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Tag: TechStrong Con

  • TechStrongCon: Time to Build an Army of Citizen Developers

    TechStrongCon: Time to Build an Army of Citizen Developers

    DevOps teams need to start drafting a strategy to support what will soon become an army of citizen developers.

    Speaking at the virtual TechStrongCon event, JP Morgenthal, global director for modern applications development at DXC Technology, told conference attendees that the time to build an army of citizen developers is now.

    Citizen developers are typically end users that have developed enough expertise to build an application using low-code or no-code tools. Most organizations don’t have enough professional developers to address their application development backlogs, so it’s imperative that they enable end users to build applications, noted Morgenthal.

    Those citizen developers, however, need to be supported by DevOps teams to ensure guardrails are in place for building secure applications that scale. In addition, DevOps involvement also reduces the friction that a citizen developer will most certainly encounter when building an application, he added. “DevOps is fundamental, “ said Morgenthal. “We need to invest in it heavily.”

    Otherwise, citizen developers—who typically have other tasks that require their attention—will simply abandon their application development efforts, he noted. “This is not their primary task,” said Morgenthal. “They are going to need to be nurtured.”

    Most professional developers are focused on applications that are systems of record. The problem is that there simply are not enough of them to build necessary applications to drive systems of engagement, noted Morgenthal.

    That increased reliance on citizen developers is, in fact, part of a larger wave of democratization of IT in which individuals that don’t have advanced technology degrees take advantage of automation to build and deploy applications, he added.

    Organizations, however, run into issues when they fail to test those applications, make sure that configurations are not manually changed or don’t address the technical debt that inevitably accrues over time, said Morgenthal.

    Burnout can also become an issue, so Morgenthal said organizations need to make sure that agile development practices are used to first create a minimally viable product (MVP) and then plan development sprints to update and maintain it.

    Finally, there also needs to be a plan in place for shifting responsibility for the application to someone else when the individual that created it eventually leaves the organization, he added.

    Citizen developers, of course, are not the only ones using low-code and no-code tools. Many professional developers are using those same tools to build applications faster. In fact, it’s not clear how many end users have the skills required to successfully build applications, even though low-code and no-code tools automate much of the process. One way or another, many professional developers are now also collaborating more frequently with end users to build applications using low-code/no-code tools that make it easier for end users to, at the very least, describe the workflow of the application they want to build and deploy.

    Regardless of who builds the application, it’s a given that a lot more code will be moving through DevOps pipelines in the months and years ahead. DevOps teams, as a result, will inevitably need to revisit workflows and platforms to continuously update and maintain those applications at scale.

  • TechStrong Con: Open Source Software Community Needs Security Help

    TechStrong Con: Open Source Software Community Needs Security Help

    The only way to make significant improvements in the state of open source security is if more organizations that benefit from open source projects commit to making more resources available to achieve that goal.

    At the virtual TechStong Con event, executives on an Open Source and DevOps panel called for more contributions from enterprise IT organizations to ensure the integrity of open source software.

    Organizations of all sizes now benefit from open source software whether directly or indirectly. Those organizations have a responsibility to participate in the development of that software in any way they can, said Jeffrey Barnes, senior software engineer for Remote Operations, a provider of medical transcription services. “We need to give back to the community,” he said.

    Those efforts don’t necessarily have to involve contributing actual code, added Barnes. Many open source projects are in need of documentation and testing help because the number of actual maintainers of the project is relatively small, he noted.

    The challenge is that many enterprise IT organizations don’t understand how to participate in open source software development processes, noted Tom Sweet, CIO for Industrial Refrigeration Pros. An organization might download a piece of open source software and then extend it. Rather than continuing to maintain that branch on their own, organizations should contribute that code back to the project to reduce maintainers’ overall IT burden, Sweet said.

    “Many organizations are struggling to contribute back,” said Sweet. “It’s an evolution.”

    Organizations clearly need to make contributing code back to open source software projects a natural extension of their DevOps workflows. In the meantime, the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), an arm of the Linux Foundation, is focusing on 10 streams of investment that, in total, would require more than $150 million in funding to drive greater adoption of DevSecOps best practices among maintainers of open source software projects.

    The core issue is that many of those projects are maintained by a small number of programmers that voluntarily contribute their time and effort to build components that others are free to use. Like any other developer, the amount of security expertise those individuals have is limited. The onus for making sure the projects and software are secure is on the organizations that decide to deploy that software.

