Washington, DC '07

Join local-government field practitioners, statewide broadband champions, and industry experts in a "bottom-up" discussion about what works — and doesn’t work — in community broadband initiatives and the role of local, state and federal government.

The local communities broadband-wireless market is at an exciting juncture, with more than 300 projects under way in the United States and more coming online daily here and around the world. City, county, and state leaders are embracing operational efficiencies and workforce productivity along with mission-critical public-safety and emergency-response applications as primary drivers to cost justify new broadband-wireless applications and services deployments.

State and local authorities are invited to attend the 15th Digital Cities Convention in Washington, DC, to share best practices on broadband-wireless business models, local-government mobile workforce applications and services, effective implementation strategies and funding mechanisms.

The Digital Cities Convention is an exciting opportunity for local authorities to report on their broadband connectivity initiatives as well as to carry needs and concerns to the nation's capital — voicing a broadband to-do list to Congressional officials and representatives of the federal agencies such as DHS, DOT, USDA, DoED, HUD and the FCC.

Convention Special Features

Panels of 30-plus local-government field practitioners and industry experts highlighting practical lessons learned, including "tag teams" of wireless Internet service providers and their public-sector partners.
Roundtable discussions on leading applications drivers such as public safety, video surveillance, emergency response, local government workforce productivity, traffic congestion charging, machine-to-machine applications.
The 3rd Annual W2i Wireless Communities Best Practices Awards Ceremony showcasing winners from around the world. Participants will have the unique opportunity to interact and share first hand experiences with these local government pioneers.
A Technology Showcase of leading wireless equipment and application vendors, service providers and systems integrators — choose the right technology model for your community!

Pre-Convention Special Features

The Municipal Wireless Networks & Technologies Training Seminar [10 AM – 4 PM, December 10 ] — a day-long session on just about everything you need to know about municipal wireless models, city strategies, technologies, system capabilities, and the applications these networks empower. NetLogix, the leading consulting, engineering and training services firm, provides attendees with hands-on community and solution exercises designed to jumpstart the planning and deployment of a broadband-wireless infrastructure.

The Digital Inclusion Forum Kickoff [10 AM – 5 PM, December 10 — www.DigitalInclusionForum.com ] — a day-long program to inform, educate and facilitate best-practices sharing among state and local-government leaders, industry and institutional stakeholders working to identify and implement sustainable market solutions to bridge the digital divide in North America and expand the usage of information and communication technologies across all segments of the population.

Who Should Attend?

Local and state government leaders, including CIOs, IT executives, elected officials and project champions
Local and state government agency heads, including representatives of public safety, transportation, education, economic development and other members of the mobile workforce
Federal policy makers, Congressmen, staffers and representatives of federal agencies
Members of the broadband-wireless ecosystem including equipment and application vendors, systems integrators and service providers.

Program Committee

$Vivek Kundra was nominated by Mayor Fenty to serve as the Chief Technology Officer for Washington, DC. Most recently Kundra served as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Trade for the Commonwealth of Virginia; he was appointed by Governor Tim Kaine. Prior to joining Governor Kaine’s cabinet, he was the CEO of Creostar, a company focused on cyber security and information warfare. Kundra served as the vice president of marketing for Evincible Software, a technology startup that enabled trusted transactions for the government and the financial sector, which was sold to Exostar. Prior to that, he was the IT director for Arlington, VA, where he was responsible for the government’s strategic technology initiatives. He also served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland, teaching classes on emerging and disruptive technologies. Before joining Arlington he was with SAIC, providing consulting services at the Health and Human Services (HHS). His work focused on growing SAIC\\\'s $1billion business at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Kundra has worked on the World Cities Alliance initiative to advance business and economic development in Arlington, Zurich, Paris, Berlin, and Wales. Within the private sector, he worked with multiple clients to build operations in the United States, Canada, and India. He received his master’s in information technology and his bachelor’s in psychology and biology from the University of Maryland.$ Vivek Kundra
Chief Technology Officer, Washington, D.C.