Upcoming Events

Serve Your Constituents Through Better Cybersecurity

Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 |  1:00—2:00 PM Eastern Time  

In today’s world, cybersecurity is a critical component of effective governance and risk management. Join NACo and Celerium on September 17 at 1 PM ET for an informative webinar tailored for county governments on how they can serve their constituents through better cybersecurity. 

This session will provide an overview of strategies and best practices to enhance your county’s cybersecurity and risk management posture. Learn how to proactively address the unique challenges faced by local government entities, including protecting citizen information and mitigating emerging threats. 

Key discussion points:

• Understand the Landscape: Gain insights into the evolving cybersecurity threats facing county governments and how they impact risk management. 
• Implement Effective Strategies: Discover practical strategies for improving cybersecurity defense tailored to your county’s specific needs. 
• Leverage Resource and Tools: Explore resources and tools designed to streamline your cybersecurity efforts and ensure you have the right support. 

Speakers include: 

• Melinda Miguel, Chief Inspector General, State of Florida, Executive Office of the Governor
• David Clark, CEO & Founder, Allegiant Strategies Group
• Vince Crisler, Chief Strategy Officer at Celerium and former CISO at the White House
• Nate Shiflett, CISO at Celerium and former CISO for the state of Florida

One size doesn’t fit all: Help employees protect their retirement income when it matters most

Wednesday, September 18, 2024 |  1:00 - 2:00 PM ET

When it comes to retirement investments, your employees may need help choosing the right thing at the right time. Join Nationwide and NACo EDGE for this September 18 webinar to learn how you can help savers stay on track for retirement by offering automatic features that deliver in-plan lifetime income.

Can’t wait for the webinar? Learn more at our resource hub at nrsforu.com. You can also enjoy this quick read and watch a 2-minute video in Nationwide's nrsforu.com newsroom to learn more about helping employees be more confident in their retirement planning.

This webinar is brought to you by NACo EDGE, establishing people, purchasing, and performance cost-saving solutions that can be applied to counties nationwide. EDGE is owned by NACo, advised by county leaders and 100% focused on solutions for U.S. Counties. Learn more about NACo EDGE here.

State Funding for County Behavioral Health Crisis Services: Examples and Opportunities

Thursday, September 26, 2024 | 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time 
 

State support can be pivotal for counties pursuing the sustainability and expansion of their local behavioral health crisis services and infrastructures. In this webinar, speakers will explore examples of state-funded initiatives that bolster county-level behavioral health crisis services. This session will share lessons learned from two different counties that have successfully navigated state funding opportunities to enhance their crisis response systems. Participants will gain insights into the potential avenues for securing and utilizing state funds, learn about the challenges and triumphs experienced by county programs, and discover new opportunities to strengthen their local behavioral health services.  

Hosted by the National Association of Counties (NACo) in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts and the MacArthur Foundation, this presentation will offer information and inspiration to support county efforts in addressing behavioral health crises using new or existing services.  

NACo Cyberattack Simulation: Financial Access

Monday, Sept. 30 - Friday, Oct. 4, 2024 | 1:00 - 2:00 PM EDT

Limited Time Only - Available at No-Cost to all Tech Xchange members

Financial transaction systems are prime targets for cyber threats due to the value and sensitivity of the data. This cyber simulation assesses risks and fortifies safeguards within financial access systems. The simulation involves breaches from unauthorized access to financial systems, often obtained through what seem to be legitimate contacts, but in reality, are not. The simulation seeks to foster a comprehensive understanding of the complexities inherent in securing financial access to systems, enabling the development and testing of proactive strategies to mitigate cyber risks effectively. Insights derived from this simulation will empower institutions to fortify their cybersecurity posture, implement stringent controls, bolster incident response capabilities, and proactively defend against evolving cyber threats targeting financial infrastructure.

A Better Path to Priority-Based Budgeting: How Do We Get There and What’s the Payoff?

Tuesday, October 1, 2024 |  2:00—3:00 PM Eastern Time  

Seeking to modernize budgeting, local governments are looking to priority-based budgeting to enable budget decisions that relate directly to their priorities and save money. This session will explore the steps toward priority-based budgeting, obstacles, and payoffs.

After an overview of priority-based budgeting and its benefits, a public sector budgeting expert and a Collier County, Florida, commissioner will explore best practices for implementing this new budgeting approach.

While local governments want the benefits of program- and priority-based budgeting, they often lack the resources to undertake the process. Speakers will discuss how AI modeling technology offers a solution to reduce the program budgeting lift significantly. Attendees will learn how AI modeling can analyze huge data sets to make logical connections and discover patterns in the data to predict programs – including inventory, costs, and scores.

Collier County will share real-world insight into how priority-based budgeting can surface innovations for how programs are funded, resources can be freed up and reallocated, and spending can be optimized to support community priorities.

Upon completion of this session, participants will:

• Recognize the critical steps involved in implementing priority-based budgeting.
• Know how to leverage machine learning and AI to streamline translating existing budget data into actionable program data, mitigating a primary obstacle to enacting priority-based budgeting.
• Understand how to use priority-based budgeting to further the mission of local government while saving money.

Unlock the Power of CJCCs: Responsive Policies Through Community Engagement

October 2, 2024 | 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Active community collaboration is crucial for shaping county operations and policy priorities. Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils (CJCCs) are one approach to ensure that community members are involved in county governance. Many counties form CJCCs to identify systemic challenges and work across stakeholders to guide local policy to improve public safety.

