IT Professionals Conference

Stuck in Limbo: Struggles and Successes with MS Graph API for Automated Email Access into O365 - Live Session
2022-06-03 14:30 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | WI
Conference Session
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Description

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a large place, with many staff members. One of the struggles that is familiar to many is how to balance specialized needs for divisions, colleges and other groups inside the university, with the administrative goals of simplifying services at a central level. In particular, email transmissions that are handled by software without the intervention of human hands can struggle when modernization occurs: the need for multi-factor authentication and deprecation of POP/IMAP protocols conflicts with services run by groups such as the college of Engineering.
My presentation goes over the journey I made as the sysadmin for a ticketing program that needed to be able to fetch and send emails through O365 as a computer — not a human that could perform multi-factor auth. I will discuss the basic layout of the way that I solved the issue, point out some pitfalls that arise because of the University’s bureaucracy and hierarchical structure, and offer some tips for others trying to write middleware in the trenches.
My audience will understand this better if they know the underlying mechanisms of emails and how they’re sent or accessed, as well as Office 365 authentication mechanisms.
The key takeaways are that writing middleware or API layers at the University can be quite difficult and challenging, but given the right circumstances, also successful. Another thing to learn is that challenges are almost never purely technical in nature, a lot of obstacles that come up are going to include tasks that take people-knowledge and social skill in the workplace. An appreciation for the wide variety of business needs among campus IT will be emphasized strongly.

Presenter Information

Brian Wilt

Image Licensed under Creative Commons Zero.

Finding the Puzzle Pieces - Flash Talk
2022-06-03 14:30 - 14:45
Conference Session
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Description

An introduction to data and information management process mapping as a needs analysis tool for improving research workflows and cyberinfrastructure.
Participants will learn:

I am a new consultant on campus to help with research cyberinfrastructure
Basics of Process Mapping – Purpose, Capability, Use
Growth Mindset- You don’t know what you don’t know. Be Open to Curiosity and Change. Encourage opportunities to reduce redundancies, inefficiencies, and gaps as well as increase reproducibility, repeatability, and replicability.

Presenter Information

Mary Murphy

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Understanding Impact vs. Effort and How To Maximize Your Team’s Throughput - Live Session
2022-06-03 14:00 - 14:30
Conference Session
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Description

This talk investigates factors that help and hinder the efficiency of our projects and offers simple solutions to increase productivity. Attendees will learn how to analyze the effort needed to complete a task versus its overall impact on the project. This talk will help participants identify easy wins and deliver value often.

Presenter Information

Jonathan Dedering

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Using Contract-First Development for the Person API to Solve Real Use-Cases - Live Session
2022-06-03 14:00 - 14:30
Conference Session
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Description

In this presentation, I will share how our team created a Person API to improve data integrations with core identity data. Using a technique called contract-first API development, our team was able to show what the API would look like from a user perspective first, which then influenced the technical implementation “under the hood”. I’ll also cover why we chose to create an API, and the benefits behind using APIs for data integrations.
Attendees should have a basic awareness or understanding of APIs would be preferred, but isn’t required. I plan to briefly define an API as a basis for the presentation.
Attendees will learn
– Knowledge of what an API is, and why someone would consume or create one.
– Understanding of APIs compared to how most integrations are implemented at UW-Madison, and why one might prefer an API approach.
– Basic knowledge of API design, and applying UX design techniques when creating a specification for an API to make sure it addresses user needs.
– Understanding of what the Person API is, and a basic understanding of how to get access and use it.

Presenter Information

Jared Kosanovic

Image by dawnydawny from Pixabay.

Salesforce + FormAssembly = User Request Magic - Flash Talk
2022-06-03 13:30 - 13:45
Conference Session
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Description

Do you find yourself swimming in a sea of form requests? At UW-Madison’s Division of Continuing Studies, we certainly did – and we turned to Salesforce and FormAssembly to bring order to the chaos. With some simple Form Assembly set up we were able to automate the creation of campaign and case requests in our Salesforce CRM. You can too!
You will learn how to utilize partner solutions (Form Assembly forms tool) to streamline of routine requests through automation.

