2026 Conference Schedule

Note: This schedule is subject to change.

Thursday, May 28th (Hybrid)

In-Person Registration Opens | 8:00 am

coffee cup image

Check-In for In-Person Attendees

Garden Atrium (Lower Level)

Coffee and light refreshments provided

Zoom Lobby Opens | 8:30 am

Zoom Lobby Opens

Virtual

Sign in to join the lobby chat and connect with other virtual attendees!

Opening Remarks & Keynote Address | 9:00-10:15 am

Welcome & Keynote Address –
Ideas Run the World. IT Powers the Journey.

Hello World (Room 1570) & Virtual

Presented by: Patrick McDaniel
Opening Remarks: Jason Erdmann & David Berg

Unconference | 10:30-3:00 pm

Photo of a board with a hand-drawn grid and various color post-it notes covering the board.

Unconference

Garden-Level Study Rooms (in-person only)

30-minute sessions, with a lunch break from 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

What is Unconference? Unconference is an attendee-driven experience that creates space for the conversations that don’t fit neatly into the main IT Professionals Conference agenda. This intentionally unstructured avenue invites anyone to propose topics, ask bold questions, and even step up to lead a discussion—no prior speaking experience required. Expect spontaneity, creative energy, and a little productive chaos as ideas emerge organically, and discussions evolve in real time.

Concurrent Session A | 10:30 – 11:30 am

Photo of two people with their hands in the air on top of a tall building in front a city skyline and silhouetted by a sunrise

Building Trust in IT: competency, sincerity, and care, made practical

Hello World (Room 1570) & Virtual

Presented by: Todd Shechter & Elizabeth Simcock

A white rectangle with a red outline. Inside the rectangle are the html code symbols: < / >

How WiscWeb and StratComm combined forces to bring us the UW Theme 2.0

Room 1524 & Virtual

Presented by: Andrea Roenning, Nate Finch, Scott Berg, Josh Ciolkosz, Jenna Klinner & Kedar Joyner

White background with the words "improve," "develop," "training," "motivate," coaching," and "inspire" written as a list and aligned to vertically spell out the word "mentor" which is circled in red like a word search puzzle.

Network with IT Mentors, Mentees and Friends

Room B2590 (in-person only)

Presented by: UW IT Mentoring Committee (Sabrina Messer, Ella Tschopik, Parker Harding, Conor Klecker, Lindsay Bolan & Carolyn Wilson)

A digital illustration of an aerial shot of very small people clustered to make the handshake icon

From Listening to Doing: Exploring IT Federation Together

Room B2250 & Virtual

Presented by: Crague Cook, Jamie Gutkowski, Brianna Kuhn & Peter Boguszewski

Lunch Break | 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Image of a butter knife and folk on a white surface.

In-Person Lunch

Garden Atrium (Lower Level)

Virtual Lunch Break

Take a break! We’ll be back at 12:30 pm.

Concurrent Session B | 12:30 – 1:00 pm

Digital illustration of five people holding raised hands in front of colorful bubbles and below random work-related icons

What Good Leadership Actually Looks Like. A Story About Mental Health, Trust, and Teams.

Hello World (Room 1570) & Virtual

Presented by: Dave Lyons

Digital illustration of a blue map with yellow lines and nodes connecting places to various computer-related icons

From ‘Do Something’ to Demystified: The Learn@UW Roadmap for Scaling AI Training

Room 1524 & Virtual

Presented by: James McKay, Andy Posselt & Kris Olds

Digital illustration of two hands shaking in glowing blue lines and nodes, symbolizing IT support

How I used AI to help with the IT Support Symposium

Room B2590 & Virtual

Presented by: Ella Tschopik

Kuali Build: Power Your Forms. Streamline Your Workflow.

Room B2250 & Virtual

Presented by: Joel Herron

Concurrent Session C | 1:15 – 2:15 pm

Digital illustration of a fantasy/sci-fi-esque scene with a computerized open book and pink arrows, x's and o's in front of a colorfully digital code-like background.

Raised on Anime, Working in IT: How Japanese Anime Inspired Careers in IT and Cybersecurity

Hello World (Room 1570) & Virtual

Presented by: Tomomi Imamura, Didier Contis & Ryan Leavitt

a bundle of yellow fabric measuring tape with some number labels clearly readable.

The Art of Adaptation: Real Stories of Navigating through Change

Room 1524 & Virtual

Panel: Stefan Wahe, Sabrina Messer, Phyllis Treige, Brian Lin & Dan Jacobson

Facilitators: Elizabeth Simcock, Chris Last & Laura Grady

A wooden signpost with arrows pointing in various directions, each with a single word: "help," "support," "advise," and "guidance," in front of a blue sky with fluffy white clouds

Normalizing Failure: How To Create Psychological Safety to Make Your Organization Successful

Room B2590 & Virtual

Presented by: Sean Bossinger

geometric 3D white arrows/triangles in a pattern, with a random teal arrow arranged differently to stick out.

Wardley Mapping: An Interactive Workshop to Map Strategic Planning

Room B2250 & Virtual

Presented by: Phil Jochimsen

Concurrent Session D | 2:30 – 3:00 pm

Digital Illustration of a robot in an office environment working on a laptop

AI Agents for IT Productivity

Room 1524 & Virtual

Presented by: Lucas Gallagher

A digital illustration of colorful curvy lines with small black outlines of hands at the end of the lines. The concept is interconnectedness and/or chaos.

Project Management for Messy People

Room B2590 & Virtual

Presented by: Rebekah Novak

Black and white photo of a hand holding a water ballon as it is being popped by a pin.

