BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Western Regional Innovation & Technology Alliance - ECPv6.17.3.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.writa.us X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Western Regional Innovation & Technology Alliance REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Phoenix BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:MST DTSTART:20250101T000000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Phoenix:20260901T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Phoenix:20260903T170000 DTSTAMP:20260831T145718Z CREATED:20260623T213733Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260831T145718Z UID:4119-1788249600-1788454800@www.writa.us SUMMARY:2026 WRITA Fall Summit DESCRIPTION:Join Your Colleagues in Salt Lake City!After the incredible success of our inaugural WRITA Fall Summit in Lake Tahoe\, we’re excited to invite you to join us for the 2nd Annual WRITA Fall Summit\, taking place September 1-3\, 2026\, in beautiful Salt Lake City\, Utah.Dates & LocationSeptember 1 – 3\, 2026Little America Hotel\, Salt Lake City\, UT \n\n\n\nRegister Now!Last year’s Summit brought together technology leaders from across the Western region for meaningful conversations\, practical learning\, and valuable peer connections. Attendees left with new ideas\, new relationships\, and actionable strategies they could immediately bring back to their organizations.This year\, we’re building on that momentum with an expanded program focused on collaboration\, innovation\, and leadership. Register\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n WRITA Fall Summit\n \n \n At-a-Glance Schedule\n \n \n September 1–3 · Salt Lake City\, Utah\n \n \n \n \n \n Tuesday\, September 1\n \n \n \n 8:00am – 2:00pm\n \n \n \n Executive Strategy Session\n \n \n \n \n \n 2:30pm – 4:30pm\n \n \n \n \n \n Berké Brown – WRITA Vision and Values Session\n \n \n \n \n Description\n \n \n The people who keep our systems running are also the people who shape our culture. WRITA is a community of human beings building something together across state lines.\n \n \n In this interactive Values & Vision Workshop\, we step back from the day-to-day to name who we are: the vision we’re building toward\, the values that hold us together\, and the shared language that carries them into every agency\, every team\, and every room. It’s a working session where the full membership shapes WRITA’s identity out loud and leaves with a common language to carry it forward.\n \n \n Human-centered leadership begins with one simple question: who are we\, together? Let’s answer it—as one WRITA.\n \n \n \n \n Berké Brown\n Location: Arizona (First Floor)\n \n \n \n \n \n 4:30pm – 4:45pm\n \n \n \n BREAK\n \n \n \n \n \n 4:45pm – 5:30pm\n \n \n \n Board Meeting\n Location: Wasatch (Second Floor)\n \n \n \n \n \n 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm\n \n \n \n Chairman’s Reception Appetizers & Drinks\n Location: East Terrace\, Uintah & Sawtooth (Second Floor)\n \n \n \n \n \n \n Wednesday\, September 2\n \n \n \n 7:30 am – 9:00 am\n \n \n \n Registration & Breakfast\n Location: Arizona & Idaho\n \n \n \n \n \n 9:00 am – 10:30 am\n \n \n \n Keynote Address #1 – Dr. Alan Shark\n \n Non-Artificial Technology Leadership – Where Humans Still Count\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n \n 10:30 am – 10:45 am\n \n \n \n BREAK\n \n \n \n \n \n 10:45 am – 11:45 am\n \n \n \n \n \n Before the Clock Strikes 25: Thwarting Frontier AI and Autonomous Insider Threats in Government Infrastructure\n \n \n \n \n Description\n \n \n Before the Clock Strikes 25: Thwarting Frontier AI and Autonomous Insider Threats in Government Infrastructure\n \n \n Key Takeaways\n \n \n \n Decode the 25-Minute Attack Window: Understand the exact architecture of an AI-driven attack chain and how threat actors weaponize compromised internal LLMs to map infrastructure and locate sensitive data stores.\n \n \n Re-evaluate Zero Trust for Autonomous Agents: Learn how to adapt identity access management models to defend against synthetic/deepfake employee profiles and rogue or exploited autonomous AI agents.\n \n \n Implement “AI by Design” Practices: Gain a practical roadmap for mapping and auditing data pathways in public sector applications\, ensuring sensitive state data cannot be poisoned\, leaked\, or exfiltrated through unauthorized AI interactions.\n \n \n \n \n Speaker Info\n \n \n Fadi Fadhil\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n Fadi Fadhil\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n \n 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm\n \n \n \n Lunch\n \n \n Location: Arizona\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n 1:15 pm – 2:15 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n Reliable Communications for Government: From Copper to Cloud\n \n \n \n \n Description\n \n \n Reliable Communications for Government: From Copper to Cloud\n \n \n Key Takeaways\n \n \n \n How to skip a formal RFP using cooperative contracts like OMNIA Partners and Sourcewell\, and how to confirm your agency is eligible.\n \n \n A supplier-neutral framework for evaluating communications options on reliability\, redundancy\, simple administration\, and adoption.