Presenter Information

Megan O’Rourke
Megan McDonald

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SharePoint and MS Teams: A Collaborative Technology - Live Session
2022-06-03 13:15 - 13:45
Conference Session
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Description

This presentation maintains that SharePoint and MS Teams can be an effective technology solution to meet the information needs of IT professionals. Furthermore, it provide tips, tricks and best practices to effectively implement a SharePoint Resource Library with MS Teams using collaborative project management strategies.
After completing this session, participants will be able to:
-Identify the benefits of utilizing SharePoint and MS Teams.
-Recognize how SharePoint and MS Teams organize information.
-Reflect on Project Management best practices for implementing SharePoint and MS Teams as a project management technology.

Presenter Information

Margaret Murphy

Image created by Mandy Morrow using logos from Microsoft.

Web Testing with Cypress - Flash Talk
2022-06-03 13:15 - 13:30
Conference Session
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Description

An overview of web application integration and end-to-end testing with the Cypress tool. It contains both a graphical GUI for live debugging, and a text-based command that is nicer for continuous integration.
Attendees should know a bit about HTML and will learn that web testing has undergone large shifts in recent years, and is now nearly on par with regular program testing.

Presenter Information

David Schultz

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Drop-in Q&A with Presenters of Pre-Recorded Presentations
2022-06-03 12:45 - 13:15
Conference Session
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Description

Drop-in to ask questions and discuss the following pre-recorded presentations:
Envisioning the Future of Campus Websites and Features
Presented by: Jenna Klinner, Kedar Joyner, Mike Ippolito, & Benjamin Sousa
How to use Qualys Cloud Agent’s VMDR Dashboard
Presented by: Phil Jochimsen
New Hybrid Meeting Rooms to Connect Remote Workers and Guests to the UW-Madison Campus
Presented by: William Tishler, Thad Molling, Brad Graham & Shawn Thiele
Provisioning Infrastructure as Code via Gitlab and Terraform
Presented by: Brian Hill, Lyle Hansen, Eric Schoville, Nuwan Kumarasiri, Isaac Evavold & Leja Thao
Python CI: Packaging, Versioning, and Publishing
Presented by: Ric Evans
Securing Your AWS Web Resources
Presented by: Phil Jochimsen
View all of the Pre-recorded Sessions

Image by jonathan simcoe (Unsplash) from NegativeSpace.co.

Getting a Grip on Your Computer - Live Session
2022-06-03 12:45 - 13:15
Conference Session
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Description

Basic Windows Navigation Tips and Tricks: Attend this session to learn about included PC tools that are often overlooked, but are incredibly helpful. Discover ways to improve your productivity at both work and home. Additionally, learn about free software that will allow you to increase your efficiency and comfort with completing essential computer tasks.
Attend if you are a basic computer users who have a hard time with anything more than email, documents, and spreadsheets.

Presenter Information

Robin Fisher

Original Image by Edmond Dantès from Pexels. Cropped and decolorized.

CANCELLED - Developing Your IT Career: Progression, Supervision, Transition? - Live Session
2022-06-03 11:00 - 12:00
Conference Session
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Description

Are you trying to figure out what’s next in your career? Then join Amanda Thornton (UW IT Professional) and April McHugh (UW Career Counselor) for a discussion around options for managing, transitioning, and/or advancing your career.
Attendees will learn how to manage their careers and options for career development.

Presenter Information

April McHugh
Amanda Thornton

Image by Nick Youngson from Picpedia.org.

Plugging into the IT Policy Process - Live Session
2022-06-03 11:00 - 12:00
Conference Session
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Description

Part traditional, part facilitated discussion, this session features presenters from the campus Policy Planning & Analysis Team (PAT) and will provide attendees with a refresh of the IT policy process in addition to a brief overview of key IT policies currently in development at UW-Madison. Attendees will be provided with the opportunity to give feedback on key IT policies currently in development in small group breakout sessions with time allocated at the conclusion of the session for a brief Q&A.
Attendees will come away with more knowledge on how IT policy can assist them in their respective roles and how to become active participants in the IT policy process.
Basic knowledge of campus IT policies beneficial, but not required.

