IT Professionals Conference

In-Person Post-Conference Social @ The Terrace
2023-06-02 16:30 - 18:00 (America/Chicago)
Location

Memorial Union Terrace (Rain Location: Der Rathskeller @ Memorial Union)

Description

Join the conference planning committee and friends at the Terrace after the conference for a relaxed in-person social gathering! Shake off that Zoom fatigue with a real in-person event!
No need to RSVP. Just look for the group of IT nerds sitting together.

Photo by Jeff Miller / UW-Madison Photo Library.

How to Avoid the Riptides, Staying Safe Online
2023-06-02 15:30 - 16:00
Conference Session

Description

Scam-Proof Your Life: Tips for Avoiding Online Scams. This session will discuss some common scams we see on campus and in our personal lives. After this session you will be prepared to avoid these scams yourself and will be able to help others in your life to be aware of them.

Presenter Information

John Nagler
Allen Monette

Image Credit: Pexels

Foundations of Project Alignment
2023-06-02 15:30 - 16:00
Conference Session

Description

Project success often hinges on stakeholder alignment around a shared goal. In this presentation, I’ll share foundational skills for building strong relationships and promoting project alignment from the start. We’ll cover common causes of misalignment and four steps for realigning a project and getting back on track.

Presenter Information

Hannah Kinley

Image Credit: Pixabay

Beyond Land Acknowledgments - Considerations for Allies
2023-06-02 15:00 - 15:30
Conference Session

Description

We will review a UW-Madison land acknowledgment statement and discuss the importance as well as the limitations of land acknowledgment statements in general. Participants will leave with some concrete ideas and action steps to support indigenous peoples in our institutions and communities as we attempt to answer the question, “We have a land acknowledgment, now what?

Presenter Information

Ronald Jetty
Mike Jetty

Resources

Slides

Image Credit: UW Photo Library

AWS WAF Lessons Learned (aka: How to use data driven decision making when All The Bots Are Out To Get You)
2023-06-02 15:00 - 15:30
Conference Session

Description

Amazon Web Services provides a Web Application Firewall with many capabilities to be used to protect your web resources. Follow along as we share some lessons learned by the WiscWeb service of how we refined the definition of Good and Bad web visitors to reduce service impacting incidents.

Presenter Information

Phil Jochimsen

Image Credit: Original Image by VIN JD from Pixabay. AWS logo added from AWS website.

Automating Upgrade Testing using Selenium
2023-06-02 14:15 - 14:45
Conference Session
Join the Zoom Event

Description
This presentation will cover automation for web-based applications using Selenium WebDriver in Python. I will cover the benefits associated with using automation, how we are currently using automation, and our plans for automation in the future. Knowledge of software development is not needed, and I will hopefully spur some ideas for how your team could use automation as well!

Presenter Information

Brian Davidson

Accessible Presentations
2023-06-02 14:15 - 14:45
Conference Session

Description

From formatting accessible slides, to best practices while presenting, to captions and considerations when sharing meeting materials after-the-fact, we’ll share best practices to create and deliver accessible presentations.

Presenter Information

Leah Bowers
Erik Geiger

Slides
Accessible presentations

Credits/Citations

Demystifying OAuth2 Login Flows
2023-06-02 14:00 - 14:15
Conference Session

Description

There are several different ways to design an application to log in to an OAuth2 server: authorization code, resource owner, device grant, and client credentials. This talk will cover each method, how to use it, and when to use it. This talk assumes some basic programming knowledge, and will use Python for examples.

Presenter Information

David Schultz

Intro to AWS Billing
2023-06-02 14:00 - 14:15
Conference Session

Description

An introduction to AWS Billing. A quick overview of how resources are billed, as well as a look at some of the reports and graphs you can pull up to understand your charges.

Presenter Information

Phil Jochimsen

Image Credit: Original Image from Picpedia. AWS logo from Wikipedia.