In this webinar, NACo explores how ongoing and consistent community engagement enhances the impact of CJCCs and how these bodies can serve as effective tools for county leaders to actively involve their residents. Learn from real-world examples and discover strategies to create a more responsive and inclusive criminal legal system.

Unlock the Power of Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils is NACo’s series on how counties can develop and leverage CJCCs to more effectively administer and strengthen their criminal legal system. Learn more at NACo’s CJCC Resource Hub.

Pre-Proposal Content Webinar for 2025 NACo Technology Innovation Forum

Monday, Oct. 7, 2024 |  1:00—1:45 PM Eastern Time  

This 45-minute webinar will provide an overview of the process for submitting content for the 2025 Legislative Conference Technology Innovation Forum (formerly CIO Forum). 

NACo Technology Innovation Forum
February 28, 2024
Washington D.C.
 
Proposed Theme:

• Risk Management in a Digital World
• OR Empowering Leaders: Navigating Technology Risks in County Government

• Managing risk in general - strategies including cost benefit analysis of deciding on the level of risk a county is willing/able to accept
• ADA Compliance - Websites, electronic documents, adaptive technologies, regulations, upcoming legislation, etc.
• FOIA/Public Records - Records retention, response timeliness and completeness, redaction, compliance, etc.
• Investigations - Employee primarily, policy allowing review of content created by personnel, access to personal drives and email accounts, network and web activity, etc.
• Resilience – How to respond to technology crises (cyber and other)
• Reputation - Managing organizational image and communications in times of crisis
• Human Resources – the human factor in technology risk management
• Insurance – Cyber Insurance
• Contractual Terms and conditions – general legal technology, cyber clauses
• Federal and state obligations - HIPAA, CJIS and Technology
• IoT risk – best practices around managing the risk of various devices (cameras, HVAC, etc)

AI in County Government: Today's Impact and Tomorrow's Potential

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 |  1:00—2:00 PM Eastern Time  

Join us for a 1-hour roundtable discussion where county leaders discuss the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in county government services – both now and tomorrow. Our speakers will cover strategies to overcome barriers to entry, share real county use cases, and explore the challenges of integrating AI. We'll also highlight emerging technologies and how county governments can start building a strong foundational understanding of AI before planning future investments.

Key takeaways:

• Learn about the barriers to implementing AI and hear how counties have overcome obstacles.
• Discover AI use cases that are enhancing county service delivery and the challenges faced along the way.
• Get insights into emerging technologies and how to take the next steps to exploring how AI can impact your county.

Think Outside the Box: Coal Communities Embracing New Roles to Spark Economic Development

Thursday, October 10, 2024 | 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET

Coal-impacted counties are taking on new roles to promote economic development in their communities. Join the BRECC National Network this September to learn how counties are stepping into innovative sectors and pursuing unique projects to diversify their local economy. This learning session will spotlight inspiring projects on engaging community members, growing industry clusters, and addressing housing challenges. 

Stage CARES (Community Abatement Resources & Economic Solutions): Patent-Pending, Evidence-Based Too

Thursday, October 17, 2024 | 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
 

Join us for a [NACo Sponsored] webinar to spotlight Stage CARES – Community Abatement Resources Economic Solutions. CARES is designed to help counties and states effectively solve their opioid epidemic through innovative, evidence-based tools and strategies.

This session will share insights from national and local leaders.

• Discover how CARES patent-pending technology provides data-driven recommendations along with program cost estimates from Stage Analytics’ Co-founders and Principals, Dr. Caleb Alexander, and Dr. Bill Padula.
• Learn  how to develop evidence-based plans and budgets for your county’s opioid abatement strategy.
• Gain practical knowledge from local leaders on how CARES enables efficient collaboration and coordination among stakeholders.
• Explore the platform’s capabilities in collecting, measuring, and visualizing real-time, compliant data to meet settlement requirements.

This webinar offers a unique opportunity to see firsthand how Stage CARES can empower your community with the tools and insights needed to solve your opioid epidemic. Don’t miss out—reserve your spot today!

NACo Cyberattack Simulation: Cloud Security

Monday, Dec. 2 - Friday, Dec. 6, 2024 | 1:00 - 2:00 PM EDT

Limited Time Only - Available at No-Cost to all Tech Xchange members

Cloud computing has become integral to modern business and government operations, offering scalability, flexibility, and efficiency. However, the adoption of cloud services introduces new cybersecurity challenges and vulnerabilities, especially in the current growth of artificial intelligence. This simulation aims to enhance comprehension of the multifaceted challenges in securing cloud environments, facilitating the development and testing of proactive strategies to mitigate cloud security risks effectively. Insights derived from this simulation will empower organizations to fortify their cloud security posture, implement best practices, enhance incident response capabilities, and proactively defend against evolving cyber threats targeting cloud infrastructures. Ultimately, this simulation contributes to strengthening the resilience of organizations in safeguarding critical data, applications, and operations hosted in cloud environments, fostering trust and reliability in leveraging the benefits of cloud computing securely within the ever-evolving cyber landscape.

Q4 Tech Xchange Focus Group: How is your AI growth going? (Now that you have the AI toolkit)

Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024 |  1:00 - 2:00 PM Eastern Time  

Join us to unpack how you have leveraged tools, like the NACo AI toolkit, to introduce AI projects into county operations. Our discussion will move beyond the AI hype and into real-life AI projects that are making a difference. The successes and challenges (obstacles overcome) of those projects will be highlighted, with a balance between increased productivity and risk. Participants please come prepared to share your lessons learned, Discussion will cover both a) how your county views AI, strategically and b) what AI operational enhancements are either planned or implemented?