BCNET recently held their annual conference in Vancouver (April 30 – May 2), and several Systems staff represented UVic at the three-day event. Senior Leadership team member, Nav Bassi, presented and attended, taking thorough notes via what we may consider an unconventional method: Twitter. We asked him to round up his top tweets from #BCNET2019; he shares some insights and takeaways below.
Keynote: Learning Across the Lifespan
UBC neurologist and physical therapist Dr. Lara Boyd gave an engaging presentation on how learning changes across the lifespan and may differ in children, youth, young and older adults. Watch the full keynote session here.
One size does not fit all: due to variation between brains, different combinations of good things (exercise, sleep, meditation) will help different people. Personalized learning is figuring out what helps us flourish, we need to learn to learn #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) April 30, 2019
If you’re under constant stress your cortisol can stay high all the time, leading to impaired cognitive performance and a number of other negative physical impacts; don’t want it too low or too high #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) April 30, 2019
Threat Hunting: From Platitudes to Practical Application
As a Threat Hunting and Incident Response Specialist, Neil Wyler’s every day is not only making sure his clients’ data is secure, but also to bring awareness of what could affect their systems. More info on this session can be found here.
Situational awareness: need to know what normal looks like on your network (baseline) so anomalies stand out; don’t always start with IOC, ask question: if data was leaving, where is the most likely place? #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) April 30, 2019
What Got Us Here, Won’t Get Us There. Why IT Needs to Engage in Strategic Workforce Planning – NOW!
UBC’s Deputy CIO and a Senior Consultant both provided insight into the early stages of UBC IT’s journey into Strategic Workforce Planning; they shared the drivers and approach to developing a framework and the results thus far. More info on the session and speakers can be found here.
IT organizations with a large number of specialists can be a challenge when technologies are disrupted; @UBC_DCIO talking about the changing role of DBAs when UBC moves ERP to Workday’s cloud-based service #BCNET2019 Onus is on leaders to deploy those folks.
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) April 30, 2019
IT people suck at change because our mandate is to listen to business, put into place, and never let it fail (99.999% uptimes). Our job is to make others successful so we tend to not want to tinker once things are working well. Good points by @UBC_DCIO #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) April 30, 2019
Strategic Workforce Planning touches on the value of our profession, the skills of our people, their sense of worth and the roles they fulfill. @UBC_DCIO says walk with purpose, but tread with care. Thank you both! #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) April 30, 2019
Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch; Vision Eats Culture for Dinner
The SFU IT leadership team shared their journey to implement a vision of One I.S. The goal is for Information Systems will work together in a seamless fashion, and everyone who supports those systems will work together in a seamless fashion. More info on the presentation and panel speakers can be found here.
Culture is important, and it eats strategy for lunch, but when this was coined it was back in the 70s when strategy was boring and culture was more exciting – a lot has changed since 1972 @Mark_Roman #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) April 30, 2019
Agility is required because the commercial market is delivering solutions faster than we can deliver projects. @Jnnacasey @SFU_IT #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) April 30, 2019
Keynote: From EdTech to LearnTech: Seeing Classroom Technologies as Amplifiers for Learning
Will Richardson shared his insights on educational technology vs. learning technology, and how ownership of technology in the classroom may need to be re-framed and moved toward a tool for discovery rather than delivery. Watch the full keynote presentation here.
Education does not equal learning; most of what we learned is forgotten quickly and we do not use it. We do what we need to go to get through it and get the grade. We’re not really learning or retaining much. @willrich45 #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) May 1, 2019
How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Cloud
Consultant Alex Dow shared his experience of learning to love the cloud in an environment not usually keen to the technology. More info on the presentation can be found here.
Most SaaS-based providers are small shops; they use the big providers but the big providers aren’t accountable for what they’re doing or their breaches. This is the biggest challenge we face as most of our client-driven requests are for using ‘small’ SaaS providers #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) May 2, 2019
Cloud is awesome, but only as secure as you make it; you need data classification before moving into it and to think about changing your model of thinking from pets to cattle. #BCNET2019
— Nav Bassi (@navbassi) May 2, 2019
Did you tweet at #BCNET2019? Share your insights in the comments below!
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Nav Bassi is the Director of Academic & Administrative Services for University Systems at the University of Victoria. He was responsible for building a Project Management Office for University Systems. Nav holds a BSc in computer science and an MBA (Service Management) from UVic, as well as a Master’s Certificate in project management and the Project Management Professional (PMP) credential, and is also a Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR). He has taught for the Gustavson MBA Program and the Division of Continuing Studies at UVic. Nav was previously an elected member of the University of Victoria Board of Governors and Senate, and a Presidential Appointee to the University Human Rights Committee. You can follow him on Twitter @navbassi.