Oct 30 2020

ReImagine Nation ELC 2020: Lessons Learned from the Shift to Remote Work

The coronavirus pandemic pushed many federal agencies to embrace telework at a much larger scale than they previously had. They had to rapidly ramp up cloud and networking resources and get users comfortable with working remotely. IT leaders say that the transition was surprisingly smooth and that remote work is likely to continue on a large scale in 2021. We spoke virtually with federal IT leaders during the ACT-IAC ReImagine Nation ELC 2020 conference about the lessons they have learned about remote work and the path ahead. 

Check out more of our coverage from ReImagine Nation ELC 2020 here.

Participants

    Krista Kinnard, Director, AI Center of Excellence, General Services Administration

    Lou Charlier, Deputy CIO, Department of Labor

    Anil “Neil” Chaudhry, Director, AI Implementations, AI Center of Excellence, General Services Administration

Video Highlights

  • Federal agencies were able to transition quickly to telework setups, although they had to ensure VPN connections were fast enough for remote workers.
  • Agencies are likely to continue to support large-scale remote work deployments in 2021. 
  • In a post-pandemic world, the federal government will always need the technological capability to rapidly pivot workers from an office environment to a mobile, distributed environment.