Presenter Information

Sara Tate-Pederson
Jason Erdmann
Tim Bohn
Jeff Savoy

Image by Colin Behrens from Pixabay.

CANCELLED - A Framework for Stakeholder Alignment - Live Session
2022-06-03 10:15 - 10:45
Conference Session
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Description

Providing a framework for how to build stakeholder alignment into large-scale strategic projects, why projects fall out of alignment, and how to get back on track for long-term success.
Attendees will learn:
Tools for establishing project alignment from the start
How to recognize misalignment
Understanding the root cause of misalignment
Tools for getting the team and project back on track

Presenter Information

Hannah Kinley

Image by Alexander Fox | PlaNet Fox from Pixabay.

Tableau Tips and Tricks - Live Session
2022-06-03 10:15 - 10:45
Conference Session
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Description

A few quick tips and tricks on Tableau software that solve small, but important issues. Some tips include:
– How to use Index() to solve disappearing repeating items in a table
– Adding tables to tooltips
– Partial average
– Custom sort by multiple fields
– Adding title to measure columns
Familiarity with Tableau is helpful but not necessary.
Takeaways:
– How Index affects the visualization.
– There are many workarounds to achieve a goal.

Presenter Information

Mehrnaz Ahmadi Joobaneh

Logo from Wikipedia Commons. Image created by Mandy Morrow.

IT Recognition Awards Ceremony
2022-06-03 09:00 - 10:00
Conference Session
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Friends and family can watch the awards ceremony without registering for the conference via YouTube by going to https://go.wisc.edu/n4epyv, (this link will go live around 8:30am on June 3rd).
Watch via YouTube

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.

CommunITea Presents Campus IT Organizations Drop-In Session
2022-06-02 16:00 - 17:00
Conference Session
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Description

This weekly event, put on by IT Connects, brings together IT professionals across campus for relaxed socializing and spontaneous discussion. Previous spontaneous discussion topics have included home wifi setups, audio equipment, home brewing, mixology, travel recommendations, color vision variations, jupyter notebooks, remote working, hanging out at the South Pole, and, of course, pets!
This special CommunITea event brings together various campus IT organizations for attendees of the IT Professionals Conference to learn more about how to get involved in the IT community. This session will consist of breakout rooms for each organization. Attendees can jump between rooms and will be prompted by organizers to move around during the event.
In the spirit of community building – bring a friend, encourage others to attend, and forward this open invitation to those you feel might benefit from attending and contributing. These virtual events usually take place each Thursday afternoon (3:30pm), and are held using Zoom so we can utilize the breakout rooms for specific or open discussion topics. If you have any ideas for collaborations, breakout rooms, or other feedback please send them on.
CommunITea events are a relaxed atmosphere, and it’s not necessary to RSVP, connect to the session and join in the conversation. Also, a camera is not necessary to participate and listen in – these are introvert-friendly groups.
If you are interested in helping make these events happen for the future or have discussion ideas or other feedback, please email communitea-facilitators@g-groups.wisc.edu

Presenter Information

Jason Pursian
Amanda Thornton
Mandy Morrow
Pete Boguszewski

Extension Intranet in SharePoint Online - Live Session
2022-06-02 15:15 - 15:45
Conference Session
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Description

Extension uses SharePoint in Office 365 as a robust, modern Intranet for program collaboration, administrative communication, and business workflows.
In 2019 Extension merged with UW-Madison, which required transitioning all IT infrastructure including our SharePoint-based intranet. An aggressive timeline and minimal campus support of SharePoint in Office 365 made for an exciting project. We will discuss how we migrated from a legacy on-premises SharePoint server farm to UW-Madison’s Office 365 SharePoint Online tenant, the compromises and improvements we made, and the relationships with DoIT that we built.
Attendees will learn potential ways to leverage SharePoint in a large school/division, tools and techniques for managing SharePoint migrations, and working with SharePoint with minimal DoIT support.
Link to SharePoint User Group

Presenter Information

Kevin Graeme
Deanna Schneider

Image modified, originally from M365 Admin.

