Alex Whitaker and Amy Glasscock talk with with Brandon Hirsch. Brandon has a unique role as Director of Government Relations for Minnesota  IT Services (MNIT) and he sits down with us to tell us all about it. Find out how and why MNIT has a trusting relationship with a key bipartisan group of legislators, what his biggest challenges and successes have been and why he and Alex are sometimes rivals when it comes to their favorite sport. 

Amy interviews Alex about NASCIO's 2023 Federal Advocacy Priorities. What has changed and what has stayed the same? Find out in our latest episode.

You can find the list here: https://www.nascio.org/government-affairs/federal-advocacy-priorities/ 

Alex and Amy are talking with NASCIO's own program director for enterprise architecture and governance, Eric Sweden, on the NASCIO Top Ten policy and technology lists for 2023. Find out what issues and technologies are moving up, moving down and staying the same. Stay for Eric's beautiful holiday medley on the guitar!

You can find the NASCIO Top Ten here: https://www.nascio.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NASCIO_CIOTopTenPriorities_2023.pdf

Alex and Amy sit down for two interviews (and two lightening rounds!) on the customer experience. First with NASCIO award winner and chief experience officer for Maryland, Ashley Laymon who talks with us all about the work she's doing to improve the agency customer experience in the Maryland Department of Information Technology.

Next we talk with Kunal Modi and Ashka Dave from McKinsey all about a new report on the citizen experience with government. Learn more here: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/governments-can-deliver-exceptional-customer-experiences-heres-how

Alex and Amy talk with new NASCIO President and Tennessee State CIO Stephanie Dedmon about her background, why she wanted to serve as NASCIO President, what she thinks are the most pressing issues for her colleagues, her plans for the program year, top priorities in TN and the best advice she's ever received. 

Amy and Alex are joined by Meredith Ward, NASCIO Director of Policy and Research and Srini Subramanian, Deloitte Principal, who are the co-authors of the new 2022 Deloitte-NASCIO Cybersecurity Study.

Learn the big takeaways from the latest report, biggest surprises and trends. Stick around to find out how their knowledge of cybersecurity has influenced their personal lives and what music they have on repeat right now.

Alex and Amy talk with CISA's Cameron Dixon about the dot gov domain, why it's important for governments to have it, recent updates to the program and how states can encourage local governments to adopt dot gov. 

Here is a link to the blog post mentioned in the episode: https://home.dotgov.gov/updates/2022/9/14/making-infrastructure-less-invisible/

It's National Podcast Day! Amy talks with Alex about The State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program that came out earlier this month and what states need to know about it. 

Resources:

• Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) (the full NOFO can be found under the "related documents" tab)
• SLCGP Overview
• SLCGP FAQs
• SLCGP Fact Sheet

The NASCIO 2022 Annual Conference in Louisville is right around the corner, and NASCIO's Program and Brand Director, Emily Lane is back to give us the full rundown of programming, the thinking behind branding this year, our giveback recipient (and give back drinks!) and more.

Registration closes October 3, 2022.

Alex and Amy ask the NASCIO staff about their most frequently asked questions (and answers). Today we are talking about everything from how we choose conference speakers, what the average state IT spend is, how to post on our NASCIO community, how many states have cyber insurance and MORE!

Here's the 2017 CLC video on what to expect at a NASCIO Conference that was mentioned in the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1lVGo5ywPM