This week, The Buzz presents a session from our 2024 Acquisition Forum, which specifically focused this year on AI in government. Our forum ended with a fireside chat between Susie Rainey, Diplomacy and Exploration Lead at Accenture Federal, and Michael Derrios, Senior Procurement Executive at the US Department of State. Together, they discuss the implications of  artificial intelligence-driven systems in the procurement process. Submit a nomination for the 2024 Innovation Awards here!Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

In just a few short years, the aviation sector has experienced the whipsaw of a pandemic-era travel freeze followed by a post-pandemic travel explosion. Like many other industries, our already complex air travel system has experienced some recent pain points related to labor shortages, technological failures, and governance challenges. Some are new, but others are long-standing concerns that have resurfaced due to the pressures of a rapidly changing world.  This week, we're joined by Robert Puentes, president and CEO at the Eno Center for Transportation, a non-partisan think tank that focuses on improving all facets of American transportation. He'll give us a primer on the interaction of private, federal, state and local actors that make up the aviation sector and how they can build a more resilient air travel system. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

As we've explored on this show before, the past few years have seen an unprecedented level of public and private investment in green energy, green infrastructure, and electrification. Between the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, over $1 Trillion has flowed into the green economy. This reflects the urgency of the climate crisis and the need to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to attempt to avoid worst-case global warming scenarios. Unfortunately, when it comes to physically building all these projects - from wind turbines, to lithium mines, to transmission lines - we are seeing massive, decades-long delays in the permitting and planning process, often as a result of environmental law meant to, ironically, protect us from pollution and ecological harm. In the fight against climate change, every second counts, and we cannot afford these delays. Our guests this week are James Salzman and J.B. Ruhl, environmental law professors at UCLA and Vanderbilt, respectively. They are the authors of The Greens' Dilemma, a framework for understanding how our regulatory regime is inhibiting our capacity to confront climate change, what the stakes are, and what to do about it. Read The Greens' Dilemma: Building Tomorrow's Climate Infrastructure TodaySubscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

This week, The Buzz presents something a little different than usual. ELC 2023, ACT-IAC's flagship conference in Hershey, PA, opened with a rousing, inspirational keynote from Art Jackson about personal leadership. Art Jackson is a professional speaker and coach, West Point graduate, and former IT executive. Learn more about him at https://artjackson.com/. Learn more about the ACT-IAC Associates Program here!Submit a nomination for the 2024 Innovation Awards here!Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

This week, The Buzz presents a session from our December 2023 CX Summit. CX is a key component of the Biden-Harris President's Management Agenda. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act appropriated an additional $79.4 billion to the IRS to assist in modernization and improved service delivery. In this keynote, Commissioner Danny Werfel details the challenges and priorities of the agency as they strive to build a simpler, fairer, more accessible tax system for Americans. Learn more about the ACT-IAC Associates Program here!Submit a nomination for the 2024 Innovation Awards here!Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

In August 2022, Congress passed the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors – or Chips and Science Act. Congratulations to whoever came up with that acronym. The law authorized more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in funding for domestic technology manufacturing and development. It has been recognized as a key piece of the reignition of US industrial policy – which has lain dormant for much of the 21st century. As you can imagine, direct funding of research across the US is a key component of this legislation – so the bill set aside funding for the designation of Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs. The Economic Development Administration is spearheading this program, and now that things are up and running, we can start to dive deeper into the Tech Hubs Program, what it seeks to accomplish, and why it matters. To do this, we're joined by Alejandra Castillo, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. Resources:Tech Hubs OverviewList of AwardeesLearn more about the ACT-IAC Associates Program here!Submit a nomination for the 2024 Innovation Awards here!Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

This week will be the last episode of The Buzz for 2023, and we're taking the time to reflect back on a busy year at ACT-IAC with Dave Wennergren, our CEO.We review the major topics of interest for the federal government, how to deal with a rapidly-changing world, what ACT-IAC has been up to, and what to look forward to next year. Thank you, listeners, for making The Buzz a part of your week in 2023. Have a fantastic holiday season, and we'll see you in 2024.Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

The last time we discussed cryptocurrency on this podcast in April 2022, both the economy and the technology sector were in very different places. Right around that time, inflation really began to accelerate, peaking at 9.1% year-over-year in June. The Federal Reserve pumped the brakes and hiked interest rates 5% in a 4-month period. The entire cryptocurrency market essentially collapsed by the end of 2022 - including several high-profile failures like the FTX exchange. In November, the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT initiated the most visible phase of the generative AI arms race, and crypto faded into the background of public consciousness as a new tech hype cycle took over. But crypto has not disappeared, and the Federal Government has yet to conclusively settle the most important questions concerning cryptocurrency regulation.To discuss what went wrong, why this all matters, and what we should do next, The Buzz is joined once again by Hilary Allen, Professor of Law at American University. You can listen to our first conversation with Hilary here.Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

This year, ACT-IAC's Imagine Nation ELC was our largest conference ever, with more than 1200 in-person attendees! We also had more sessions than ever, and The Buzz is excited to bring a selection of recordings from this year's event to our podcast audience.This session features the presentation of the Federal Acquisition Institute's 2023 Chief Acquisition Officers Council Awards. After a brief introduction, moderator Christine Harada, Senior Advisor in the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, sits down with all our award-winners for a robust panel discussion around the important work they've done in 2023. Awardees:Individual Award - James Greer, AWARE Program Manager, IRSTeam Award - Bonnie Evangelista and the Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace Team, Department of DefenseSmall Business and Procurement Equity Individual Award - Darlene Bullock, Director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Utilization, DHSSmall Business and Procurement Equity Team Award - Anthony Lomelin and TeamIndian Affairs Acquisition Office, Bureau of Indian AffairsLisa Wilusz Program Management Excellence Award - Mouncef Belcaid & Peggy O' Connor and Team, Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network Program Management Division, FirstNet Authority, Department of CommerceSustainable Acquisition Award - Gabriel Rangel, General Services Officer, U.S. Embassy of TanzaniaCongratulations again to all awardees! Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.

This fall, our federal government has teetered on the edge of shutdown more than once before a last-minute agreement could be reached. As of this episode, yet another Continuing Resolution has extended the day of reckoning to either mid-January or early February, depending on the agency. Unfortunately, this is not the first time discord in Congress has disrupted government operations, and it's not likely to be the last. While the process of Congressional appropriations is byzantine and wonky, it has enormous implications for the basic function and effectiveness of government. Shutdowns, even the threat of shutdowns, bring significant negative impacts to the American public, whether they recognize it or not. This week, we're joined by Philip Joyce, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. He'll take us into the weeds of how and why Congressional budgeting works (or rather doesn't work), the effects of shutdowns, and whether we can prevent this kind of instability in the future. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode! For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.Learn more about membership at https://www.actiac.org/join.Donate to ACT-IAC at https://actiac.org/donate.