IT Professionals Conference

Empowering Expert Authors with the KnowledgeBase API
2025-05-29 12:00 - 12:30 (America/Chicago) | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Room 112

Discover how the Office of Human Resources (OHR) used the KnowledgeBase API to streamline collaboration among multidisciplinary subject matter experts, empowering them to rapidly publish instructions for the transition from HRS to Workday.

Presenter

Jonathan Dedering

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Unlocking Potential: Streamlining Processes with Low Code Solutions
2025-05-29 12:00 - 12:30 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Lee Lounge/109

The Low Code Solutions (LCS) team helps schools, colleges, and divisions modernize processes by creating custom applications–using your own IT staff or our dedicated developers. Discover how your area can leverage this fully-supported service, including integrations with PersonAPI, FinanceAPI and various Data Warehouses to pull in the data you need for powerful apps and workflows.

Presenters

Jeanne Hains
Joel Herron

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Countdown to Workday: Hot topics and a Peek of What's to Come
2025-05-29 12:00 - 12:30 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Alumni Lounge

With Workday implementation on the horizon, join us for hot topics of interest to the IT community, followed by open Q&A. Get information on Ancillary Systems resources, professional development opportunities, the data and reporting landscape, future state support models and more.

Presenters

Sabrina Messer

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Lunch
2025-05-29 12:30 - 13:30 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Alumni Lounge

Enjoy a catered lunch and conversation with fellow IT Professionals.
For those attending in person, vegetarian and non-vegetarian options will be equally available.

From the Notebook to the Cluster
2025-05-29 13:30 - 14:30 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Room 112

This session demonstrates how to move your R analysis to the Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC). Follow a workflow that simplifies the job application submission process by automating key steps. See how R can package your analysis into containers, work with UW–Madison GitLab’s registry, generate necessary files automatically, and transfer your data between your computer and CHTC’s high-performance computing environment.
You can find the presentation materials in the following GitHub repository: https://github.com/erwinlares/single-submit

Presenter

Erwin Lares

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Meet IT Connects
2025-05-29 13:30 - 14:30 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Alumni Lounge

Learn about the many groups in IT Connects. Each group will give a flash talk and then there will be an opportunity to learn more about individual groups and talk with current members.

Presenter

Elizabeth Kraege-Soechting

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Note: Only the first half of this session was recorded.

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Flash Talks
2025-05-29 13:30 - 14:30 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Lee Lounge/109

This hour features 4 short presentations:

Practical takeaways from Kent Beck’s “Tidy First” book for improving your work: An homage to Kent Beck’s book Tidy First? and what I took from reading it and trying to apply its guidance in my work. Tidyings as refactoring but smaller. How to be less annoying to your colleagues. Thoughtful tradeoffs in when to tidy how much. The value of deferring expenses meets the value of future options. How to think about how much of software development is maintenance and what that means for our work.
How Library Search efficiently delivers results from millions of records: An overview of Library Search infrastructure and how it works to deliver results from millions of records.
Using LabArchives Electronic Lab Notebooks to enhance research collaboration and data security: The flashtalk highlights how LabArchives Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) streamline research workflows, support interdisciplinary collaboration, and safeguard data integrity. RCI aims to facilitate smoother and more efficient research endeavors at UW–Madison.
Applying social work principles to enterprise service management for better customer interactions and process mapping: I will discuss how my background and training in social work has helped me in IT and enterprise service management design at SMPH. In particular, I will focus on how I use the person-in-environment theory of social work practice and therapy interview techniques as customer journey and process mapping tools.

Presenters

Andrew Petro
David Lee
Mary Murphy
Lindsay Bolan

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Note: Only the last half of this session was recorded, we apologize for the incovenience

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Collaborating and Planning for AI Across the Universities of Wisconsin
2025-05-29 14:45 - 15:15 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Alumni Lounge

Join representatives from UW-Milwaukee, UW–Madison and UW-Stout as we share our unique approaches to AI implementation on our campuses. Discover real-world techniques to engage with faculty and staff as they use AI. We’ll touch on ChatGPT integration, AI literacy initiatives, Microsoft Copilot pilots, and faculty research. Look beyond the here and now and learn how these institutions are planning for an AI-enhanced future across the Universities of Wisconsin.

