By David Gewirtz
A few months ago, I was invited to give the Saturday afternoon keynote address at the 31st Annual Independent Computer Consultants Association National Conference in Washington, D.C. With all the work I'd done on White House email, it seemed appropriate to address some of the nation's leading computer consultants in the cradle of our democracy.
At the time, I was asked if there was a way I could relate the convoluted story of White House email to the concerns of independent computer consultants. The White House story is not just a political story. Instead, at its heart, it's a technology management story -- perfect for IT consultants.
"ICCA is an ideal fit for many of our readers."
In fact, if you look at the White House's problems from an email management perspective, you see issues with messaging security, email archiving, compliance and disclosure, robustness, physical systems security and IT management discipline. But if you look at some of the issues tech consultants are working on with their clients, you see issues with messaging security, email archiving, compliance and disclosure, robustness, physical systems security and IT management discipline. Notice anything?
Armed with the topic "Lessons your clients can learn from the White House electronic mail controversy," Denise Amrich and I headed north to Washington Friday night. Prior to their invitation, I didn't know too much about our hosts. However, as we planned out the event, I got to know more about ICCA -- and it's an organization many of you may find quite interesting as well. According to the association's Web site:
The ICCA is a not-for-profit trade association of independent and small business technology professionals. ICCA's was established in 1976 to elevate the quality of the computer consulting industry by providing business support programs and professional development opportunities for our members.
The ICCA represents a wide variety of information technology consultants who provide support, consulting, implementation, training, strategic planning, and business analysis services. Our member firms are independent, i.e., they will only propose to do work that is within their core competence, and will not be unduly influenced by any vendor or product.
See what I mean? This is a perfect fit for many of our readers. Go ahead and visit http://www.icca.org. And consider joining. They have a lot of member benefits and they're also really nice people.
The keynote itself, shown in Figure A, had a "just right" audience size. There were about 80 people arranged around banquet tables throughout the ballroom. We also had a number of event sponsors on hand, like Google and the security firm Calyptix, who helped make the event possible.
FIGURE A
That's me, in the middle of the room, PowerPoint and all. (click for larger image)
It was an absolute pleasure presenting in front of clueful IT people. Normally, when I speak or do interviews, I'm talking to relatively non-technical people and this group just got "it" from the minute I started my talk. This group, of course, understands what makes for a good IT practice and found themselves just as baffled as our readers by the White House's IT operation. In fact, when I showed some of the testimony by White House Chief Information Officer Theresa Payton, the entire room erupted in laughter.
After the speech, I had a chance to chat with ICCA members, as shown in Figure B. From left to right you can see ICCA member Gary, me, ICCA Executive Director Joyce Burkard, and Calyptix President Ben Yarbrough.
FIGURE B
From left to right, Gary, me, Joyce Burkard, and Ben Yarbrough. (click for larger image)
I need to take a moment and give huge kudos to Joyce. I've worked with much larger organizations and spoken in front of much larger groups, but I don't think I've ever encountered an event organizer more on the ball or more genuinely friendly. Joyce was completely on mission in every email correspondence, sent out reminders, made sure all the arrangements were happening the way they were supposed to, and to borrow a cliche, kept the trains running on time perfectly. I was mightily impressed.
After the presentation, I got to speak with a number of ICCA members. You can see a bunch in Figure C.
FIGURE C
This was a nice group of ICCA members. (click for larger image)
You can see another group in Figure D. If you look closely, at the very far right of Figure D, you can see a partial profile of ICCA President Dave Nachman, who was also kind enough to set up the presentation computer and get everything working.
FIGURE D
Another pleasant group of ICCA members is shown in this shot. At the far right, you can see ICCA President Dave Nachman. (click for larger image)
Overall, I had a great time on this trip and a lot of inner-circle IT recommenders got a very important briefing on what's going on in White House IT.
Finally, this was a very interesting, jam-packed trip for me. Between the time I got off the plane and had to speak, and after I met my speaking commitment to the ICCA, I had the opportunity to meet confidentially with some other very interesting D.C. denizens who were kind enough to take weekend time to visit with me at the conference hotel and discuss the White House situation. I can't tell you who they were, though. If I told you, I'd have to kill you.