IGHS57 - Want Better Data Management? Watch This InfoCon2024 Recap Now

Jim Merrifield (00:00.892)
Well hello and welcome to the InfoGov Hot Seat. I'm your host Jim Merrifield and with me today is Mike Salvarezza. Welcome Mike.

Mike Salvarezza (00:08.046)
Hey, Jim, thank you. Thanks for inviting me and everyone, whoever's watching this. Great to see you virtually, even though I can't see you, but great to have everyone here.

Jim Merrifield (00:18.834)
Yeah, for sure. It's always great to have a conversation with you, Mike. I know you wear many hats, but most recently, I know you've been working with ARMA down in Houston on a number of initiatives, but most recently, I know we connected down at Infocon 2024 down in Houston, and you had plenty of conversations. I know you participated in a keynote panel, also interviewing the keynote speakers after day one and day two.

I wanted to get your take on some key takeaways from the event in general.

Mike Salvarezza (00:55.598)
So that's a great question, because there's so much going on there. I think that the experience of being on stage with the keynotes was really inspiring, because they all had a very interesting perspective on things. Phil played as the opening keynote. He was the astronomer that talked about data governance and the work that he does. He's a really eloquent speaker, and he's a very passionate astronomer.

that the topic that we asked him to speak on was something that was outside of his comfort zone a little bit. And he thanked us afterwards. He said he really thanked us for bringing him not only to the conference, but sort of challenging him to think about that aspect of his work, which is the data governance of the information that they use to do all their science. And I just really enjoyed having that conversation with him. But the takeaways

I think if you look at the conference as a whole, there are clearly some themes that everyone is grappling with, right? Everyone is talking about artificial intelligence, right? And they should be. I think artificial intelligence is a transformative technology. It is something that's going to affect so many businesses, organizations, jobs, processes, and information governance and records management is

is included in that set of things that are going to be affected. And I think what seemed to come out of the sessions that I saw on artificial intelligence was that while it is perhaps seen as a bit of a holy grail or an easy button, press the AI button and all your worries are going to go away, that's really not the case.

But it is going to be able to solve some of our long-standing challenges in this field. So I think there's great optimism there. There's a lot of, as you might expect with anything that's new, a lot of concern over governance and how do we implement this and where is this technology going? So a key takeaway for me on the AI front is it's here, it's here to stay. And this community, the IG community is extremely

Mike Salvarezza (03:23.118)
is extremely well poised to benefit from it. The other thing is Microsoft continues to dominate as a platform, not just as an office productivity platform, but here we're talking about a compliance and governance platform for data and information. And while that is the case and so many people are using or adopting Microsoft, O365 or Purview, whatever the tools are, there's

there's still struggles in terms of better understanding those tools and those capabilities, implementing them, figuring out how to actually extract the value from those platforms. So there were a number of sessions that talked about that, and I think they're on target. I think that Microsoft is the dominant player, will be the dominant force, but perhaps a message that might go back to them is, you know, we need to do a better job of educating.

on how to use it because it's like your phone, right? There's a million functions on that phone and you use 10 % of them. It's the same thing with Microsoft. There's so many capabilities there and I think we need to get people to embrace all of it more effectively. So that's another one. I think that topically there are themes like that and they were evident in Houston.

Jim Merrifield (04:30.32)
Thank

Mike Salvarezza (04:50.082)
But I think one of the things, if you don't mind me rambling on here, Jim, I think what is starting to emerge from not just Infocon, although it was on display at Infocon, is the expanding influence of ARMA and where ARMA is going as an association. I would say...

Jim Merrifield (04:56.53)
No, go ahead. Go ahead.

Mike Salvarezza (05:18.476)
that ARMA International and the association as it stands today is not ARMA from five years ago. And it's not what ARMA is going to be five years from now. So, you know, the fact that we had ILTA in Houston, the fact that we have added a new conference to the schedule, InfoNext, the fact that we are working more closely with the federal government.

The fact that we are forging alliances internationally with RIMPA and other like-minded associations. And the fact that ARMA is leading the way on these things is positioning ARMA as a significantly power, potentially a significantly powerful voice in the world of IG and records management. And I think that was on display in Houston.

