Call for Proposals

Due Friday, February 7th, 2020

Call for Proposals

We are seeking speakers to provide educational sessions at the 2020 PA TechCon. To submit a proposal:

  1. Review the conference information below, specifically the tracks and sessions requiring speakers.
  2. Complete the proposal submission form (one form for each proposed session) by Friday, February 7, 2020.
  3. Look for an email from Keyana Shearburn (kshearburn@HarrisburgU.edu) by the end of February with the next steps, including scheduling calls between accepted speakers and the planning team.

Date & Location

April 30th, 2020
Harrisburg University of Science & Technology
326 Market Street, Harrisburg, PA

Conference Overview

2020 PA TechCon: One Pennsylvania: Transforming Customer Service Together

The 2020 PA TechCon focuses on strategies and best practices that governments at all levels, as well as educational organizations can use to transform the customer (citizens, businesses, parents, students, etc.) experience for those they serve.

This annual event brings together more than 500 government and educational leaders, thought leaders from the private sector and faculty/students for a day of collaboration and sharing of ideas

Format

The event includes the following educational sessions:

  • Keynote (for all attendees)
  • End note (for all attendees)
  • Simultaneous tracks with breakout sessions (50 – 200 attendees per session)

All sessions are 45 minutes, including a brief Q&A at the end.

Time is allocated between sessions to encourage collaboration and networking.

Tracks & Sessions

Plenaries (Keynote & End Note)

The keynote and end note should focus on the overall theme of the conference – One Pennsylvania: Transforming Customer Service Together. We are looking for dynamic public speakers that are recognized thought-leaders with a vision of the future and who can motivate the audience to adopt a Customer-Centric perspective.

Opening Keynote

The opening keynote should set the tone for the entire day. It should inspire the audience and provide the compelling case for why all levels of government and educational institutions should work together to transform the customer experience. The opening keynote should cover topics and questions such as the following:

  • Provide specific examples of organizations leading the way in transforming the customer experience, particularly governments and/or educational organizations successfully improving the customer experience.
  • Enable the audience to begin answer questions such as:
    • In a digital world how can government and educational organizations identify customer expectations?
    • How do you develop a strategy to meet customer expectations and change the culture within the organization to successfully deliver results?
    • What are the challenges and mitigation strategies for delivering customer-first initiatives?
    • What are some best practices for measuring whether your initiatives are meeting customer expectations?

End Note

Governments and educational organizations serve many of the same customers. The end note should address the One Pennsylvania: Transforming Customer Service Together theme. It should focus specifically on governments at all levels and educational organizations working together. The audience will have heard the opening keynote and sessions throughout the day addressing various aspects of customer service experience transformation. The closing keynote should motivate the audience to continue the collaboration, provide them a vision of what a more seamless customer experience could look like and inspire them to begin implementing the important steps to improve the customer experience together. It should address questions and topics such as:

  • What should attendees be doing to help foster a customer-first design across government and education?
  • What skills and training do leaders are their employees need to enable them to support the customer service transformation? How can we make our systems that touch the same customers more seamless, especially when we are delivering similar services?
  • What are the ways to leverage our respective resources to lower costs or improve performance?
  • How can governance play a critical role in designing and delivering services across various levels of government and/or educational organizations?
  • Can you provide a vision of how such services could work and the benefits to customers?

Track 1: Workforce of the Future

The IT Workforce of the Future will have different roles, responsibilities and thus require different skills. What will IT, business, and other workers need to succeed; and when should organizations begin to re-skill their staffs?