    Unfortunately, many IT vendors and large enterprise IT organizations reuse that code without contributing anything meaningful back to the project—whether that be in terms of financing or helping open source maintainers find and remediate vulnerabilities.

    It’s not clear to what degree business and IT leaders realize how dependent their organizations actually are on open source software. Many of them assume that open source projects are supported by IT vendors when, in reality, there are many projects that are dependent on the efforts of a small handful of developers volunteering their time and skills.

    Many organizations, of course, may soon decide not to employ open source software if it doesn’t have a critical mass of developers working on it. However, in an era where DevOps teams and developers routinely download software, enforcing those policies is going to be problematic. The best thing enterprise IT organizations can do is engage with the open source software community more rather than less.

  • TechStrong Con: Downturn Brings Additional Sense of DevOps Urgency

    TechStrong Con: Downturn Brings Additional Sense of DevOps Urgency

    Regardless of whether the overall economy is experiencing a correction or is on the cusp of a recession, organizations are going to prioritize some projects over others as resources become more constrained.

    During the “DevOps: Has the Bubble Burst?” panel made up of DevOps executives and investors from venture capital firms that kicked off the virtual TechStrong Con event today, panelists said organizations will need to continue to invest in DevOps automation and cybersecurity to ensure their long-term survival.

    However, the number of IT projects that organizations will be able to simultaneously invest in is likely to decline, said Chenxi Wang, general partner for Rain Capital. “We are starting to see a slowdown of projects, for sure,” she said.

    Fundamentally, organizations will need to decide not so much whether they will modernize legacy monolithic applications but rather at what rate. More than 70% of organizations’ codebases are still based on legacy monolithic architectures, noted Wang.

    No one knows for sure how long the current economic contraction might last, but, as in any downturn, organizations will seek to conserve cash, said JFrog CEO Shlomi Ben Haim. DevOps initiatives will continue to be prioritized because otherwise, organizations risk falling far enough behind that they may not be able to ever recover, he added. “DevOps is in a good place,” said Ben Haim.

    In fact, thus far many DevOps companies have yet to see a decline in demand because organizations are investing in automation to reduce their technical debt costs, noted Thomas Krane, managing director for Insight Partners. “It’s a matter of life or death,” he said.

    At the same time, Krane said organizations might want to take a hard look at the profitability of the vendors they are counting on to drive that innovation. Vendors that have been counting on venture capital funding to maintain operations may soon find that money much harder to come by as capital becomes scarce, he noted.

    The core issue will become how quickly returns on investment (ROI) are generated, added Incredibuild CEO Tami Mazel Shachar. “There is going to be a lot more focus on ROI,” she said.

    In the meantime, the debate over what constitutes DevOps continues. Some narrowly define DevOps as a set of development activities that revolve around continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) platforms. Others definitions of DevOps include everything from application testing to observability and application security. No matter how big the proverbial DevOps tent is defined to be, however, the number of organizations that are embracing DevOps—and now DevSecOps—workflows more deeply only continues to increase.

    The challenge is focusing those efforts on the projects that deliver the most value for the business in the face of executive uncertainty about the future. Of course, nothing quite focuses the mind like an impending crisis; for better or worse, it will require more organizations to honestly assess their current capabilities.

  • TechStrong Con 2022: Exploring What’s Next in Tech

    TechStrong Con 2022: Exploring What’s Next in Tech

    We have become increasingly reliant on technology and it’s hard to imagine life without all the great tech inventions we use in our daily lives. As technology keeps progressing, more is expected of IT teams, and security is a top priority.

    While we are still trying to get used to the new normal, the IT community continues to shine as a beacon, demonstrating how humans are leveraging technology to overcome the many challenges we face. On June 21, business and tech leaders who are working on transforming the world and moving it forward will come together at TechStrong Con Virtual Summit to celebrate the power of technology, share their stories, provide practical insights and lend valuable advice to help other professionals succeed in their careers. More than a virtual event, it is a community gathering that offers learning, networking and upskilling opportunities. Now in its third year, TechStrong Con continues to serve as a testament to the ways in which technology can improve human existence.

    Things You’ll Learn

    The agenda features a mix of topics including live coding, cloud-native, cybersecurity, digital transformation, observability, DevOps, open source and more. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry about:

    • Managing the security of APIs
    • Key observability trends for 2022
    • How to accelerate digital transformation
    • Habits that will help improve your security posture
    • The state of the software supply chain post-Log4Shell
    • The distributed cloud
    • The future of data engineering
    • Building a diverse cybersecurity workforce
    • Crypto and NFTs
    • Low code and citizen development
    • The value of feature flags
    • How DevOps must be part of your future to attract the right talent
    • Managing and motivating teams in a hybrid environment

    Meet the Speakers

    The speaker lineup features globally recognized business leaders, DevOps, cybersecurity and IT experts including:

    • Sholmi Ben Haim, co-founder and CEO at JFrog
    • Chenxi Wang, founder and general partner at Rain Capital
    • John Willis, senior director of the global transformation office at Red Hat
    • Caroline Wong, CSO at Cobalt
    • Thomas Krane, principal at Insight Partners
    • Lisa Plaggemier, executive director at National Cyber Security Alliance
    • Tami Mazel Shackar, CEO at Incredibuild
    • Tom Sweet, VP in IT solutions at GM Financials

    Visit the Exhibit Hall

    In addition to the sessions, attendees can visit the virtual exhibit hall to interact with partner sponsors including Chronosphere, ConnectALL, Tidelift and TechStrong Research. The expo hall will be open throughout the event, giving attendees the opportunity to chat with the sponsors and download information at any time.

    Registered attendees will also receive a link to access the virtual environment on-demand. To see the full agenda and to register for free, please visit the TechStrong Con website.

  • Maximizing Capabilities and the Importance of Value Stream Management

    Maximizing Capabilities and the Importance of Value Stream Management

    Even if we don’t use them  to the full extent, applications shape our entire lives. And more than half the time we have no idea what our applications are capable of. On a daily basis, the average person uses seven to eight apps on their mobile phone. Throughout the week, the average person uses 30 applications. But, how many of those applications do we thoroughly know how to use? That’s where Eric Robertson, SVP strategic advisor and Tim Stiling, manager of product marketing from ConnectALL come in. Both are speakers and will be holding sessions at TechStrong Con 2021.

    Tell us more about ConnectALL and what you’ve been up to lately.

    Tim: We really want to try to figure out how we can best deliver value to our customers’ businesses. On a very basic level, ConnectALL helps customers connect their tools! Now once your tools are connected—what you do with it—that’s where the fun can begin. I know Lance Knight, our president and COO, he has a fun saying where he talks about how it’s almost like electricity. So the electricity itself—kind of like the connecting of tools—it’s cool, but in and of itself doesn’t do anything. It’s what you can do with the electricity.

    To answer the second part of your question about what we’re up to lately, it’s really trying to find and figure out all those possibilities (synchronizing records, facilitating communication, triggering different actions, etc.) and making sure that our customers in the market are aware of it.

    Digital transformation is at the top of the mind for every organization and as consumer consumer demands are changing, in what ways has this affected the value stream management (VSM) industry?

    Eric: Companies are organizing their entire businesses around delivery of business goals that are essential to customers and are leveraging value streams as an essential part of their digital transformation mission. Basically this allows them to improve business IT integration and better manage changing priorities across different organizations. This is happening because we are seeing that organizational teams, the processes, the tools and tech platforms are constantly changing because they need to adapt to different conditions in the marketplace. As a result, value stream management is quickly being seen as essential for building, transforming, and optimizing those organizations’ technology enabled business models and that’s why it’s critical right now.

    Value stream management has kind of been a buzz word in the tech industry recently. Can you share the true business value behind utilizing value stream management?

    Tim: Ultimately with value stream management, it’s hard to say that this will lead to business value because business value could be different for every company. When it comes to value stream management, it’s more about the methodology and the mindset behind it. It’s all about this idea of continuous improvement. It helps you and your organization constantly drive toward your business goal by continuously improving and being better today than you were yesterday and better tomorrow than you are today. 

    Is VSM for every business? And if so, how can these businesses effectively start incorporating this solution into their overall business strategy and operations?

    Tim: Value stream management is absolutely for every business because whether they know it or not, every business has value streams. In fact, everything we do has a value stream, even something as simple as making a cup of coffee.

    One of the prevailing myths when it comes to value stream management is that it’s synonymous with DevOps or that you have to be in a DevOps transformation in order to be able to do it. Some organizations might be in an agile transformation or DevOps transformation—which is great, we aren’t saying don’t do that and do value stream management instead—VSM is a way to make that transformation more effective.

    You might already have all you need on your desktop right now, but there’s a chance you’re missing that link between your applications. It’s important to understand your applications—how they can maximize your workflow and cut down on time. So if you’re feeling disconnected, reach out to ConnectALL to connect all of your apps and don’t miss TechStrong Con 2021.

    Register today and tune in to Eric and Tim’s sessions on value stream management happening Wednesday, July 14 and Thursday, July 15. The clock is ticking!

  • A Special Message from Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian for TechStrong Con

    A Special Message from Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian for TechStrong Con

    As TechStrong Con approaches, Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian has shared an inspiring message for all developers and tech enthusiasts attending the virtual event. In the Cameo clip below, he reflects on his own journey in the tech realm and gives high praises to all the developers who spend every day doing the often “thankless” work that is building the technical infrastructure of the future.

    Tech innovation continuously showcases how it can revolutionize society. Alexis expressed how grateful he is to be a part of the tech community and to build things that are shaping the world we live in. Reddit is a prime example of tech’s ability to transform people’s lives. It blossomed from a small startup 16 years ago to this globally-recognized social hub today, where people can go to communicate about shared passions and ideas. 

    John Willis of Red Hat, Ian Khan of Futuracy, Tracy Ragan of DeployHub, Stephen DeWitt of CloudBees, Caroline Wong of Cobalt and many other industry luminaries will also share their stories and lessons learned at TechStrong Con, on July 14 and 15.

    At this year’s virtual event, attendees will learn all about DevOps, AppSec, cloud-native technologies, digital transformation, the future of hybrid and the many ways in which technology continues to improve the human experience. There will be an expo hall lined with booths featuring interactive chats and downloadable resources. Attendees will have the opportunity to network with peers, participate in giveaways, join a yoga class, check out a mixology demo and more.

    To see the full agenda and secure your free spot at the virtual event, visit the TechStrong Con website.

  • Change Is Knocking: The Future Readiness with Ian Khan

    Change Is Knocking: The Future Readiness with Ian Khan

    In preparation for TechStrong Con next week, MediaOps media guru Rebecca Auguste sat down with featured keynote speaker, CNN technology futurist, Forbes contributor and CEO and founder of Futuracy, Ian Khan to talk about future readiness.

    A globally recognized technology futurist and creator of the Future Readiness Score, Ian will be hosting a live session at TechStrong Con, “The Art and Science of Future Readiness,” on July 15 at 11:45 a.m. (EDT). In this session, Ian will help put a realistic picture around what businesses need to do and must to not just survive but thrive and why a measurable method for success is key to purpose, growth and profitability. But, what is future readiness? What does a technology futurist do? And why is future readiness important to digital transformation?

    As a stepping stone for what’s to come in next week’s live session, Ian’s interview with Rebecca not only sheds light on the questions above, but also how to make sense of the state of disruptive chaos in the world today. Modern technological change is impacting some businesses as it has never done so in the last 500 years. Within this era, the rules of success are somewhat different from what they were, even just 10 years ago, which is why Ian’s future readiness is as important as ever.

    You can read more about future readiness on Ian’s website here, but he says, “the problem has been that future readiness is a misunderstood area of management and leadership. You ask somebody if they are future ready and they will possibly tell you about how many technologies they are using or not using and that’s just one part of it. Future readiness has to be at the highest level of importance in your business because it dictates and governs everything that is happening whether you’re selling, marketing, you’re a servicing client, it encompasses everything to help you grow.”

    In addition to future readiness is your future readiness score. Ian says, “The future readiness score figures this out, helps you understand where do you stand with the respect of the systems of operation in the engagement category” and that, “organizations that are future ready have engagement mastered.” But it isn’t enough to read your readiness score. Ian is adamant that, “Your journey has to continue from there and you’ve got to keep on monitoring your future readiness score and work on improving it.”