Jim Merrifield (06:12.018)
Yeah, I think you're exactly right. I mean, there's so many events now, not only events, but there's a lot of buzz. There's been, I know I've had tons of conversations since the event, all really positive. Where's the next conference? When can I connect again? Everybody's looking forward to the next few that we'll talk about in a couple of minutes. But I wanted to talk about, I think it's interesting around Microsoft, what you mentioned.

Because you're right. I mean Microsoft who doesn't use Microsoft these days you either use Microsoft for Google right and most corporations use Microsoft and a lot of organizations law firms corporations There's with artificial intelligence. There's a decision to be made do you fall do you go down the path where you start? subscribing to a few different AI technologies like GPT-4 or You know some other platform

while you wait for Copilot to be, I guess you could say mature. But with Copilot, where Microsoft has an advantage over all these other AI tools is that it's already integrated into Office, right? It's integrated into the way we work. But I think you hit the nail on the head there where Microsoft or maybe us as practitioners in general need to educate ourselves around how to utilize Purview.

and how to deploy Copilot in a safe way. There's all these readiness assessments that consultancies are offering out there. So, and again, ARMA, as you said, is leading the charge there. We have a partnership with Cadence, right? Cadence Solution is doing all kinds of Microsoft training. Copilot readiness assessments, there's online training, there's purview training, there's compliance center training. So,

Again, I think there's this is an exciting time and and I agree with you I think ARMA from 10 years ago is very different today and it will be very different five years from now gaining a lots of momentum. So again looking ahead into 2025 we have right at the get-go a few events that I know you're a big part of especially with the planning and the first event is actually in February around the federal government.

Jim Merrifield (08:36.306)
there's a federal government seminar. Would you like to talk a little bit about what that seminar is? What's the reasoning behind it? Where it is?

Mike Salvarezza (08:44.94)
Yeah. Yeah. And I would say that seminar really underplays it, undervalues it. The title of the event is the Federal Government IG Summit. And the intention here is to bring together as many IG thought leaders and practitioners from across the agencies in the federal government, all of the departments of the federal government, to come together for a day to talk about the very real challenges

that the federal government has with regards to information governance. The federal government is really in a digital transformation process that, you know, many, maybe some other organizations are a little bit further down the road. But if you think of an agency like NARA, for example, National Archives, you know, up until recently, their intake was paper.

That's what they were managing. That's what they were storing. That's what they were preserving. And they've completely gone digital now. Their mandate is that they will not accept paper. They will only take digital input. But think for a moment what that means to the National Archives. They are tasked with preserving the records of this country forever. Right? You want to look at their retention schedule, it's forever.

And in paper form, that's one problem. But in the digital world, now that you're getting, you know, terabytes and petabytes of data coming at them and trying to discern what needs to be saved and preserved and the problem of moving those files forward as technology changes, you know, is PDF going to be a thing 100 years from now?

So those are very real concerns and NARA has put very specific requirements out to the rest of the agencies and all of those agencies are struggling with, you know, how to actually do this. All of the things that the private sector companies struggle with, the government is struggling with that as well. So we've designed an event. It's February 27th. It is in Virginia at the

Mike Salvarezza (11:10.38)
headquarters of a company called Carahsoft. Carahsoft is I guess best described as a government procurement broker, but they also deal with software and technology and that kind of stuff. It's gonna be at their headquarters. It's gonna be a full day event. We're gonna have a keynote speaker. We're gonna have eight different sessions. We're gonna have round tables and panel discussions. And really the intention is to start to get

more uniformity, more community, you know, helping that group really solve the problems that they're struggling with. So that's that one single day, but it's the first of what is envisioned to be a whole series of federal government efforts. And I'll just say one last thing, Jim. know, we've, ARMA has formed a council of federal government

thought leaders to help drive this. So we have people from the Department of the Interior or the DOJ, OMB, NARA. And recently that group has been involved in providing input to both the Democrat and Republican side of the House, the House Oversight Committee on a bill that is being introduced to strengthen the

the mandate for better information governance. So if we're sitting at the table with the federal government and helping shape legislation, that's a huge thing for all of us.

