NEWS ROOM   |   Press Releases

For immediate release: April 4, 2002
Contact: Beth Roszman

Wyoming Governor, Technology Innovator, National Security Expert and
E-Government Leader to Speak at NASCIO Midyear Conference

(Lexington, KY) - The National Association of State Chief Information Officers will meet at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center in Denver, Colorado on April 7 through April 9 for their 2002 Midyear Conference. Ray Kurzweil, founder, president and CEO of Kurzweil Technologies will be the keynote presenter at the conference. Kurzweil is internationally renowned for his innovative uses of technology including among others the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind and the first music synthesizer.

Governor Jim Geringer of Wyoming will be the opening speaker for the Critical Role of GIS in Homeland Security session at the conference. As one of the National Governors' Association's (NGA) lead governors on IT, Governor Geringer has been a long-time advocate of technology and government. He is the past co-chair of NGA's IT Taskforce and past chairman of the Western Governors' Association and the Education Commission of the States.

Howard Schmidt, vice chair of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, will be the opening speaker for the Security Best Practices session. This session will address the changing approaches and practices of security from a reactionary mode of operation to one of prescriptive action designed at detection and prevention.

Mark Forman, associate director for Information Technology and E-Government of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, will be the opening speaker for the Digital Government session at the conference. Forman will discuss the expansion of electronic government as part of the President's management agenda including several of the Quicksilver e-government projects that are pertinent to the states.

The conference will also feature sessions on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Component Reuse. The meeting will conclude with a trio of sessions that will explore pro-active policies and actions that states should employ to maintain their current momentum during this economic downturn. The day will begin with a policy briefing from state and national budget and legislative organizations. The corporate roundtable will feature four CIOs from the private sector who will address the downturn economy from the private sector perspective and best practices. The concluding session will feature a discussion by state CIOs on how the economy is affecting the IT priorities within their states and what methods are being employed to maintain current IT projects. Tom Davies, senior vice president for Enterprise Solutions of Current Analysis, will moderate all three sessions.

For more information about the conference including full agenda, visit the NASCIO website at http://www.nascio.org/events/2002MidyearConference/.

NASCIO represents the state chief information officers from the 50 states, six U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. Members include cabinet and senior level state officials responsible for information resource management. Other IT officials participate as associate members and private sector representatives may become corporate members.

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Association Management Resources, Inc. (AMR) provides NASCIO's executive staff. For more information about AMR visit http://www.amrinc.net.