    So how can businesses not only keep up with all the changes, but find ways to anticipate future trends? The most important thing is that, “You’ve gotta be quick to adapt and to respond. You can’t just wait and get paralyzed from what’s happening out there. As a leader, your responsibility now is to be fast, responsive and to be quick to do anything that is required. You’ve also got to have phenomenal observational powers now where you’re looking at short-term, medium-term and long-term trends and identifying information that is coming from there and incorporating that into your business.”

    Some advice Ian would give someone ready to start their journey with future readiness is that, “Change will continue happening to you. Change will continue knocking on the doors of your business. It’ll continue disrupting you and challenging you. Your sales models, your sales teams, there will always be competitors who will come up against your business so the environment is constantly going to change. Please expect that. Expect that every single day that you walk into work that you talk with your teams and customers and work with your customers to get them ready for change because that’s when they’ll love you. In order to make this golden exchange happen you’ve got to know what the change is, you’ve got to anticipate it, you’ve got to look into it. The future readiness score can help you do that. Or just being super aware of what’s happening in your world can do that. We’ve got to open our eyes to change, accept it, make it part of our everyday and success will knock at your doors.”

    Begin your future readiness journey at TechStrong Con. To see the full agenda and secure your free spot at the virtual event, visit the TechStrong Con website.

  • A Data-Driven Approach to DevOps: Tips for Improving Speed and Scale

    A Data-Driven Approach to DevOps: Tips for Improving Speed and Scale

    Data has an undeniable power in a business context — it can sway stakeholders, help identify pain points, and demonstrate how changes are making an impact on the company. As the creator of Jenkins, Kohsuke Kawaguchi has noticed from his conversations with business leaders in the industry that implementing a data-driven mindset can be a game changer in the DevOps journey. 

    While data may not initially seem like it provides a full enough picture for businesses to work with, it carries invaluable insights and a certain level of objectivity that allows for a smoother transition in the DevOps process. Additionally, adopting a data-driven approach helps to showcase the small wins in your DevOps journey that can help build more confidence and trust in the process. 

    In the interview below, Kohsuke teases his session, “Go Data Driven With Your DevOps: 5 Tips for Improving Speed and Scale,” at TechStrong Con.  On July 15, Kohsuke, along with fellow Launchable Co-Founder Harpreet Singh, will provide tips on how a data-driven approach to DevOps can help improve speed and scale. 

    To see the full agenda and secure your free spot at the virtual event, visit the TechStrong Con website.

  • No More Status Quo: Disruption and Reinvention through The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche

    No More Status Quo: Disruption and Reinvention through The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche

    Everyday we’re reinventing ourselves. Whether we’re reinventing knowledge through learning, or technology through development, nothing stays stagnant and disruption makes sure of that.

    In a TechStrong TV segment, MediaOps Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief Alan Shimel sits down with Brad Feld, current managing director at Foundry Group and author of “The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors” to discuss this reinvention and the importance of disruptors. 

    If you’re not familiar with Brad Feld, he’s a well known venture capitalist and author who’s had his hand in the startup community as an author and founder of TechStars, a capital market company. He teamed up with Dave Jilk, a former partner of Feld Technologies, Brad’s very first company. 

    To cycle back to the word “disruptor,” it’s one Brad wants you to hang on to. He says, “Anybody who is involved in being a disruptor of an industry whether you’re a founder or a leader or an employee of a company, we like to think this is applicable to what you’re doing.” 

    Because of their focus on disruptors, it’s only fitting that Brad and Dave chose to concentrate on one of the most disruptive philosopher’s in history: Friedrich Nietzche. As Brad says, “In the 1860s to the 1890s, when he wrote the body of his work, Nietzsche was very disruptive to the status quo – of everything.” Like Nietzche, if you’re an entrepreneur or in the tech community today, you’re challenging conformity and reinventing the world.

    While this book is intended for entrepreneurs, you certainly don’t have to be one to enjoy this book. “Entrepreneurial thinking is valuable for everybody in all aspects of life. Doesn’t mean you have to be an entrepreneur but the kind of mindset of an entrepreneur is powerful to understand,” says Feld. If you’re a disruptor, or simply enjoy learning, you’ll get a lot from this book.

    And if you’re worried about not understanding the philosophy component, fear not. “The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors” is incredibly accessible. Brad uses very small quotes (one to three sentences) from Nietzsche and translates it into contemporary English. After each quote is a short essay intended to “provoke thought, not tell you the answer.” As Brad says, “One of the meta goals of this book is not to tell people what to do. It’s to stimulate thinking.”