\n \n \n How to build connectivity redundancy with SD-WAN and options like Starlink\, even where fiber does not reach.\n \n \n A phased adoption model (Crawl\, Walk\, Run) with real municipal examples across public works\, permitting\, community services\, and public safety.\n \n \n For agencies on Microsoft Teams\, how to add voice without upgrading licensing or taking on the burden of native Teams Phone.\n \n \n \n \n Speaker Info\n \n \n Eric Fritts • Ellie Becker\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n Eric Fritts • Ellie Becker\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n \n 2:15 pm – 2:30 pm\n \n \n \n BREAK\n \n \n \n \n \n 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n Goodbye Silos\, Hello Service: Resident 360 Transformation Journey\n \n \n \n \n Description\n \n \n Goodbye Silos\, Hello Service: Resident 360 Transformation Journey\n \n \n Key Takeaways\n \n \n \n How Resident 360 and Business Owner 360 strategies can improve Citizen experience while leveraging existing government investments.\n \n \n How personas and life events can become the organizing framework for digital government modernization.\n \n \n Lessons learned in governance\, stakeholder alignment\, and cross-agency collaboration.\n \n \n How records intelligence\, digital trust\, AI governance\, and identity orchestration support future-ready government services.\n \n \n \n \n Speaker Info\n \n \n Ed Therriault • Duane Oertell\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n Ed Therriault • Duane Oertell\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n \n 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm\n \n \n \n Special Dinner A Unique Evening Out at Salt Lake City\n Location: Sunday’s Best\, 505 S Gale St. Salt Lake City\, UT 84101\n \n \n \n \n \n \n Thursday\, September 3\n \n \n \n 7:30 am – 8:30 am\n \n \n \n Breakfast Keynote – Barry Condrey\n \n 25 Years of Digital Government – How Technology\, Policy and Public Service Evolved\, and What Comes Next\n Location: Foyer A\n \n \n \n \n \n 8:30 am – 9:30 am\n \n \n \n \n \n Bots\, Bureaucrats\, and Bad Guys: How One Agency Used Identity Security to Outsmart AI Powered Attacks\n \n \n \n \n Description\n \n \n Bots\, Bureaucrats\, and Bad Guys: How One Agency Used Identity Security to Outsmart AI Powered Attacks\n \n \n Key Takeaways\n \n \n \n The Perimeter Has Shifted: Modern threat actors are bypassing traditional network firewalls\, making identities\, roles\, and access paths the primary target for cyberattacks.\n \n \n Foundational Human Governance is Critical: Tightening core lifecycle workflows specifically joiner\, mover\, and leaver (JML) processes is the essential first step to minimizing the attack surface.\n \n \n Automation Drives Measurable Risk Reduction: By adopting an identity-first approach to clean up over-permissioned access and automate access reviews\, agencies can prove tangible reductions in security risks.\n \n \n Non-Human Identities (NHIs) are the Next Frontier: With bots\, service accounts\, and AI agents now drastically outnumbering human users\, securing machine identities is no longer optional it is a critical security mandate.\n \n \n Unified Governance via an Agentic Fabric: Implementing an Agentic Fabric allows organizations to discover\, govern\, and continuously right-size access for both human and non-human identities within a unified framework.\n \n \n \n \n Speaker Info\n \n \n Tony Gerberick\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n Tony Gerberick\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n \n 9:30 am – 9:45am\n \n \n \n BREAK\n \n \n \n\n \n 9:45 am – 10:45 am\n \n \n \n \n \n Spoiler Alert: Your AI Strategy Starts with a Phone Call\n \n \n \n \n Description\n \n \n Spoiler Alert: Your AI Strategy Starts with a Phone Call\n \n \n Key Takeaways\n \n \n \n A practical decision framework for identifying where AI should be applied first in local government based on operational need\, not vendor capability lists.\n \n \n Why communications is consistently the highest-ROI entry point for AI adoption in local government\, connecting resident access\, staff efficiency\, and service delivery in one initiative.\n \n \n A live demo of an AI virtual agent handling a real government use case showing exactly what residents experience and what it took to build and deploy it.\n \n \n How to move the elevators\, alarms\, and emergency phones still running on copper onto a compliant modern POTS replacement\, the way the county did.\n \n \n How to evaluate AI tools against public sector constraints: budget cycles\, compliance requirements\, procurement pathways\, and limited IT staff capacity.\n \n \n \n \n Speaker Info\n \n \n Kasey Nelson • Greg Joy\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n Kasey Nelson • Greg Joy\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n \n 10:45 am – 11:30 am\n \n \n \n Members ONLY Wrap-up Meeting\n Location: Ballroom A\n \n \n \n \n \n 11:30am\n \n \n \n Hotel Checkout\n \n \n \n \n \n \n Blueprint-inspired\, page-safe embed · Click session titles for details URL:https://www.writa.us/event/2026-writa-fall-summit/ LOCATION:Little America Hotel – Salt Lake City\, 500 South Main Street\, Salt Lake City\, Utah\, 84101\, United States END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR