounts of data stored in every possible incarnation of a data repository. We are now facing a very critical fork in the industry road ahead. The data itself is nothing more than a hefty cost center and a serious liability in the age of data breeches and regulations like GDPR. The right path is to focus on turning that liability into the most highly valuable asset your company has.

That data represents a market-disrupting opportunity for your business. But with seemingly endless commercial, open source, and “as-a-service” offerings hitting the market each week, how do you choose the right mix of technologies and avoid creating an accidental architecture that will limit you from future innovation? Most importantly, how can you actually achieve the promised bottom-line benefits from Big Data initiatives? Preferably before your competitors.

Join us for this session to understand how your organization can adopt an effective and agile approach to Big Data analytics, while focusing on the analytical use cases that will deliver a bottom-line and competitive impact.

 ** Click for a copy of the presentation: Capitalizing_On_Big_Data_Disruption_AIM2.pptx

Paige Roberts

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April 2019 - How to Design and Deliver Consumer Value through Innovation

In this session attendees will learn more about an Innovation Process Model, how that model was developed, and how that model and its elements can help companies innovate more effectively. Todd will cover how Mindset, Theory, Methods, and Toolsets of Innovation play into this and how companies can effectively use these strategies. 

Todd Dunn

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March 2019 - Level Up!  Game-Changing Strategies for Building a Learning Organization

Developing people takes time and care. Organizations that invest in their people have shown better employee retention. In this keynote, Kim will share lessons learned from "upskilling" seasoned professionals. Yes, you really can teach an old dog new tricks—even when that old dog is yourself. Attendees will learn how to sort through the plethora of online resources and practical advice for implementing a hands-on, experience-based learning approach that can be effectively implemented at any organization.

Kim Mahan

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February 2019 - Emerging Tech Trends in AI

Most IT leaders struggle to keep up with emerging technologies while running their businesses.  This can leave them overwhelmed, feeling left behind and vulnerable to hype.  But it doesn't have to be this way.

Get the inside scoop on one of today's most impactful technologies, how it's changing the IT enterprise landscape today, and where it's heading tomorrow ... without all the hype.

Mark Campbell

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January 2019 - 2019 Threat Predictions

Will next year mark the start of a cyber security apocalypse that spells disaster for the Internet, or will network defenders win out against hackers, enjoying smooth digital sailing all year? To find out what the WatchGuard Threat Labs team thinks, join Marc Laliberte and Corey Nachreiner, the hosts of The 443 Podcast, to hear our security predictions for 2019.

 ** Click for a copy of the presentation:  2019 Trends and Predictions.pdf

Corey Nachreiner, WatchGuard CTO

Marc Laliberte

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December 2018 - Building Effective Relationships at Work

Your organization’s most important asset isn’t just your people. It’s what happens between your people—how well they respect and treat each other every day—that creates your organization’s ultimate competitive advantage.

In the keynote based on his best seller book, Get Better: 15 Practices to Building Effective Relationships at Work, Franklin Covey’s Chief People Officer, Todd Davis, shares insights from his 30+ year career observing and coaching people at all levels inside organizations.

Todd Davis - Franklin Covey

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November 2018 - Using Threat Intelligence to Improve Risk Management

Cyber threats are becoming more pervasive, invasive, and sophisticated. While traditional risk management practices are vitally important, new tools and techniques that can greatly improve the efficacy of risk assessments and the treatment of risks they identify. One rapidly evolving capability is the use of threat intelligence tools to identify at-risk systems and networks. In his discussion, Paul describes how to turn tactical threat data into a powerful threat management capability

Paul Webb

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October 2018 - Identity and Access Management in a Cloudy World

As more and more companies begin or are well along the path to cloud computing adoption, understanding the role of Identity and Access Management in this new cloud world is critical. Eric Raff will explain what every IT leader should understand about this core functionality that can either make or break your overall cloud strategy. Come learn the latest in Identity best practices and strategy as well as how you can increase security around access to your cloud assets by 99%. This session will be a practical and real world approach for understanding the key components of the Identity and Access Management landscape and you will leave with a better understanding of where your gaps may be and where further investments should be made for the short and long term transition to the new world of Cloud computing and SaaS applications..

 ** Click for a copy of the presentation:   2018 10 Luncheon IAM in a Cloudy World.pptx

Eric Raff

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September 2018 - Trends in IoT and the associated threat landscape

The explosive growth of connected devices (unmanaged and IoT) provides many challenges to businesses today. Visibility and Risk of these devices is becoming more and more important as new threats evolve. Matt will discuss industry trends and examples around the threat landscape effecting these unmanaged devices and how they are impacting overall risk.  He will also discuss new considerations of security architectures with a 'Zero Trust' philosophy as well as the role that traditional security tools play and the gaps.

 ** Click for a copy of the presentation:  Luncheon Presentation - 2018 09 Armis.pdf

Jack Marsal

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May 2018 - Complexity Kills

A New Road to Survival

History’s greatest minds—Whitman, Da Vinci, Thoreau, Newton, Hemingway—sought a life filled with the essential, free from the noise of complexity. A life lived true to the most authentic version of themselves. A life of simplicity.

It’s a life that doesn’t seem entirely compatible with modern work, where we send and receive more than 16,000 emails a year, spend a third of our time in meetings, and where most organizations have 35 times more processes, committees, and decision-making forums than the average did in 1950. Add in the impact of globalization, technology, and ever-changing laws and regulations, and it’s clear: we’re drowning in complexity.

Pulling on his eclectic experience as a mathematician, Pentagon policymaker, and consultant, Matt reveals that finding simplicity isn’t about removing or improving process, but creating purpose. It’s not about the how, but the why. He shares stories from companies that have tried—and failed—to reduce complexity, explaining how it can take a massive toll on employee engagement, efficiency, productivity, and the bottom line. He’ll then give you the tools you need to create simplicity for yourself, be it for your organization or your life, so you’re more than ready to take your first step on the path to greater purpose.

Matt Johnson

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April 2018 - Emotional Intelligence:  Why It Matters and How to Grow Yours

Each one of us is a unique creation. We all have different thoughts, feelings, desires, and goals. However, we also have many of the same patterns – including our habitual emotional patterns. We tend to operate in a reactive mode, merely interpreting incoming information and events, relating them to our previous experiences, and then responding without really being aware of why or how we’re doing it. As leaders, we need to take conscious control of our emotions if we are to respond effectively to the situations and challenges we face.

In “Emotional Intelligence: Why it Matters, and How to Grow Yours,” Kevin investigates the latest research on emotional intelligence and offers methods for incorporating techniques that will help leaders at all levels to become more aware of their own emotional patterns, and to create more resourceful and effective responses to the challenges of their environment.

Participants will be introduced to the processes that drive their emotions – mostly on an unconscious level – and they’ll learn some new tools and strategies to begin to take more control of their “inner world” and respond more effectively even in situations that might otherwise cause anxiety, frustration, anger, or fear. They’ll learn proven strategies for managing their own emotions, and those of the people they work with. These skills are essential to success, and account for 85-90% of the difference between outstanding leaders and their more average peers.

Kevin Ciccotti

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March 2018 - Rising Above It All

During this intriguing conversation, John argues that the reason companies have such short life spans is because they do not understand how to effectively transform themselves. This lecture defines organizational transformation as “evolving to higher levels of sustained performance.” John Lee, the author of “Rising Above it All” has found that most companies are capable of evolving to a given level of performance, which he refers to as the 95 percent level. One of the problems in transformation is that the skill set needed to reach the 95 percent performance level is not the same skill set that is needed to rise above the 95 percent level of performance. Most organizations do not understand this phenomenon, and as a result companies will eventually go extinct as customer expectations rise above the 95 percent level performance levels.