Possible topics (breakout sessions) for this track include:

  • Vision for the Future
    • With Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, bots, the Cloud, and other emerging technologies empowering customer service transformation, what impact will there be on organizations and operations?
    • What skills will be required to support the future operating model?
    • What change management and communications strategies should be implemented to ensure current and future employees support the change to the future operating model?
  • Readying the Workforce for the Future
    • When and How to Retool the Workforce for the Future?
    • How Can Professional Development Provide the Needed Training?
    • Provide examples of how governments and schools are preparing their workforce for the future. Who’s leading and how?
  • Greying Workforce- Hiring Considerations for the Future Workforce
    • How to Attract Students to Work in Government or Education?
    • Should Government and Education Change Their Workplace Culture to Attract New Workers?
    • What are the expectations of future employees?
  • Technologies and Skills:
    • New technologies don’t mean that jobs are eliminated; however, leaders who don’t adapt to new technologies may be eliminated.
    • How does the introduction of new technologies (artificial intelligence, robotics process automation, etc.) change skills (where, how, why)?
    • Personal life technology use drives customer expectations in work environment, government services
  • Changing Landscape of the Workforce:
    • What are the top 10 jobs of the future based on labor statistics?
    • Working from home – what companies have nearly 100% remote employees, what are the productivity gains, and are there cost savings to the organization?
    • How are millennials’ expectations reshaping the workforce? What benefits are they seeking?
    • What are government trends regarding insourcing vs. outsourcing?
  • Succession Planning:
    • How can organizations with high retirement eligibility implement it?
    • What are best practices in mentoring/training programs?
    • How can organizations institutionalize this before key player changes occur?

Track 2: Managing Data & Systems to Ensure Availability

Working with business to set expectations.

Possible topics (breakout sessions) for this track include:

  • Identifying and Assessing Risk Within Your Organization
    • How to Identify and Classify What is Critical to Your Organization?
    • What are Acceptable Methods for Assessing and Valuing Risk?
    • How Best to Present the Risk Equation to Executive Management?
  • Strategies for Ensuring Continuity of Business Operations
    • How to Map Technology and Other Needed Resources to Critical Business Functions?
    • Are Business Partners or Other External Resources in the Critical Path of Your Success?
    • Can Reasonable Expectations for Recovery be Communicated to the Business and Executive Management?
  • Technologies That Can Reduce Risk and Support Continuity of Business Operations
    • What Cyber Security Tools Have Been Proven to be Most Effective Reducing Risk?
    • How Does Cloud Technology Reduce Risk?
    • Will Emerging Technologies Like AI and Machine Learning Reduce Risk of Failure?

Track 3: Securing Citizens’ and Customers’ Identity and Data

With social media losing users’ login and other information, a health company losing PHI, or even the federal government losing PII – hardly a day goes by without a data breach making the news. As the holder and in some cases the source of our citizens’ data and identity, we have an obligation to protect their information. This track will look at methods and best practices for doing so.

Possible topics (breakout sessions) for this track include:

  • Identity verification: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”
  • Privileged user management
  • Social engineering: helping customers secure themselves
  • Data privacy regulations meet cybersecurity policy
  • Cyber essentials for protecting customer/citizen data

Track 4: Emerging Technologies That Support Effective Customer Interactions

Using the power of emerging technologies to transform and improve customer interactions, response times and quality of service. This track will explain new technologies, but more importantly, share examples of how those new technologies are being used to improve customer interactions and any predictions of how this type of technology may be used in the future.

Possible topics (breakout sessions) for this track include:

  1. Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning – Too much data and too many services to rely on human interaction for everything. Automate, automate, automate!
  2. Video Chat – Face to face without being face to face
  3. Realtime Messaging/IM as opposed to e-mail – E-mail is dead, long live Realtime Messaging
  4. Bots - 24/7 coverage without the need for 24/7 people
  5. Data Analytics – The power of data and analytics to improve services, identify service gaps and understand customer behaviors

Track 5: Assessing User Expectations & Outcomes

In this track, public and private sector will share best practices in human-centered design.

Possible topics (breakout sessions) for this track include:

  • Identifying your customers and researching their expectations – who are our customers and what do they want from us?
  • Designing a customer experience based on research and testing the design
  • Measuring satisfaction of the customer experience