Give Yourself the Gift of Tech Education

The special advance rate for Interop ITX event registration expires December 15. Take time out from holiday shopping to invest in your career.

Susan Fogarty, Editor in Chief

December 5, 2017

5 Min Read
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It's December, and that means the holiday shopping season is in full swing. And although the "the season of giving" is traditionally a time to think of others, when it comes to your career, now is also the time of performance evaluations and goal setting for 2018. So while you're hunting for Hatchimals and deciding whether to spring for the iPhone X, consider giving yourself some career-building technology education.

Lucky for you, here at UBM we have been busy planning the agenda for Interop ITX 2018, taking place April 30 to May 4 in Las Vegas. This year we introduced a new advance rate offering our lowest prices to early registrants. If you plan ahead and sign up by December 15, you can take $600 off the list price of an All Access pass, as well as significant discounts off our other passes. See details here.

Interop ITX is a unique event. In a landscape full of conferences organized by technology providers or very specific organizations, Interop is the only independent event where technology leaders can get a broad view of what's happening across IT and how their peers are managing the rapid pace of change. It’s where they can find trusted education developed by a team of objective practitioners and content professionals (including yours truly) in the core areas they need to stay current and help their businesses thrive.

With tracks on Cloud, Security, DevOps, Data & Analytics, and Infrastructure, the event provides both strategic and actionable advice in the areas IT leaders deal with most. We'll also offer special programs in emerging areas including artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.

Technology, however, is only part of what makes an IT leader successful. Many of our attendees tell us they return to Interop ITX year after year because of the programming the event offers on leadership and careers. In addition to a full conference track on Leadership & Professional Development, we'll host an IT Leadership Summit, along with interactive tutorials on design thinking, innovation, and business alignment.

In order to create that content, Interop works with several track chairs who provide an objective view into the issues the conference program should cover and what is important to attendees. Track chairs have detailed understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and emerging technologies in their specialties and use this to identify the best topics and subject matter experts to teach and present.

As the content director for Interop ITX, as well as InformationWeek, I am excited to welcome our seven track chairs for 2018. These experts represent some of the most respected and brightest minds in the industry, and bring their extensive experience to bear developing Interop's educational content. Our lineup includes:

  • Ben Kepes, Cloud Track: Ben is a technology evangelist, investor, commentator and business adviser. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users. View Ben's articles on InformationWeek here.

  • Karen Lopez, Data & Analytics Track: Karen is a senior project manager with an extensive background in development processes and information management. She specializes in taking practical approaches to systems development, and has helped many IT departments choose appropriate methods and standards based on the department's culture, experience, and focus. She blogs at www.datamodel.com.

  • Jayne Groll, DevOps Track: Jayne is CEO of the DevOps Institute (DOI), with an IT management career spanning 25 years of senior IT management roles across a wide range of industries. Jayne carries many IT credentials, is very active in the DevOps, ITSM, Agile and DevOps communities and is the author of the Agile Service Management Guide. Hear more in this video with Jayne.

  • Jonathan Feldman, Government Track: Jonathan is Chief Information Officer for the City of Asheville, North Carolina, where his penchant for business disruption have helped him to create positive change in government and achieved recognition nationally and internationally for improving services to citizens and reducing expenses through digital practices, cloud computing, and innovations with civic technology.

  • Keith Townsend, Infrastructure Track: Keith is an Enterprise Architect and founder of The CTO Advisor. He has 20 years of experience helping organizations achieve their missions through optimized IT infrastructures. Keith holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computing and a Master's in IT Project Management from DePaul University. Read about his career journey.

  • Katy Tynan, Leadership & Professional Development Track: Katy is the bestselling author of practical guides to career transitions and an internationally recognized expert on how work is evolving. Over her 20-year career in IT and operations consulting, Katy has advised hundreds of organizations on how to find innovative solutions leveraging technology and human capital for competitive advantage. Katy offers career advice to InformationWeek readers here.

  • Sara Peters, Security Track: Sara is Senior Editor at Dark Reading and formerly senior editor for the Computer Security Institute, writing and speaking about virtualization, identity management, cybersecurity law, and a myriad of other topics. She also authored the 2009 CSI Computer Crime and Security Survey and founded the CSI Working Group on Web Security Research Law. View Sara’s security archive at Dark Reading.

You can see that we have enlisted quite a brain trust to help develop content that will be especially valuable to our conference attendees. We'll be announcing many more details as the event approaches, so stay tuned here and visit the Interop ITX website for regular updates. Register today, and then get back to that shopping list!

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About the Author

Susan Fogarty

Editor in Chief

Susan Fogarty has almost two decades of experience writing and developing content for IT professionals, especially those deeply involved in enterprise network infrastructure. She previously worked at TechTarget, where she spent 11 years, six as the Editorial Director of its Networking Media Group, managing seven websites including the flagship SearchNetworking.com. Most recently, Sue was Editor-in-Chief of Dell's publication covering enterprise-class and emerging technologies for midsized business customers. Sue is a self-confessed ice cream addict, clean freak, and dog lover (if you can guess which of these do not mix, you will understand how she spends a lot of her free time).

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