The author argues that most companies skip the personal and cultural transformation and jump right into the tools transformation, which is the reason companies die at such a young age. The fundamental problem is that an organization must have a culture that supports modern-day analytical tools, including tools used in the planning process, or the tools will not effectively work within the borders of the organization.

A copy of John’s book was provided to all participants.

John Lee

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February 2018 - Navigating the Digital Age - Cybersecurity for IT Leaders

The fast-evolving digital economy is stimulating tremendous opportunity and business transformation.  Central to this evolution is the emergence of the cloud.  While we have every reason to be bullish on the future, we have serious work to do to assure trust in the cloud and, by extension, trust in the digital economy.   The very recent Chip vulnerabilities shared publicly in early January known as “Meltdown” and “Spectre”, once again demonstrates that we have much work to do to secure our enterprises and the supporting ecosystem.  Yesterday’s security solutions no longer work.  Complexity has become our enemy.  Fresh thinking and thoughtful action is need … and needed quickly.

Brian Kelly -- Chief Security Officer, Rackspace

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January 2018 - Phishing - A Panel Discussion

A panel of security experts discussed why phishing attacks remain the #1 threat vector into an organization.

• Phishing Trends over the past 10 years
  • Threat actors-who are they?
  • What do they want?
  • How do they choose their targets?
  • What does a phishing campaign look like today?
• Tactics and Techniques
  • Why are these tactics effective?
  • Who are their targets?
• Who is at Risk
  • On premise vs. cloud based infrastructures
  • Roles within an organization
  • Organization profile
• Impact to an Organization
  • Operational
  • Financial
  • Technical
  • Regulatory/Compliance
• Mitigation Best Practices-People, Process, Technology

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December 2017 - Machine Learning on Distributed Systems

Most real-world data science workflows require more than multiple cores on a single server to meet scale and speed demands, but there is a general lack of understanding when it comes to what machine learning on distributed systems looks like in practice. Gartner and Forrester do not consider distributed execution when they score advanced analytics software solutions. Many formal machine learning training occurs on single node machines with non-distributed algorithms. In this talk we will discuss why an understanding of distributed architectures is important for anyone in the analytical sciences. We will cover the current distributed machine learning ecosystem. We will review common pitfalls when performing machine learning at scale. 

Josh Poduska
HPE - Senior Data Scientist

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November 2017 - The Second Wave of the Digital Revolution

We are living in a time of great change. In the brief time since the new millennium began, we have experienced the transformative power of the first wave of the Digital Revolution as the Internet has literally changed all the rules for how the world works. Now we find ourselves on the threshold of a second wave that will be fueled by not one, but two engines, resulting in more change in the next decade than we have seen in the past twenty-five years. Discover how the Internet of Things and Blockchain technology will produce new capabilities for improving the quality of life by expanding social collaboration, preventing illness and accidents, spawning new business and product models, generating new ways to create and distribute wealth, ending the threats of hacking and fraud, and eliminating the theft of intellectual property. 

Rod Collins
Innovation Sherpa

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October 2017 - The Art of Performing Cyber Security Risk Assessments

What constitutes a thorough and comprehensive risk assessment exercise? What are the compliance & industry mandates? What are the core components of such an exercise? In this brief, step through key areas, that must be addressed within the scope of a risk assessment exercise. Compliance mandates & information security standards always require that a risk analysis exercise be performed on a regular schedule. What should the scope & schedule be for such an exercise? Further, in the brief, understand the importance of performing a technical vulnerability assessment as a component of a risk analysis to identify possible security gaps that can be exploited. ** Click for a copy of the presentation: Luncheon Presentation 2017 10 Pabrai.pdf  

Uday Ali Pabrai
Cyber Security and Compliance Expert

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September 2017 - People are People

Why do we click with some people and get turned off by others? What causes us to treat some people well and others harshly. How do we overlook our natural biases and see all people as humans like us. Joel will share research on how our brains trick us into liking or hating others and what we can do about it.

