KC Tech Council

In celebration of National Apprenticeship Week, we want to give a special shout out to Caleb McDonald, a software analyst apprentice with Cboe Global Markets, for sharing his insightful contributions and experience during the KANSASWORKS Apprenticeship Summit earlier today. Caleb's experience provided invaluable perspectives, highlighting the importance of apprenticeship programs in our tech community. We continue to appreciate CBOE's commitment to nurturing and fostering tech talent through innovative approaches like the apprenticeship model, contributing to the greater Kansas City tech ecosystem. Kansas Department of Commerce U.S. Department of Labor

Looking for some holiday fun? Grab a spot at Tech The Halls, KCTC's holiday networking party on December 5th. Enjoy food, drinks, wonderful company, and great downtown views hosted and sponsored by Stinson LLP as we celebrate 2024 and look ahead to 2025! The event is free for members, but RSVPs are required at https://lnkd.in/gGb9CWNU.

Congratulations to the Kansas City Area Development Council for another successful Annual Meeting. Of course, we are big fans of growing investment in the region; particularly in tech! And a BIG "thank you" to our friends at Meta for inviting the KC Tech Council team to join your table!

We didn't let the rain stop us from having a great morning at Exec Roundtable | Cybersecurity where we discussed threat variety and ways for companies of all sizes and industries to stay safe. A huge thank you to Moonshot Solutions for hosting, and Zach Hill from H&R Block, Matthew Mangels from Moonshot Solutions, and Michal Whitney from Stinson LLP for providing insightful thoughts on a wide range of threats, opportunities, and solutions. "It's not hard to get started, you just need to take the first step. Assess your risk, and then go from there," said Matthew Mangels.

We were honored to be a part of the Tech Nebraska Summit last week! KCTC President & CEO Kara Lowe took part in a panel discussion on the Trends and Opportunities in Tech Policy: A Conversation with Tech Nebraska and Peer States. "I'm glad to have joined my peers from the tech councils in Iowa and Nebraska to talk about the essential role that legislation plays in catalyzing the growth of the tech industry," said Lowe. "Our four states have an opportunity to create an environment for tech and innovation growth right here in the heartland."

Did you know that you can share tech events and tech jobs through the KC Tech Council? Best of all, there is no cost for KCTC members! If you have tech-related events in the Kansas City region, submit them at https://lnkd.in/grJidJnA so we can help promote them. Our Job Board can also be used to promote open tech positions around KC. Submit your open positions at https://lnkd.in/giR26qm2.

While there has been a slight downward trend in active tech jobs from September to October, Kansas City has approximately more than 1,400 active job openings than this time last year. To dive into the data more, make sure to check out the most recent update in the Tech Checkpoint app sponsored by our good friends at Pomerol Partners! https://lnkd.in/gNNH5f2P

In the latest edition of Landed, we get to know Arista Networks's new Account Manager in Kansas City, Myles Wassenberg. "Arista is an industry leader in client to cloud networking. We are committed to Kansas City and that is one of the primary reasons they brought me on board." Read the full edition at https://lnkd.in/gmzT-7cb.

Congratulations to our friends at Bluebird Fiber! Thank you for including the Tech Council for the grand opening of your new space and we couldn't be more thrilled to see your growth in Kansas City!

We are still on an infosec high following the Heartland CISO Summit! Day 2 highlights included: -Fireside chat between Kara Lowe and Matthew Condon with Bardavon -Shariq Aqil with Hewlett Packard Enterprise discussing cyber recovery and resiliency -Interactive discussion led by Christine Gordon, MA from Cboe Global Markets around regulation, collating risk, and risk tolerance -Romaine Marshall from Polsinelli and Katie Boswell from KPMG leading a discussion around generative AI security challenges and opportunities -Paul Willson with Forvis Mazars US and Justin Rainey from UMB Bank shared thoughts on Third Party/Vendor Security and Risk Management Lastly, the day ended with a discussion led by Michael Hannan of Lightedge on what we can expect going into 2025! We would be remiss if we didn't thank our Presenting Sponsor, Zerto, Lunch Sponsor, Lightedge, and Partner Sponsors, Protiviti, Arista Networks, and Invary!