UC Berkeley’s One IT Community Gathers for Annual Summit

By Rita Rosenthal. Members of the One IT community at UC Berkeley gathered Tuesday, July 18, for the annual IT Summit. This year’s theme was Lead From Where You Are, with tracks focused on strategies and tactics related to the Reimagining IT Strategic Plan.

The summit also offered lots of opportunities for IT staff to engage with campus IT leadership, network, share their work, and learn about new technology. Now in its fourth year, the summit was hosted by the Haas School of Business and brought together more than 300 campus IT professionals. The One IT community includes anyone who works in an IT-related field or plays a supporting role within an IT unit on campus. A highlight of the day was having Carol Christ, Berkeley’s new chancellor, deliver the keynote address.

Larry Conrad, associate vice chancellor for Information Technology and chief information officer, addressed the crowd: “The impetus for starting the summit three years ago, and more generally the One IT movement, was to bring us together, to help build community, and to offer opportunities to learn from and leverage one another’s skills and expertise,” he said. “The Summit is a way for us all to better understand who is doing what, what works, and what doesn’t.” Participants were encouraged to connect with colleagues, compare notes, share ideas, and learn something new from each other.

Conrad closed his remarks by discussing the recent launch of the proposed Reimagining IT Strategic Plan, built from the bottom up over the past year. The strategic plan Design Team then walked participants through the strategic plan website and talked about how the plan was developed and next steps.

Chancellor Christ rounded out the morning program with an inspirational keynote, commenting, “I think we have extraordinary IT at Berkeley, and I want to thank you for all the work you do individually and also thank you for the work you do together.”

Three program tracks were available in the afternoon and an Exhibit Hall featured IT staffed poster displays and demos with event sponsors on hand to answer questions. Post summit learning opportunities were available July 19 –`20 for the community to tap professional development in management skills and Agile principles and practices.

Summer Scanlan, CalNet coordinator, summed up her experiences from the day, “One IT is a chance to see all these people I work with and collaborate with all the time but never actually get to see in person. Today I saw so many different people and we talked about so many different projects that we are going to work on together – that is what the IT Summit was for me – making connections.” Other participants echoed Summer’s comments, confirming that One IT is working at UC Berkeley!

Rita Rosenthal is Communications & Outreach Manager, UC Berkeley.

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