ITs Role in Data Privacy - Live Session
2022-06-02 15:15 - 15:45
Conference Session
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Description

Protecting the privacy of data is an emerging topic that impacts how IT professionals collect, store, present, and dispose of data. But what is really meant by data privacy? Why is it important? This session will identify the importance of privacy for our society and culture, what our responsibilities are for complying with privacy laws, regulations, and standards, and how to present information, such as privacy policies in meaningful ways.
Download Presentation Slides

Presenter Information

Stefan Wahe

Image by djandywdotcom from Flickr. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

IT Careers Panel - Live Session
2022-06-02 14:00 - 15:00
Conference Session
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Description

Panelists, representing a diversity of IT roles and experience on campus, will discuss their career, lessons learned, things that they know now, things they don’t know, etc.

Presenter Information

David Parter
Julian Vandenberg
Sabrina Messer
Sean Bossinger
Salima Currimbhoy

Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay.

Keep your Class Presentations Updated Painlessly with RMarkdown - Live Session
2022-06-02 14:00 - 15:00
Conference Session
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Description

In this session, I will walk you through how to create your class presentation slides using RMarkdown, pushed them to Google drive and display them on your Canvas course with the push of one button. You’ll learn a way to create your class presentation, upload them to the cloud, and display them in your Canvas course with one button.
Attendees should be familiar with R and RMarkdown.

Presenter Information

Erwin Lares

Logo from bookdown.org. Image created by Mandy Morrow.

Effective Presentation of Technical Material - Live Session
2022-06-02 12:45 - 13:45
Conference Session
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Description

There is an unfortunate stereotype of the high-tech individual being a poor instructor. During this session will draw upon 25 years of experience as a trainer to explore several aspects of preparing and delivering effective technical instruction: preparing yourself and your content, preparing the training space, engaging attendees, anticipating and neutralizing common mistakes and distractions, and pondering several of the less-technical aspects of technical training.
When delivering technical instruction… I would like to address the overlooked realities of technical training, common techniques used to improve the effectiveness of your presentation, common pitfalls to avoid, and proven techniques for handling difficult situations and people.

Presenter Information

Cliff Cunningham

Photo by Althea Dotzour / UW-Madison Photo Library.

Development, Security and Operations Working Together for UW Madison - Live Session
2022-06-02 12:45 - 13:45
Conference Session
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Description

When specialized IT fields – Development, Security and Operations – work together, they can solve problems that separate departments many not be able to handle. The process looks different from each perspective. Yet it is teamwork and respect for people with different skill sets that strengthens the UW IT community and keeps technology growing to meet the needs of the University and beyond.

Presenter Information

Julie Johnson
Phil Jochimsen
Benjamin Sousa
Ken Hahn
Jared Kosanovic
Shreyash B. Shrestha

Image by Raphael Brasileiro from Pexels.

Resources for (New and Existing) UW-Madison IT Professionals - Live Session
2022-06-02 11:00 - 12:00
Conference Session
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Description

UW-Madison’s IT landscape can be a jumbled and confusing space. Our team would like to solicit feedback about creating a curated set of resources and best practices that would help new (and existing) UW-Madison IT professionals better orient themselves to the campus IT environment and inspire a sense of belonging with the campus IT community.

Presenter Information

Chris Poser
Sarah Tate-Pederson
Crague Cook
David Parter

Photo by Bryce Richter / UW-Madison Photo Library.

Interactive Data Visualization in Python - Live Session
2022-06-02 11:00 - 12:00
Conference Session
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Description

Interactive data visualizations let users choose which aspects of the data they want to display. This hands-on workshop will cover using Python and Streamlit to create interactive graphs where the user can change what data is being displayed. To follow along with the workshop, it will help to be familiar with Python and the Pandas package.
To follow along with the workshop, it will help to be familiar with python and the pandas package.
Learn how to create and modify an interactive plot using Python and Streamlit.

Presenter Information

Sarah Stevens
Amanda Thornton
Chris Endemann

Image by Vito Goričan from Pexels.