Jim Merrifield (12:57.808)
Yeah, doesn't get any better than that. know, especially, you know, everybody follows suit with the federal government, both in the private sector, public sector. So I can't wait to hear some takeaways from from that event. I know it'll be I know it's the first of many. But again, there's there's a lot on the docket there. You certainly wet our appetite for that, that event. So I guess if you're down in Virginia or you're working in the federal government, you better be at that summit, not seminar. You better be at that summit.

Mike Salvarezza (13:27.31)
You gotta be there. So it's gonna be a must attend event, I think.

Jim Merrifield (13:31.92)
Yeah, awesome. So shortly thereafter, I know you'll be at Legal Week in New York. And I know you have a few sessions there that you've curated and put together. You want to talk about those sessions as well?

Mike Salvarezza (13:45.954)
Yeah. So Legal Week is, you know, an organ, it's a conference run by an organization that is not ARMA. However, ARMA has partnered with ALM to curate these three sessions. They typically occur as sort of a pre-conference track of sessions that happens on the, you know, day zero of the conference, if you will. And yes, we have curated three sessions.

And so why did we do that? Well, ARMA has been partnering with ALM to provide this content. And this is another example of where ARMA is showing up in places where it is able to extend its reach, reach new audiences, reach new suppliers, and really expand its influence. But it's not just about being there, it's about what are we talking about?

We're talking about information governance, if you ever attend legal week, there's an awful lot of e-discovery technology there and there's an awful lot of legal, pure legal stuff, contract management, that kind of stuff. But if you go around and you talk to people and you ask them what's information governance, they kind of look at you and say, I'm not sure I know what that is. So our mission is to help elevate their aptitude.

around what information governance is, what proper governance looks like. And from a legal perspective, they should have absolute deep interest in that. So the sessions that we're producing will help with that mission. One of the sessions is about the of the relationship between compliance and governance and legal and IT.

And I think conversations like that at Legal Week are very important

Jim Merrifield (15:48.326)
Yeah, no, for sure. mean, so that, yeah, I will say too, we had a similar conversation, I think at ILTA over the summer. And, you know, I told you I was in a room full of CIOs and one of the hot topics was around information governance and they were just looking for direction, you know, where to start. Is there a model? And I said, yeah, by the way, there is a model it's called the IGIM. It's under Creative Commons. It's free on the ARMA website. So a lot of times to your point, it's just spreading the

the ARMA brand around because we are the leading information management, information governance association. But again, we can't expect everybody to just know who ARMA is or what information governance is or how you can kind of jumpstart your programs. We have to kind of get the word out. yeah, partnering with ALM is huge as well. So now let's talk about the big event.

right, our own InfoNext event in the spring. I know that's in the end of April in Savannah, Georgia. And I know Mike, that's an event that is near and dear to your heart. So tell us what we should expect in Savannah.

Mike Salvarezza (17:05.164)
Wow. I mean, that is an event that is near and dear to my heart because if you're watching and you don't know, but you're familiar with the MER conference from years ago, the MER conference has become Infonext. So that long heritage of excellence that could characterize MER really has been brought over to Infonext and elevated to even higher levels.

Info Next in Savannah is all about thought leadership and strategic planning. You know, the overarching strategy, if you will, that ARMA is pursuing here is that at Info Next in the spring, we talk about strategy, where technology is going, where IG is going, what should we be planning for, how should we...

What should we be anticipating and how should we be developing our strategies to really implement IG in the proper way that's going to actually work? And then InfoCon in the fall is taking those strategies and designing solutions. How do we implement those strategies? How do we bring those strategies to life? So as we go to Savannah, we're really focused on the strategy. The theme

that we're running with this year is maturing your IG program. And that might sound a little trite. It might sound a little less strategic than it really is, but it really is strategic. A lot of us, a lot of companies, a lot of us are implementing IG, but we know we have a ways to go. We know we have problems to solve. So how do we, how do we,

make these programs truly mature. One of the other things that we're doing is all of the sessions are being curated to not only meet that theme and of course address the strategic imperative that the whole conference is about, but we're tying those talks to that IGIM that you talked about, Jim, the information governance model. Because if the information governance model doesn't connect to the content of a session,