Joel Dehlin
Chief Executive Officer, Kuali

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May 2017 - Five Top Ten Trends for 2017

5 Top Tech Trends Identified in 2017 and how companies can incorporate them into go forward initiatives
Atilla Tinic, Level3 CIO and Tore Berg Managing Partner at Accenture Technologies will present Accenture Technologies Vision 2017 technology report that predicts the most significant technology trends that people will apply to disrupt business over the next three years. Included in the presentation will be a discussion of the 5 top tech trends identified in the 2017 report and how Level 3’s global IT organization is incorporating these trends into their go forward initiatives.

Atilla Tintic - Chief Information Officer
Level 3 Communications

Tore Berg, Managing Director
Accenture

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April 2017 - Achieving Professional Growth

Technology is great, but people still hold the key. Tony will pose the following questions. How do I grow myself and my team, and can we know if someone will adapt to the fast changing circumstances of today’s world? He will challenge you to examine your own personal growth trajectory and reflect on where and when you learned the most.  ** Click for a copy of the presentation: Luncheon Presentation 2017 04 Tony Leng.pptx

Tony Leng
Managing Director - Diversified Search

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March 2017 - Embracing Uncertainty

When starting a new company or launching a new product, we often expect the world to be orderly and predictable. We over-analyze and over-plan, and then wonder why our budgets are over-run and products are overdue. Do we just need better planning and analysis? A better expert to tell us the answers? We need a different approach for extreme uncertainty -- one based on experimentation, innovation and the scientific method. We can replace fear with confidence, making uncertainty something we seek out -- even embrace.

Galen Murdock
CEO - Veracity Solutions

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February 2017 - The Storyteller's Secret

How Narrative Intelligence can Transform Your Organization
Transforming an organization’s communications practices, graduating them from clumsy to focused, from random to intentional, from scattered to purposeful, Jason explores the power of narrative design. In this fast-paced, inventive keynote, you’ll be handed tools used by the greatest storytellers of our time, and you’ll build muscle as they have, learning how to aggregate, curate, and amplify your message.

Jason Allen Ashlock
Founding Partner of Frontier Press

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January 2017 - Distributed Ledger Technology

The next generation of blockchain
During this presentation we will visit the kinds of interesting things enabled by Distributed Ledger Technologies and how a person’s account (or identity) can be owned and controlled by that person. One of the most exciting applications of distributed ledger technologies (a general category of database that includes blockchains like Bitcoin) is its ability to provide a global, decentralized source of truth upon which we can build "self-sovereign identity." This is an identity that is 100% owned and controlled by an individual or organization. No one else can read it, use it, turn it off, or take it away without its owner’s explicit consent. This simple form of identity is private, extremely secure, and goes where you go. This will enable trusted interactions to occur between individuals, institutions, and businesses. We will be discussing the many uses of this technology, where it came from, and where it’s moving to.

Phil Windley
VP and Ambassador-at-Large - Cylance

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December 2016 - Not If, But When

Leveraging AI to Jettison the Mantras of the Past.
For decades we in the security profession, have relied on the best technology we had at the time to deflect the onslaught of what we faced daily in the way of virus and malware attacks. The effectiveness of that AV technology was always predicated on having latest signatures on hand, which the adversaries could easily defeat with just the slightest modification of their last iteration. That signature-based paradigm required much in the way of downstream resources and expense and usually at least one “sacrificial lamb” upon which to let each new instance of threat sink its teeth. On a good day the capture and deflection rates rarely rose above 50%, requiring that we labor assiduously to manage leaderships’ expectations. We finally got them to understand and accept what became almost a mantra: “It’s not if but when”--as galling professionally as that admission was to make. However, just as predicted by Thomas Kuhn in his book the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, we’re seeing the dawn of a new day where AI’s machine learning and advance mathematical algorithms now offer validated deflection rates, pre-execution, in the realm of 99%. We will explore this emerging new paradigm and what it portends for the future.