Get It Out Of Your Head: Your brain wasn’t built for this (and neither was Excel)

Room B2250 & Virtual

Presented by: Ryan Horrisberger

IT Recognition Awards & Reception | 3:15 – 4:45 pm

2026 IT Recognition Awards Presentation

Hello World (Room 1570) & Virtual (Zoom Events & YouTube)
Presented by: IT Professionals Peer Committee

Blurred image of people mingling at a social event under warm lights.

IT Recognition Awards Reception (4:15 – 4:45 pm)

Garden Atrium (Lower Level)

Light refreshments will be provided

Friday, May 29th (Virtual)

Zoom Lobby Opens | 8:30 am

Zoom Lobby Opens

Virtual

Sign in to join the lobby chat and connect with other virtual attendees!

Concurrent Session A | 9:00 – 9:30 am

Digital Illustration of colorful networked lines and boxes.

Faster, Better and Cheaper: Refactoring Course Search & Enroll

Virtual

Presented by: Brian Hill, Lyle Hanson, Ben Nylud, Nuwan Kumarasiri & River Ali Alaqidy

Photo of a yellow level tool, a wrench, and an extended tape measure on a pink surface.

How to build custom blocks for the new UW Theme 2.0

Virtual

Presented by: Andrea Roenning & Nate Finch

Digital Image of a brain icon made up of purple and blue neon lights ona dark blue digital-style background.

Replacing Spreadsheets: A Consolidated View of Network Infrastructure Data

Virtual

Presented by: Eric Dieckman

Digital illustration of a computer cloud network with lines to various symbols on a dark matrix-like background.

DNS and DHCP infrastructure at UW-Madison

Virtual

Presented by: Tim Czerwonka

Concurrent Session B | 9:40 – 10:40 am

Digital illustration of two hands, one blue and one yellow, shaking made up of glowing lines and nodes.

Building an AI Tutor With Gemini-CLI and Obsidian

Virtual

Presented by: Sean McConnell

A glowing grid stretches toward a bright sunset, with dark mountains against a neon pink and purple sky.

Looking at how LLMs might help your work

Virtual

Presented by: Phil Jochimsen

Concurrent Session C | 10:50 – 11:20 am

Digital Illustration of a person backpacking through the mountains. In front of the hiker is a semi-transparent overlay of data and information, like a sci-fi movie.

AI and You

Virtual

Presented by: Julie Johnson

A literal frozen laptop on an icy surface with a frozen lake an snow-covered trees in the background.

What even is technical debt?

Virtual

Presented by: Andrew Petro

Digital Illustration of colorful shipping containers making a geometric pattern. White fluffy clouds overlay the containers.

How Containers Work Under the Hood

Virtual

Presented by: Nuwan Kumarasiri

Digital illustration of businesspeople standing under a blue and orange cloud with random circles and lines coming out of the cloud.

Continuous Improvisation: Adapting Process, Governance, and Communication in ITSM

Virtual

Presented by: Lindsay Bolan

Lunch Break | 11:20 am – 12:20 pm

A laptop next to a plate with two homemade sandwiches.

Lunch Break

Take a Break! We’ll start back up at 12:20 pm.

Concurrent Session D | 12:20 – 12:50 pm

Digital illustration of an iMac computer surrounded by random computer related icons. A small hand is pointing to the iMac screen.

Appreciating jj-vcs (12:20 – 12:35 pm)

Virtual

Presented by: Andrew Petro

Photo of stones balanced in a stack on top of large boulders on the beach.

Procurement, Personal Liability, and Possibly a Perfect Solution (12:20 – 12:35 pm)

Virtual

Presented by: Phil Jochimsen

Laptop screen with digital accessibility icons: eye with slash, ear, hand, and head with swirl. Hexagonal pattern background shows tech focus.

Simple Accessibility Wins in the KnowledgeBase

Virtual

Presented by: Dana Gerber-Margie

Image of a man with a briefcase silhouetted in front of a body water that is being struck by a large bright bolt of lightning.

What Could Go Wrong? Building a Long-Term Archive in the Real World

Virtual

Presented by: Patrick Meade & Steve Barnet

Concurrent Session E | 1:00 – 1:30 pm

Digital illustration of a large checklist on a clipboard with a small person next to it holding a comically large pencil.

So, you need an Accessible web interface?

Virtual

Presented by: Mark Tinberg

Flowchart on a blue background showing three connected tables with orange gradients. White dashed arrows link the tables, indicating data flow.

It’s not you, it’s… just time: How to break up well with Advanced Custom Fields

Virtual

Presented by: Nate Finch

Digital illustration of a person in a cap and gown ascending light bulbs towards a large graduation cap in the sky.

Utilizing AI Tools to Design and Develop Engaging Online Compliance Training for UW-Madison Staff, Faculty, and Students

Virtual

Presented by: Cori Schmidtbauer & Lily Sullivan

Cartoon tube television with channel dials. The TV screen is yellow and has the word "D'OH" in royal blue.

DoH! How to implement DNS over HTTPS on Windows Server 2025

Virtual

Presented by: Jay Scholz

Concurrent Session F | 1:40 – 2:10 pm

Photo from the back of a movie theater with a handful of people sitting in red upholstered chairs in front of movie screen playing.

The surprisingly simple tech behind digital cinema

Virtual

Presented by: Pete Sengstock

Image of a person pushing a button.

Achieving Transparency in Organizational Culture Using No-Cost Automations

Virtual

Presented by: Sarah Korpi & Alan Ng

Photo of a handoff of a resume on a clipboard.

Resume building in modern days

Virtual

Presented by: Mehrnaz Ahmadi Joobaneh & Manda Johnson

END OF CONFERENCE

Thanks for joining us!

Thank you for attending this year’s conference!
We’ll see you next year!

P.S. Keep an eye out for our post-conference survey!

At-A-Glance Schedule

View Interactive PDF

Coming Soon!