Mike Salvarezza (19:28.236)
then we might have to ask ourselves, why are we running that session? So we're not trying to force fit those sessions. We're not trying to force fit the model. It's not an academic, know, gymnastics, we're not going to contort ourselves to fit that model. But the model actually works. The model really does work. So it's really driving how we're curating some of the content. What you'll see there will be sessions

of course on artificial intelligence, of course on Microsoft, but it'll go deeper into things like cybersecurity and data privacy updates. And what do we expect in the world of privacy? There'll be a session on disaster planning and how do you, know, and data readiness and data resiliency. So there are topics there that I think are interesting for anybody involved in an IG role.

and many others, of course. The agenda is still being formulated, Jim, so I just revealed a few secrets. But they'll be more announced in the coming weeks, but that's a little peek inside. And if nothing else, you'll be right on the banks of the Savannah River. that area, if you've never been to that area, is a fascinating area. It's so rich in history and

It's got such a character to it that you can't help but have a great time while you're there

Jim Merrifield (21:04.594)
Yeah, I'm looking forward to being there. I've never been to Savannah, so definitely looking forward to. I don't think I've actually even been to Georgia. hate to admit I've never been to Atlanta or Georgia, so it'll be a first. But I like that theme, maturing your IG program. I'm sure, I know the maturity model, there was just an announcement at Infocon about filling out our sixth annual maturity model survey.

and it says the survey will be, the results will be released in the spring. So maybe they'll get released at Infonext. I don't know. I'm not gonna do any spoilers here, but it does say they're gonna be released in the spring. And just so happens that the theme is maturing your IG program. So who knows, right? Maybe the individuals at Infonext will have a first crack at some conversations around the results. I don't know.

Mike Salvarezza (21:59.948)
Well, a little bit of inside baseball, Jim. Yes, we've talked exactly about that.

Jim Merrifield (22:04.782)
Okay, I had no idea, honestly, full disclosure, but you you put the pieces together, you know, you see, you see the releases and you actually read your emails, which many of us do not read our emails, but because, listen, we do get a lot of emails these days. But no, definitely, I think that that conference is going to be once again, I think last year was my, first time I never went to an MER conference, but went to an InfoNext conference last year and the experience was amazing. Can't wait to

to see you in Savannah. I'm sure I'll see you before then, but see you in Savannah. Well, Mike, listen, I know we talked about a lot here. We could keep talking. I think we say that every time we have this conversation on the hot seat. at some point, all good things must come to somewhat of an end at some point. So like a TBD.

Mike Salvarezza (22:52.099)
No, no.

There's no end. Let's just move on to the next chapter.

Jim Merrifield (23:00.146)
That's right, we continue the conversation. But before I let you go, is there anything else you'd like to share with the audience on this episode?

Mike Salvarezza (23:02.442)
you

Mike Salvarezza (23:09.026)
Yeah, know, the only thing I'm going to go back to your first question about takeaways from Houston, from Infocon. And I'm going to go back to the discussion from Phil Plait, the astronomer.

not because I'm enamored with space as much as I am, but he talked about something that I think we can all of get into our minds a bit when we're thinking about the value of our jobs and the value of what we contribute to our organizations and how broad a mandate we really do have. He talked about

spacecraft that are out in interstellar space. The Voyager 1 spacecraft is 15 billion miles from the Earth. It was launched 50 years ago. And we were talking on stage about managing and governing and using that data. And so I think there's a real connection that what we do, it extends from our phones in our pockets.

to spacecrafts that are 15 billion miles away and everything in between. And that's what IG is about these days. And that's what's exciting.

Jim Merrifield (24:26.78)
Yeah, it is exciting. I remember that point from his keynote. was definitely very different than past years, but so insightful. mean, how could you not listen to someone who studies space on a every day? I mean, it's just, it's one of those things that everybody says it's like a mystery, right? What happens up there? But he definitely gave us a glimpse and there's lot of between information governance and

and spacecraft and what they're doing at NASA. again, Mike, thanks so much for joining us today on the hot seat. Thank you for your time. To our audience, if you'd like to be a guest on the InfoGov hot seat, all you got to do is submit your information through our website, infogovhotseat.com. And thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your day.