2007 Maine Digital Government Summit Review

By Lisa Leahy, OIT

The fifth 2007 Maine Digital Government Summit opened to a packed house and a welcome by Dick Thompson. Attendance was at an all time high with 240 registrants from State government, federal, municipalities and private sector. Vendor participation was also the largest ever giving employees the opportunity to discuss current trends in the market with representatives from IBM, Fair Point Communications, Microsoft, Fortis, ICST, Information Builders, Quest Software, Qwest, Oracle, Sun, Workgroup Technology Partners, Xerox and Xwave.

Neal Peterson, the keynote speaker, received a standing ovation after his moving true life story of overcoming many challenges. PBS regularly airs a popular documentary about his life - "No Barriers, the Story of Neal Petersen", and he wrote the award-winning book, Journey of a Hope Merchant, which attendees lined up to have him sign. South African-born Neal Petersen is an adventurer, author, solo around-the-world racing yachtsman, entrepreneur and international speaker.

Each year, surveys are distributed which rate the Summit experience.

The overall satisfaction of the event was rated “very good” at 87%. Neal Peterson was rated favorably overall with 99% of survey respondents rating him “excellent” 63% or “very good” 33%. All panel sessions were rated either, Excellent, Good or Very Good.

Qualitative comments received:

Panel: Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing

  • Very nice to see and hear a “real world” example
  • State project presentation was excellent

Panel: Bridging the State/Local Divide

  • Needs to be regular dialogue
  • Very good discussion

General Session: Situation Room – Preparedness in Maine

  • Eye-opener
  • Thought-provoking
  • Audience feedback a was nice touch
  • Timely and important topic
  • Really makes you think and then re-think
  • Very informational, I found that speakers were well-versed.

Panel: Strategic Architecture for Maine State Government

  • Very informative
  • Good interaction and discussion
  • Excellent presentation and discussion

Speaker presentation materials can be found at the Government Technology website. Many OIT employees stepped up to the plate to participate on panels; Nancy Armentrout & Victor Chakravarty - Strategic Architecture for Maine State Government

Mike Pomerleau – Identity Management

Mary Silva – Project Management

Tom Driscoll – Bridging the State/Local Divide

Paul Sandlin – Future of the Internet

Mark Kemmerle – Securing Private Information