The Buzz with ACT-IAC

It's no secret that the US transportation system is built around the car. Compared to other developed countries, our cities are less walkable, less bikeable, and have less robust public transit networks. Roughly 87% of miles traveled in the US are by car, and this has enormous consequences for the health and welfare of individuals and communities . Traffic, accidents, air pollution, space dedicated to parking, costs of vehicle ...

For those outside of the acquisitions community, the practices, policies and processes of federal procurement can seem quite impenetrable. But given that the US Government spent more than $665 billion on contracts in 2020, it is not a subject to be ignored.

To that end, The Buzz with ACT-IAC  presents: Demystifying Procurement - a series designed to take you through the ins and outs of this complex, but vital, topic.

This week, hos...

This week on The Buzz, the final episode of 2021! This year has brought plenty of change, challenge and adaptation to the government IT community, and the next year looks to bring even more.

To help us look forward to 2022, The Buzz is joined by ACT-IAC's very own CEO, Dave Wennergren. On this episode, Dave gives his perspective on the Biden-Harris Management Agenda, the importance of government-industry collaboration, and how ...

Although Bitcoin has been around since 2009, it is only in the past couple of years that cryptocurrency has blossomed into a multibillion-dollar industry. The lack of regulation governing crypto assets led SEC chair Gary Gensler to liken the market to the "wild west", with thousands of different coins and platforms and fortunes made and lost overnight.

Governments the world over are taking notice. Cryptocurrency isn't go...

This week, The Buzz presents a recorded session from Imagine Nation ELC 2021.

Harvard Business School professor Mitchell Weiss took the stage (virtually) this year to talk about his book, "We the Possibility: Harnessing Public Entrepreneurship to Solve Our Most Urgent Problems", in which he advocates for a public service model that incorporates entrepreneurship, experimentation, and creative problem-solving to tackle our nat...

Back in September, the Buzz previewed a virtual Shark Tank competition hosted by ACT-IAC's Emerging Tech and Acquisitions COI (you can listen to that episode here). The question competitors sought to answer was "How can emerging technologies help streamline the acquisition lifecycle ?"

This week, host Colin Larsen talks with the winners of that event to discuss where these ideas came from, how they work, and why it matte...

Just about everyone knows someone who has quit their job in past year, or at least seen the headlines about "The Great Resignation". More and more workers of all economic levels and across all sectors are leaving their jobs in search of something better - whether simply higher wages or something more intangible.

Employees have had to adapt to function in the new remote-work environment, and now, organizations are learning th...

After attending Imagine Nation ELC 2021 in Hershey, PA last week, The Buzz returns with an in-person ICYMI from the event.

On the final day of the conference, Darby Chellis Bade, Vice President of EPA Programs and Executive Lead for Climate Change Growth Initiatives at GDIT, sat down with Department of Energy CIO Ann Dunkin to discuss one of greatest public policy challenges of our time - climate change.

In this session, they discuss...

The field of Artificial Intelligence has grown in leaps and bounds over the last decade. The rapid development of AI technologies brings with it an equally rapid transformation of our communities, economies, and individual lives.

As we integrate more of these AI systems into our world, we will need to consider the challenges and risks they pose to our society. Fortunately, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) h...

ACT-IAC's largest annual conference, Imagine Nation ELC, is coming up from November 7-9! This week on The Buzz, host Colin Larsen chats with members of the conference's executive committee to give listeners an idea of what to expect this year.

First, Maria Roat, the government chair, and Jonathan Benett, the industry chair, highlight some of the exciting speakers and sessions during the 3-day conference. Next, Sudha Venkates...

This week, The Buzz with ACT-IAC celebrates Sandy Barsky’s retirement from the General Services Administration (GSA) after an almost 40-year career in government. In this episode, Sandy sits down with Todd Hager, Industry Chair of ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology Community of Interest (COI) and Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Macro Solutions, to reflect on a career that began as a GS-3 supporting GSA’s cataloging. 

 ACT-IAC ...

The United States produces almost 300 million tons of municipal solid waste per year - everything from food to furniture to packaging to electronics. Everything we throw away has to end up somewhere, and the practices and policies that govern this process have a profound effect on our natural world. As we consider ways to combat and mitigate the threat of climate change, we will have to confront the problems in our waste management...

In our efforts to improve trust in government institutions and provide better services to our citizens, the role of local government is difficult to overstate. Local governments are often a community's first point of contact for government services.  When local governments listen to and understand the diverse needs of the populations they serve, they are all the more equitable, inclusive and effective.

This week, The Buzz presen...

This week, The Buzz presents a recording from ACT-IAC's 2021 CX Summit.

The pandemic has increased the public's expectations and the government's drive towards the delivery of digital services to the public and to its employees. This panel discussion focused on some concrete ways that federal agencies have utilized contact centers to reach diverse and underserved audiences, and the impact these centers have had on both e...

The Buzz with ACT-IAC presents COVID Conversations - reflections on life and work during this historic time period with members of the ACT-IAC community.

This week, host Colin Larsen is joined by Brian Whittaker, Chief Experience Officer at FDIC* and host of The Buzz's CX discussion series. Brian shares insights about his job transition during the pandemic, learning how to lead a remote workforce, dealing with stress, and his CX...

On October 14th, ACT-IAC’s Emerging Technology and Acquisition Communities of Interest (COIs) will be hosting a Shark Tank competition focused on making acquisitions easier, faster, and simpler. Government agencies, academia, and industry will have an opportunity to pitch ideas on how federal government can leverage emerging technologies to solve federal acquisition challenges. On this episode, to cover the competition in more deta...

This week, The Buzz presents a recording from ACT-IAC's archives.

ACT-IAC's 2020 CX Summit occurred in a particularly challenging year for customer experience. COVID-19  spotlighted the gaps in agencies where progress hadn't happened.  while also highlighting agencies where those improvements had already been made.

The virtual event was closed out by a fireside chat between Kathy Conrad and Robert Shea. They discussed Ro...

With the end of the federal fiscal year fast approaching, agencies will be looking to use their leftover budget in a rush of 4th-quarter contracts. How can government and industry work together to ensure those end-of-year dollars are best spent to maximize an agency's mission objectives?

To answer that question this week, The Buzz is joined by Greg Giddens, former CAO & Exec Dir, Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Constru...