Administrative Transformation Program (ATP) – Updates and Ancillary System Considerations
2023-06-02 13:00 - 14:00
Conference Session

Description

Join this session for a general update on the progress of the Administrative Transformation Program (ATP), as well as a deeper dive into the work being done within the integrations space to support ancillary systems that will need to continue to interact with human resource and financial data after Workday goes live in 2024.
You will leave this session with an understanding of:

the Administrative Transformation Program’s status,
the work being done within the integrations and ancillary systems space, and
the approach driving the Integration Hub development

Presenter Information

Morgan Andersen
Tom Jordan
Charlie Calderon

Introducing the Data Science Platform
2023-06-02 11:00 - 12:00
Conference Session
Join the Zoom Event

Description

The Data Science Platform is a pilot program intended to provide researchers access to two products: an IDE running R or Python on the cloud, and a Publishing platform for reports, documents, models, and APIs. Participants will learn how to run scripts using our service. It will also highlight how researchers can access greater computing power than their laptops with minimum changes to their established workflows, as well as access their ResearchDrive storage directly through the Data Science Platform.
The audience attending this talk will benefit the most if they have a working understanding of R and the RStudio IDE, but the general ideas can be grasped regardless of programming experience.
If you would like a temporary account to code along, email Erwin Lares (erwin.lares@wisc.edu) to request one.

Presenter Information

Erwin Lares

Credits/Citations

Change is Easy! But you go first. Tools for Leading People through Organizational Change
2023-06-02 11:00 - 12:00
Conference Session

Description

Have you wondered why it’s so hard to get other people to change? You’re not alone. Organizations change all the time, yet change cannot happen without getting other people on board—and that can be a challenge. In this session we will introduce you to change management frameworks and tools that can help you better understand the people side of change and how you can be a more effective change leader. We will identify what people need to prepare for and adapt to change—and what steps you can take to support others through the process. We will include scenarios and interactive discussions on the multiple phases of change, how people experience transitions, and ways to respond to common forms of resistance.

Presenter Information

Jenny Erickson
Kate Kingery

Image Credit: Pexels

Life of the Party: Knowledge Management!
2023-06-02 10:30 - 11:00
Conference Session

Description

The key to good documentation that gets used is ongoing, regular maintenance baked into the organization’s workflow. I will highlight the importance of documentation for improved resilience in an organization, simpler internal knowledge transfer, and increased self-help from end-users. I will use examples from my experience as the Help Desk KB Administrator and Documentation Lead for Help Desk support documents. I will also draw on my experience co-leading the knowledge management workstream for DoIT and AIMS combining their two separate knowledge management systems. Our Help Desk agents truly see the internal Help Desk KB as the life blood or headquarters of their work, but maintaining it regularly is often forgotten. I’d love to change that!

Presenter Information

Dana Gerber-Margie

UW–Madison Profile: Building upon Salesforce Experience Cloud to Improve User Experiences
2023-06-02 10:30 - 11:00
Conference Session

Description

UW–Madison Profile aims to be the single, accessible, user-friendly resource for members of the UW community to view and manage their personal data and digital identity at the university. Profile is now live for everyone with a valid NetID who has an active role at UW–Madison. Before Profile, students and employees had to navigate obscure, fragmented and time-consuming systems to update or correct their personal information. The process for updating or correcting data was confusing and often frustrating, sometimes taking weeks and contact with multiple campus offices to resolve issues. By contrast, Profile takes a more user-focused approach, giving students and employees more transparency into their data and clear, simple steps for making updates and corrections.
Learn about:

The current capabilities of the UW-Madison Profile application
How we used Salesforce Experience Cloud, Salesforce Developer Experience, Salesforce Connect, and IICS to build Profile and achieve the project goals
How an Agile MVP methodology benefits the design and development of the UW-Madison Profile application
What enhancements are planned for the future

Presenter Information

Beth Richardson
Tyler Ratkowski

Ready, Set, Relaunch: A Website Success Story
2023-06-02 10:00 - 10:30
Conference Session

Description

The Office of the Registrar redesigned and relaunched its website over a period of two and half years during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this session, you will hear how the office was able to use inventories, feedback dashboards, and a unique student perspective to completely transform its website—which received over 1.7 million visits last year—in a fully virtual environment. The presenters, including the student employee of the year for innovation and technology, will walk you through their experience and share lessons they learned along the way.
You will learn strategies for coordinating a small or large redesign of your website and its content, and utilizing different data sources and working in a hybrid environment. Additionally, this presentation will highlight the student experience and using students to help design web content.

Presenter Information

Ellen Clark
Mahika Mohan

Safe and Predictable Team Collaboration with Cloud Platforms
2023-06-02 10:00 - 10:30
Conference Session

Description

With cloud platforms, teams can collaborate together or asynchronously to achieve common goals in a safe and predictable way. In this session, I’ll be covering how cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform help reduce team dependencies by giving teams more control over the services they run, while focusing less on the overhead of running IT infrastructure. I’ll share how teams can experiment and make changes to their IT services by using version control and deployment pipelines to increase confidence in successful production deployments.

Presenter Information

Jared Kosanovic

Image Credit: Pixabay

IT Recognition Awards Ceremony
2023-06-02 09:00 - 09:50
Conference Session

Friends and family can watch the awards ceremony without registering for the conference via YouTube. Link to be added soon.

Description

We work with excellent people who do awesome things. It’s time we tell their stories and recognize them for how amazing they are. Below are the award categories. You can also read the detailed description for each award.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Community Engagement
Team Achievement
Lifetime Achievement
Transformational Achievement
Rising Star
Unsung Hero

Nominations have been reviewed by a selection committee composed of your peers! Come join us as we celebrate these awesome folks who have done these amazing things!

Image from DoIT Communications.

In-Person Coffee, Networking, and Awards Watch Party @ Educational Sciences Room 259
2023-06-02 08:30 - 09:50
Location

Room 259 @ Educational Sciences

Description

Network with your colleagues over coffee and light snacks, then watch the IT Recognition Awards as they air live.
No need to RSVP.

Let Your Data Do the Talking
2023-06-01 15:30 - 16:00
Conference Session

Description

Did you know that numbers can tell stories? When we use data to craft clean visualizations, our message becomes more memorable and persuasive! In this session, we will take a closer look at some poorly crafted visualizations and learn how they can be improved using 5 simple tips.

Presenter Information

Deanna Schneider
Christine Rybak

Image Credit: Pexels

Ethical Hacking - How it Helps IT Security
2023-06-01 15:30 - 16:00
Conference Session

Description

What do ethical hackers do, why, and how does it improves security? This session discusses the role ethical hacking plays in designing, maintaining and improving cybersecurity. I’ll explain common terms like “bug bounty” and “purple teaming” and clear up misunderstandings about why and when a “penetration test” is done.

Presenter Information

Julie Johnson

Image Credit: Adobe Stock

Keeping “IT” Wheel with Transportation Services
2023-06-01 15:00 - 15:30
Conference Session

Description

Overview of the technology involved in parking at UW Madison followed by a discussion of some of the unique challenges we face and how we address them. Topics include weather challenges, parking politics, and how we manage our massive number of users. You will understand the technology that is used to facilitate their coming to campus every day and how we partner with IT groups across campus.

Presenter Information

Isaac Knoflicek

Image Credit: Adobe Stock

How does the Order of Operations in Tableau Work?
2023-06-01 15:00 - 15:30
Conference Session

Description

Order of operations is a tough topic to learn. If the developer isn’t aware of its effect on the report, unexpected results and/or numbers might appear.

Presenter Information

Mehrnaz Ahmadi Joobaneh

Image Credit: Logo from Tableau

Techniques and Tools to check your bias in Search-And-Screen Processes
2023-06-01 14:15 - 14:45
Conference Session

Description

In this presentation, we will show how members of search-and-screen committees can make more equitable, consistent and fact-driven decisions by using tools and techniques from the qualitative research tradition. We will show how fundamental qualitative research techniques can help you check your bias as you review several (or many!) applications. In addition, we will show how qualitative data analysis software (such as NVivo, MAXQDA, or Atlas.Ti) can be used in search-and-screen processes. We will illustrate how the software can be used to annotate applicant materials based on required/preferred screening categories, and how it can help screening committees ground their discussions and decisions in the applicant materials.

Presenter Information

Christian Schmieder
Jesse Henderson

Maximizing Digital Marketing Resources on Campus for Degree Promotion
2023-06-01 14:15 - 14:45
Conference Session

Description

It’s taken years of persistent effort and learning to make the MS in Biotechnology Program’s website the central destination and resource for recruiting prospective students in a highly competitive digital market. Come hear our story and lessons learned. There currently are no turn-key solutions to provide end-to-end support for digital marketing and integration; the task is too complex and solutions must be customized to fit individual objectives. My hope is participants leave with an understanding of the complexity of comprehensive digital marketing and increased knowledge of existing campus resources and partners that can help campus academic organizations.
Between 2018-2023, the MS in Biotechnology Program transitioned from a longtime locally hosted website, to a completely redesigned site hosted using the free WiscWeb, to a standalone DoIT web hosting (Nickel) platform. I’ll outline key considerations and explore pros and cons for various decisions, including in-house solutions vs campus-provided resources, necessary steps and recommended tools for maximizing SEO, ways to improve website load time (including receiving great support from the DoIT Web Hosting team), web hosting security, risk-mitigation, and back-up methods, and adding external digital marketing vendors to a comprehensive marketing plan. I will also suggest areas for future integration.

Presenter Information

Bryan Husk

Standardize Information with Forms
2023-06-01 14:00 - 14:15
Conference Session

Description

Get better information through the use of custom PDFs, Google Forms, Surveys, or ticket systems. Ask for specific information, provide it as needed, and store it for only as long as needed. You will learn how to look at types of processes that may be helped by standardized, minimalized forms. You will also learn how to examine which platforms may be useful depending on the audience.

Presenter Information

Em Craft

Bringing Order to Chaos: Documentation as Code
2023-06-01 14:00 - 14:15
Conference Session

Description

Automating your configuration management is achievable and can solve the stale documentation issue. In this case study, we’ll provide an overview of how the General Library System is centralizing our technical documentation and configuration management through automation and Elixir. Very limited programming knowledge required.

Presenter Information

David Southard

Image Credit: Adobe Stock

Gap to the Future: Conducting a Gap Analysis to Identify Team Specific DEIB Strategies
2023-06-01 13:00 - 14:00
Conference Session

Description

Meet the challenge of team diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) using a traditional gap analysis. A gap analysis is a method for generating ideas and moving forward on initiatives and projects to create desired change. Together, we will explore the benefits of a gap analysis, how to complete one, and how to look for insights. Our cohort used this tool to better understand the differences between our current and future states around DEIB and identify strategies for influencing DEIB.
Join us to learn:
• How to apply a gap analysis to your own team’s aspirations
• Current observations and strategies for influencing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in teams
• How to develop an awareness of a current situation, so that you can brainstorm the changes you would like to see in the future

Presenter Information

Amy Diestler
Brian Lin
Chris Poser
Jay Ray
Kimberly Arnold
Vanessa Taulbee

Meet IT Connects
2023-06-01 13:00 - 14:00
Conference Session

Description

Have you ever wondered who else on campus has a similar job to yours or what other people on campus have similar IT interests? Find out what campus-wide IT groups you can join that are under the IT Connects umbrella. Learn about the following groups and ask them your questions.
IT Professionals Steering Committee
IT Mentoring
UW Design Community
Leadership Improv
IT Leadership Program Forward
Information and Technology Leadership Conference
Digital Accessibility Community of Practice
Data Wonks
IT Professionals Conference
Computer Lab Administrators Community (CLAC )
Women in IT (WIT)

Presenter Information

Laurel Belman
Sabrina Messer

Image Credit: Logo from Tableau

Virtual Games
2023-06-01 12:00 - 13:00
Description

Bond with your colleagues and develop inside jokes while playing quick, fun virtual games. We’ll be playing some Jackbox games, which usually require a mobile device or separate tab to play. All are welcome to play, join the audience, or just observe!

Presenter Information

Mandy Morrow

Image credit: 9to5Google

Agile On The Ground
2023-06-01 11:00 - 12:00
Conference Session

Description
In this mixture of short lectures and inclusive discussion with Robert and some friends from the Agile Community of Practice, you will learn the common-sense principles behind agile, kanban, lean, scrum, and their ilk, and how to start applying them to make things better–certainly a little, maybe a lot–for yourself and those you serve.
By attending this session, you will

No longer intimidated by agile/kanban/scrum etc. jargon
Learn a few essentials to apply right away
Learn that you’re already part of a campus movement you can lean on

Presenter Information

Robert Merrill
Andrew Petro
Mary Iqbal

Image Credit: Pexels