Presenter

Todd Shechter
Beth Schaefer
Suzanne Traxler

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Meet the Wisconsin Cyber Response Team
2025-05-29 14:45 - 15:15 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Room 112

Learn about CRT’s Wisconsin public sector outreach, networking, training, intel and other opportunities that CRT provides to its members. Here from UW–Madison employees who are current CRT members and the benefit it’s brought to their teams.

Presenters

Jamie Glass
Eric Franco

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Networking / Virtual Networking
2025-05-29 14:45 - 15:15 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Lee Lounge/109

Join conference attendees in making connections through guided activities.
OR…
Join other virtual conference attendees in making connections through guided activities in zoom break-out rooms.

Presenters

Philip Doll (In-Person)
Megan O’Rourke (Virtual)

This session was not recorded.

2025 IT Recognition Awards Presentation
2025-05-29 15:30 - 16:30 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Alumni Lounge

Join us as we honor our outstanding colleagues who have made significant contributions to the UW–Madison IT community. The 2025 IT Recognition Awards celebrate the dedication, innovation, and achievements of our talented IT professionals across 7 categories:

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

Take this opportunity to recognize and applaud your colleagues who go above and beyond in their roles, strengthening our IT community and shaping the future of technology at the university.
Reception to follow for in-person attendees.

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Reception/Unstructured Networking
2025-05-29 16:30 - 17:00 | Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Alumni Lounge

Unstructured networking and light refreshments:

Assorted cookies
Veggie and dip platter
Cheese and crackers platter
Water

This event is open to all attendees, regardless of whether they have registered virtually or in person.

Lessons Learnt from Upgrading a Legacy IICS Secure Agent
2025-05-30 09:00 - 09:30 | WI
Join us for a deep dive on how a team of engineers, system users and a third-party vendor successfully navigated upgrading an Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS) secure agent, prompted by an outage that occurred in early March. The server and its Secure Agent had not been upgraded for several years, leading to challenges and compatibility issues during the process. Learn how these teams came together to ensure a successful upgrade.

Presenters

Mehrnaz Ahmadi Joobaneh
Becky Wheeler

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Using Vibe Programing with AI to Transform Black and White Data into Visual Dashboards
2025-05-30 09:00 - 09:30 | WI
Get the inside scoop on how we use AI chat, and agents to build code for calculations, analysis, and transformations to format dashboards.

Presenters

Dexter Fierro
John D Graham

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Redesigning Without Disruption: Transforming UW–Madison's KnowledgeBase Editor
2025-05-30 09:00 - 09:30 | WI
Discover how we modernized the document creation and editing interface at the heart of the widely used KnowledgeBase (KB) application. Learn our approach to balancing technical constraints with significant user experience improvements while ensuring seamless transitions for campus users. This session reveals the careful and thoughtful planning that guided our successful update of this popular campus tool.

Presenters

Leah Scheide
Weizhong Wang

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Unlock Your Creative Thinking
2025-05-30 09:40 - 10:40 | WI
Join the Zoom Event

Join us to learn from A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech about overcoming mental blocks to utilize creative thinking skills in your daily worklife.

Presenter

David Berg

What’s “Unconference” And Do We Need One Here?
2025-05-30 09:40 - 10:40 | WI
Join the Zoom Event

Get an introduction to the concept of an “unconference” and learn about the philosophies and practices used to create an “unconference” experience driven entirely by attendees and the topics you want to discuss. Help brainstorm ways to bring this event format to our very own campus to enhance engagement throughout our IT community.

