Digest Newsletter | August 2020 |
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TECNA Board Chair Message |
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Dear TECNA Members,
I would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve as Chairperson of the TECNA Board of Directors. You’ve selected a great group of leaders to serve on the board, and it’s an honor to serve alongside. As someone who’s benefited greatly from the work of TECNA, there are several reasons why I continue to be actively involved:
In 2012, I began leading the KC Tech Council. In many ways, the organization was starting over with a new name (previously KCnext), becoming regionally focused, but had been without a CEO for months. It wasn’t long before I started to think I was in over my head.
Soon after, I received a call from a TECNA board member encouraging me to join an “association of associations.” It didn’t take long to conclude the annual fee was a worthy investment and I was incredibly relieved to know there were other leaders running comparable organizations. Back then, I was a young CEO (29 years old) with a lot to learn.
After attending my first summer conference in Seattle, I left armed with best practices we could immediately start implementing in Kansas City - quickly realizing TECNA’s value was much greater than I had imagined.
Fast forward to today, and some of the KC Tech Council’s most successful programs and events have spawned from the shared best practices of TECNA members, which not only added value to our organization but the entire Kansas City tech community.
During my tenure on the TECNA Board of Directors, I have been directly involved with various strategic planning discussions and implementations. Those experiences have prepared me to lead us through another evolution with Tim Jemal’s recently announced departure as our Executive Director. I want to thank Tim Jemal and Alina Hardy for leading and supporting the work of TECNA for the last five years. Tim’s leadership has strengthened TECNA’s value with key relationships and strategic partners, and he’s leaving us in a strong financial position. I will be appointing a board committee to evaluate our future organizational structure and operating model. We’ll update you on our progress.
TECNA exists to support you, our members. My personal story is just one of many who’ve seen the value of this organization. I look forward to serving you in this role, and if I can help you like so many have helped me, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly.
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Thank you,
Ryan Weber
Chairperson | Technology Councils of North America
President & CEO | KC Tech Council
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TECNA Announces Winners for 2nd-Annual Innovation Awards
Congratulations to the Finalists & Winners!
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We received many nominations for outstanding work completed in 2019.
Award categories included:
- Creative Marketing & Communications
- Talent Pipeline & Workforce
- Major Impact on Tech Community
- Public Policy/Advocacy
- Initial COVID-19 Response (Work completed in 2020)
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TECNA Announces 2020-2021 Board of Directors
Three new Board Members elected representing Oregon, Massachusetts and Georgia join the international board along with four new executive board members.
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Palm Beach Tech celebrated 5 year anniversary on Wednesday, July 29th with a virtual happy hour, supported local non-profits with ticket sales, awards, giveaways, games and networking!
NVTC’s Impact AI Summit focused on the growing use cases and power of the technology - and the challenges that remain to be resolved - read more.
Tech Titans launched a new program for innovators and entrepreneurs throughout the US, with Mark Cuban as one of the judges, learn more about this 5G Grand Challenge online.
TechPoint shares 6 lessons learned from planning their 2020 Mira Awards Gala and pivoting online - read online.
Venn Innovation shares a blog post on how profiling may be important for your business - read here - and and a video on the importance of 'going to work' even when working from home, watch here.
The Arizona Technology Council, in partnership with the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA), announced nominations for the annual Governor’s Celebration of Innovation (GCOI) awards are open now and due Friday, August 7 at 5 p.m. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 GCOI program will be held virtually on Wednesday, November 4.
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TECNA Public Policy Advocacy |
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In partnership with TechNet, TECNA offered its first event in a Virtual Town Hall series featuring elected officials and business leaders across the U.S. and Canada.
The July 14, 2020 event offered a discussion with three Congresswomen with extensive backgrounds in intelligence and military service who understand that placing the national interest over politics will ensure the U.S. remains globally competitive. They discussed the imperative of lawmakers to work together to develop a comprehensive innovation strategy to protect our public health, spur economic recovery, and strengthen national security.
Watch for details about future events.
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Public Policy Committee Meeting
Thursday, August 13, 11:00am PT/ 2:00pm ET
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Communities of Interest Webinars |
TECNA Communities of Interest (COI) are peer-to-peer collaborations and information-sharing groups exclusively for members: membership, events, workforce and communications. |
Membership Community of Interest Zoom
Wednesday, August 5 at 10:00am PT/1:00pm ET
Join us to connect with your peers working in Membership and see a demo of the MetaXC platform that can help track goals for membership, foster member engagement and more.
Events Community of Interest Zoom
Friday, August 21 at 10:00am PT/1:00pm ET.
Informally discussing challenges and best practices in online events.
Requests or ideas for Community of Interest webinar topics, contact the COI Chairs:
Recent past COI call recordings and slide decks are available for download in the members-only portal on the TECNA website. Login at tecna.org/login and click on the Resources tab to view.
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TECNA Launches 401k Program Offering
We are very pleased to announce TECNA has partnered with the 401(k) Tech Collective to offer the TECNA National 401(k) Program. This is a national retirement program built by the WTIA, one of our member associations. This program has been constructed specifically for technology organizations.
This partnership enables you to offer this exclusive program to your own member companies, providing additional value to their membership and helping them attract and retain talent in this competitive time. It also opens the door to a new revenue opportunity for your association.
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TECNA Launches Health Insurance Benefit
TECNA launched a new health insurance benefit for members, as well your members. TECNA is committed to helping member councils provide additional value to you, your staff and your members. Insurance is one area where TECNA may be able to offer immediate savings on items for which you and your members are currently paying. Your council must be a member of TECNA in good standing to qualify for this benefit. Please click here to see an overview of TECNA’s Health Insurance Benefit.
Coming Soon: Member General Liability, Professional Liability (Errors & Omissions) Cyber Liability, Property & Workers Compensation Insurance.
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TechGirlz Partnership Opportunities for TECNA Members |
TECNA and TechGirlz are partnering in 2020 to offer member tech councils the opportunity to host a workshop.
The TechGirlz program works to make learning technology both thrilling and inviting for middle school girls, through their free extra curricular workshops (or TechShopz as their coined them!). From programming to robotics, web/app design, genetics and beyond, there is so much for the TechGirlz to experience. Their vision is to create a world where girls have a lifelong passion and confidence in their use of technology throughout their careers.
TECNA member councils interested in organizing a TechGirlz workshop please contact Alina Hardy, [email protected]. |
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Subscribe to TECNA Event Calendars |
Click a link below and follow the prompts to synchronize with the default calendar on your system (if available). To synchronize with a different calendar, copy and paste the desired URL into your calendar software in the location where feeds are accepted, often identified with "Subscribe", "Add Calendar", etc.
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Join TECNA's community on Slack exclusively for TECNA Member Council staff. Slack Channels include membership, events, talent/workforce, policy and private channel for CEOs. |
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TECNA Members Only
You can group chat, private message, share files and search the discussion archive for help and best practices shared by other members.
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Thank You to TECNA's Strategic Sponsors |
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Keep Us Informed
We are always looking to provide valuable content to TECNA members. If you have any suggestions for content in the TECNA Digest, please email: [email protected]. |
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