Jupyterhub in AWS for Instruction: It's only temporary, unless it works... - Live Session
2022-06-02 10:30 - 11:00
Conference Session
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Description

Our presentation covers an overview of how a partnership between CS and CAE has been providing instances of Jupyterhub notebooks for instruction over the past several years. We will discuss how we have implemented the notebooks using AWS, structured load balancing and integrated with Canvas courses. There will be some demos of the tools we’ve used including terraform, helm and an alternating pair of A-B AWS instances for production and testing environments. We will conclude with a brief chat about future work items we are still figuring out and look for discussion with the community about best practices.
Familiarity with the concepts of cloud services, AWS especially, would be very helpful. Some familiarity with the concepts of containers and CI/CD pipelines will also help.
Attendees will become (more) familiar with cloud resources, learn about innovation in instructional support, discuss when projects take off at the university and stop being “pilots”. They will also learn about ways that people can work across various units in the university and facilitate inter-departmental cooperation.

Presenter Information

Brian Wilt
Ken Hahn
Michael Gibson

Original Logo from Wikipedia Commons. Image created by Mandy Morrow.

Cybersecurity Governance, Risk, & Compliance (GRC) - What is it, and Why should I care? - Live Session
2022-06-02 10:30 - 11:00
Conference Session
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Description

Cybersecurity Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is often the overlooked, and misunderstood, subset of cybersecurity. GRC is a way for organizations to meet compliance, manage risk, and provide internal governance. It is not a singular solution, but rather an overall strategy. It allows an organization to be more aware, more aligned, and more agile.
It may be helpful to have cybersecurity experience or background but not required. Attendees will learn what GRC is, why GRC matters, & how the GRC mindset can be applied to IT.

Presenter Information

Amy Diestler
Steve Behring
Dharvesh Naraine
Jerry Johsnon

Image by CoolVid-Shows from Pixabay.

Keynote - Using our voice to create inclusive and accessible technology designs and services
2022-06-02 08:45 - 10:15
Conference Session
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The Zoom session will be live captioned by the McBurney Disability Resource Center. Link to the captions.

Watch via YouTube
The YouTube live stream button is a go.wisc redirect that will go live no later than 8:30am on June 2nd.

Keynote Description
We, as IT professionals, play a critical role in designing, developing, and supporting the digital campus. We have created and evolved the digital campus over the last forty years, and in 2020 it became the primary mode of interaction for our communities. What can we learn from the rapid pivot to online, and more importantly, how can we evolve our thinking and approaches?
Let’s discuss how we can use our expertise and our voice to create digital spaces where people can thrive. Using ideas from fields such as critical design practices, conflict management, and polarities, we will explore the most effective approaches for providing spaces where multiple voices are empowered, and diverse communities can thrive.
The session will be interactive.
Opening Remarks for the conference will take place from 8:45-9:15am

Keynote Speaker Information

Klara Jelinkova

Image from The Harvard Gazette.

Access Pre-Recorded Content Now!
2022-05-31 - 2022-06-03
Check out the pre-recorded content for the conference!
Many of our pre-recorded sessions will have a Live Q&A session on Friday, June 3rd. Watch the content now and come prepared with questions for our presenters during their Live Q&As!
See the Pre-Recorded Sessions!

2022 Conference Planning Kick Off
2021-12-06 14:00 - 15:00
Hello IT Professionals!
There will be a 2022 IT Professionals Conference Planning kick off meeting happening Monday, December 6th from 2:00pm – 3:00pm. This meeting is a great opportunity to be part of the conference planning committees and there are a variety of ways you can help.
IT Professionals Conference Volunteer Meeting
Date: Monday, December 6th 2021
Time: 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Where: Zoom https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/93625698263?pwd=[REDACTED]
Join the Meeting

Post-Conference Virtual Happy Hour - Networking Event
2021-06-04 16:00 - 17:00
This session was not recorded.

Description

Join us for drinks (BYOB) and virtual networking to close out the conference!
This will be a relaxed atmosphere and a camera is not necessary to participate and listen in – this is an introvert-friendly event.

IT Recognition Awards Ceremony
2021-06-04 15:00 - 16:00
Conference Session

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!