Presenters

Tomomi Imamura
Tom Jordan

Take the Next Step in Your Career with UW-Women in IT
2025-05-30 09:40 - 22:40 | WI
Discover the varied paths your career can take, whether it’s growing into leadership, exploring new roles, taking a step back or simply finding work-life balance. Hear real stories from colleagues in IT who set different courses to navigate these waters.

Presenters

Amanda Thornton
Jamie Gutkowski
Elizabeth Simcock
Kim Channpraseut
Kelsey Harrington

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Getting Started with Gitlab CI, Gitlab Runners and Ansible
2025-05-30 10:50 - 11:50 | WI
Join us in taking your first steps toward using Gitlab CI pipelines, as demonstrated with Gitlab runners and how our team uses Ansible.

Presenter

Phil Jochimsen

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Continuing the Conversation: IT Support Symposium Virtual Meet-Up
2025-05-30 10:50 - 11:50 | WI
Did you attend the IT Support Symposium on April 16th? Were you unable to attend this year? We are hosting a virtual session for folks who attended as well as folks who didn’t to connect and talk about the event. We’ll share a review of the event and spend time meeting new people or reconnecting with people who met at the event.

Presenter

Ella Tschopik
Sarah Lien

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Improving Your Skills as a Technology Instructor
2025-05-30 10:50 - 11:50 | WI
So you’ve got the tech skills down, but now you need to help others learn it too? This session is for you! We’ll explore practical tips and tricks to make your training sessions and presentations shine. We’ll also crowd-source successful strategies to empower you to become a more confident and effective presenter.

Presenter

Cliff Cunningham

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Object Storage (S3): Reduce Cost and Enable New Ways to Use Data
2025-05-30 12:50 - 13:50 | WI
The university generates data of all sizes, from a few megabytes to hundreds of terabytes. And let’s face it, storing all that data can be costly. In this virtual session, we’ll introduce Object Storage (S3), a campus-hosted data storage service offering lower-cost storage to departments and permanent staff, and no-cost storage for eligible researchers. Discover how this service can significantly reduce storage costs and enable new ways to use and distribute data. You’ll participate in a live demonstration of this service using a free file browser application, Cyberduck, and the Python library, Boto3.

Presenters

Casey Schacher
Kevin Kettner
Rushabh Vora

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Connecting Relationships to Results: Enhancing IT and Business Partnerships
2025-05-30 12:50 - 13:50 | WI
How can stronger IT-business relationships benefit your work, your organization, and the wider world? Drawing on 30 years of IT experience, including at the School of Medicine, we’ll use anonymized case studies and a visual “string map” to illustrate how focusing on relationships can save time and cut costs. You’ll learn actionable strategies to enhance collaboration, improve efficiency, and foster innovation. We’ll also connect these improvements to the Wisconsin Idea, showcasing the broader impact of effective IT partnerships.

Presenter

Ken Fanta

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Networking and Games
2025-05-30 12:50 - 13:50 | WI
Join us for fun games and network with your fellow IT professionals. Take some time to decompress, find new connections, and engage in some friendly competition in a relaxed atmosphere. Showcase your knowledge, learn from others, and enjoy a well-deserved break.

Presenters

Phil Jochimsen
Mandy Morrow

This session was not recorded.

Check-In for In-Person Attendees
2026-05-28 08:00 - 09:00 | Morgridge Hall, 1205 University Ave, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Garden Atrium (Lower Level)

Check in and then enjoy coffee, tea, water, fresh bakery selections, seasonal fresh fruit, and etc.

Welcome & Keynote - Ideas Run the World. IT Powers the Journey.
2026-05-28 09:00 - 10:15 | Morgridge Hall, 1205 University Ave, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Hello World (Room 1570) & Virtual
Join the Zoom Event

Welcome & Opening Remarks (9:00-9:15 am)
IT Professionals Conference co-chairs Jason Erdmann & David Berg will provide introductory remarks for the conference.