    As a bonus to most quotes and essays, there’s actually a narrative written by an entrepreneur (some famous, some not-so-famous) discussing their experience and what they thought of when Brad and Dave gave them the quote. 

    With 52 different topics, this book is not meant to be gobbled down. While you can, you’ll get a lot more out of it when you dip-in and dip-out of areas that you’re interested in. Feld and Jilk’s hope is to simply get people to think: “We’re trying to help people stimulate thought around these ideas. Presumably any one of these topics is something you can ponder and meditate on.”

    “The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche” isn’t an untouchable academic piece, rather a relatable reflection of the human experience. Talking about the importance of including his own experience in the book, Brad emphasizes, “I don’t write books for a living. I’m a venture capitalist for a living. I write books because I love to write, I love to read and I love to think. My motivation for the writing is part of my own experience learning.” 

    Whether you choose to read a chapter a week or every few weeks, Brad and Alan recommend you take each chapter on its own. Think about it and internalize it before moving on. And if you’re able to re-read chapters, that’s even better. “Today, what I find myself doing when I do these talks is I’m reading these quotes again and I’m discovering new things in the quotes and what they make me think,” says Brad. “Again, not trying to tell me the absolute truth from the quote, but the thought that it then stimulates.”

    If you’re into learning, disrupting or the entrepreneurial mindset, check out “The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors” and attend Brad’s session at TechStrong Con 2021 Virtual Summit, on June 14, to enter his book giveaway.

  • An Open Letter From MediaOps

    An Open Letter From MediaOps

    On behalf of all of us at MediaOps, we are so deeply troubled by what is going on in the world around us. As we continue to battle a deadly pandemic and the effects of racial injustice, the idea of devolving into factions and hurting one another cuts to the core of our being. This is a time in which humanity needs to come together. The following quote from former President George W. Bush sums up my feelings about the current situation—a situation that has been evident for far too long.

    “America’s greatest challenge has long been to unite people of very different backgrounds into a single nation of justice and opportunity. The doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which once nearly split our country, still threaten our Union. The answers to American problems are found by living up to American ideals — to the fundamental truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by God with certain rights. We have often underestimated how radical that quest really is, and how our cherished principles challenge systems of intended or assumed injustice. The heroes of America — from Frederick Douglass, to Harriet Tubman, to Abraham Lincoln, to Martin Luther King, Jr. — are heroes of unity. Their calling has never been for the fainthearted. They often revealed the nation’s disturbing bigotry and exploitation — stains on our character sometimes difficult for the American majority to examine. We can only see the reality of America’s need by seeing it through the eyes of the threatened, oppressed, and disenfranchised.” ~ President George W Bush

    When we initially came up with the idea of today’s TechStrong Con virtual conference, we wanted to show that the tech industry is indeed strong. What made it strong was our desire to collaborate, communicate and share our collective knowledge—that tech would be the light that leads the path forward to surviving and overcoming the terrible virus in our midst. The event was also designed as a charitable event, to raise relief money for global COVID-19 charities—our way of helping by alleviating suffering and supporting frontline workers.

    Now, we find ourselves with yet another challenge. In addition to the devastating impact of the novel coronavirus, we are once again sadly reminded that injustice and prejudice are very much alive and well in our country. We, like most of you, are horrified by what we are seeing on our TV screens. Even here in the tech industry, we need to do better—not just with racial issues, but with all diversity issues. I firmly believe that we can and will do better. I believe that the tech industry can be a beacon, a light illuminating a path to a better, fairer and more peaceful world for all of Earth’s children.

    I pray for peace and for a time when we can venture out again—together—and focus on improving the human condition for each and every individual across the globe.

    Until then, we have decided to split our charitable donations from the proceeds of the TechStrong Conference. $10,000 will be going to the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose mission is to fight hate and seek justice for the most vulnerable members of our society through litigation, education and other forms of advocacy, working toward a day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity are a reality. Another $10,000 will be donated to the World Health Organization to fight COVID-19.

    With today’s TechStrong Con virtual conference and everything beyond, we move forward with the hope that we can and will do better as a nation, as a people and as one world.

    With Peace,
    Alan Shimel
    CEO, MediaOps