John McClurg
Chairman and President, Sovrin Foundation

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November 2016 - The Art of Business Value

Information technology can and should deliver business value. But the IT community - and in particular the Agile community, which makes a point of organizing all its efforts around the delivery of business value - has paid scant attention to what exactly business value means—and how to know whether or not you are delivering it. This problem becomes ever more critical as you push value delivery toward autonomous teams and away from requirements “tossed over the wall” by business stakeholders. An empowered team needs to understand its goal!

Each attendee received a copy of Mark's book, The Art of Business Value.

Mark Swartz
CIO, Author, and Entrepreneur

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October 2016 - Deep Data for Pragmatic Security

Dr. Tippett created the first AntiVirus (became Norton), NCSA, ICSA, TruSecure, Information Security Magazine, Cybertrust, Verizon’s Security Services and the "Data Breach Investigation Report" (DBIR) which tracks and analyzes the evolution of cyber threats over more than a decade, covering well over 100,000 incidents. Dr. Tippett will engage us with deep knowledge and data in pragmatic discussion around solutions, approaches, compliance, and key empowering capabilities for better security.

Peter Tippett, M.D., Ph.D.
Chairman DataMotion; former Vice President & Chief Medical Officer, Verizon

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September 2016 - Addressing the Tech Talent Gap in Utah

As most technology leaders in Utah are keenly aware, Utah technology companies are experiencing a significant workforce shortage. As tightening continues, it will be important to understand and address this growing problem. Our speaker,  Jonathan Johnson, will discuss the current state of that shortage, its root causes and propose solutions to address it.

Jonathan Johnson
Chairman of the Board, Overstock.com

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May 2016 - The State of the Broadband Network in Utah

Utah's broadband landscape in leading to lower costs and increased bandwidth. The commercial telecommunications infrastructure is robust and growing.  As one of the most competitive states for broadband, Utah companies are taking advantage of competitive offerings to lower their telecommunications spend and increase their bandwidth. Wesley J. McDougal, President and CEO of FirstDigital will lead a discussion on how your company can take advantage of the competitive landscape and stay on top of the latest offerings.  The discussion will include a report of the overall state of broadband in Utah.

Wesley J. McDougal
President and CEO of FirstDigital

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April 2016 - DevOps and Automation

John Esser
Sr. Director Data Center Operations and SaaS at AdvancedMD

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March 2016 - Scalability Rules

Mike Fisher and Marty Abbott

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February 2016 - Get Hands On with Lean

Hala Saleh
Founder, 27Sprints, LLC

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January 2016 - Change, People, and the Evolution of Security Culture

Eric Hawley
Chief Information Officer - Utah State University

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December 2015 - Adventures in Open Source and Scale Out Computing

Joshua Bernstein

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November 2015 - Big Data Demystified

Walter Maguire
Chief Field Technologist - Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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October 2015 - Connectivity to the Cloud and Your WAN

John Grady

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September 2015 - A Team of Leaders

Paul Gustavson
President - Organization Planning and Design

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May 2015 - Private Social

Matt Berg
Microsoft

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April 2015 - Getting Alignment Right

Jeremy Warren
Sr. Director Data Center Operations and SaaS at AdvancedMD

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March 2015 - What is SDN and Why Should I Care?

Ron Jackson
Sr. Director Data Center Operations and SaaS at AdvancedMD

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February 2015 - How To Do Security Wrong

Jason Sabin

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January 2015 - Beyond Agile

Nate Walkingshaw

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December 2014 - Use Analytics to Rule the World

Niel Nickoliasen

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November 2014 - Olympic Champion in Skeleton

Noelle Picus Pace

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September 2014 - Digital Marketing - The Good, the Bad, and the Expensive

Pat Partridge

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