Keynote Address (9:15-10:15 am)
Ideas Run the World. IT Powers the Journey. – Presented by Patrick McDaniel, the Tsun-Ming Shih Professor of Computer Sciences in the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

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Building Trust in IT: competency, sincerity, and care, made practical
2026-05-28 10:30 - 11:30 | Morgridge Hall, 1205 University Ave, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Hello World (Room 1570) & Virtual
Join the Zoom Event

Modernizing platforms, improving security, and rolling out new services are rarely limited by technology. More often, progress is constrained by trust. Trust between IT and its partners, and within IT across roles and teams. In this session, we’ll treat trust as a strategic asset and a practical operating model for getting hard work done.
We’ll use a framework for defining trust (including the behavioral components of competency, sincerity, and care) and translate it into actions IT leaders and practitioners can take immediately.
We’ll explore common gaps in trust patterns in higher education IT, and how listening, transparent communication, and constructive dissent help teams build credibility, navigate conflict, and restore trust when things go wrong.
We’ll connect trust to today’s pressure points: IT Federation, AI adoption, cybersecurity progress, and supporting a growing set of faculty expectations. Attendees will leave with a simple diagnostic, a set of trust-building moves, and prompts to use with their teams and partners.

Presenter(s)

Todd Shechter
Elizabeth Simcock

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How WiscWeb and StratComm combined forces to bring us the UW Theme 2.0
2026-05-28 10:30 - 11:30 | Morgridge Hall, 1205 University Ave, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Room 1524 & Virtual
Join the Zoom Event

Over the last year, two teams at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have worked together to prepare for thousands of sites to move to the new Gutenberg Block Editor.
These teams have collaborated in:
– understanding the new block-based development environment in WordPress
– creating a new design system for a custom UW theme and plugins
– migrating data from ACF fields into WordPress core and custom blocks
– building everything with accessibility in mind
– creating educational resources for users and developers across campus
In this panel, we’ll walk through our process, design, migration tooling, and user reports and experience in the new environment. We’ll cover decisions we made, why we made those decisions, and the pros and cons of each.
In covering the migration, we’ll talk about what date we decided to bring to the new system and what we’ve decided to leave behind. We’ll talk about the infrastructure and community that we’re building for.

Presenters

Andrea Roenning
Nate Finch
Scott Berg
Josh Ciolkosz
Jenna Klinner
Kedar Joyner

Recording
Coming soon!

From Listening to Doing: Exploring IT Federation Together
2026-05-28 10:30 - 11:30 | Morgridge Hall, 1205 University Ave, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Room B2250 & Virtual
Join the Zoom Event

Join us for an interactive session focused on shaping the future of the IT Federation program and how we work together across IT at the university. We will begin with a brief update on the program’s progress since its launch in January 2026 and use the remainder of the time for a facilitated discussion.
This session builds on themes surfaced through recent CIO listening sessions, which highlighted a strong desire for improved collaboration, clearer coordination, and more effective service delivery across IT. While those sessions were a separate effort, they surfaced important perspectives that directly inform the direction of the IT Federation. Participants will engage in facilitated discussions to reflect on their experiences, react to emerging themes, and help identify practical opportunities to strengthen how we deliver and coordinate IT services.

Presenter(s)

Crague Cook
Jamie Gutkowski
Brianna Kuhn
Peter Boguszewski
Deanna Schneider

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Network with IT Mentors, Mentees and Friends
2026-05-28 10:30 - 11:30 | Morgridge Hall, 1205 University Ave, Madison, WI, 53706, United States
Room B2590

Join us for casual networking and conversation with Mentors and Mentees from the UW IT Mentoring Program. Conversation starters will be provided. Everyone is welcome!

Presenters from the UW IT Mentoring Committee

Sabrina Messer
Ella Tschopik
Parker Harding
Conor Klecker
Lindsay Bolan
Carolyn Wilson
