On June 7th, Allied held the company’s first ever annual Technology Summit at its headquarters in Crystal City. The theme of the Summit was “Build It Well: When Craftsmanship Meets Technology” and consisted of a series of speakers, workshops, breakout sessions, demonstrations, and social activities that focused on building excitement around technology.
The Technology Summit was conceptualized and organized by Allied’s Chief Information Officer, Trey Webb. “I wanted to design an event that created curiosity and inspiration around a wide scope of technology; to not just dive deep on telecom-related tech but to learn about and experience technologies that can be used in our daily professional and personal lives.”
The day kicked off with a breakfast hosted by Broadsoft/Cisco. Breakout sessions and workshops throughout the day covered topics including introductory programming, embedded programming, fiber optic cabling, Evernote mobile app, Salesforce Lightning, AllCloud Collaboration, Office 365, Microsoft Surface Hub training, and resilient electrical power.
A Women in Technology roundtable discussion facilitated by Allied Provisioning Engineer Martha Jameson was an especially popular session. “The highlight of the day for me was the Women in Technology roundtable,” said Allied Implementation Engineer, Jenna Villaflor. “It was really refreshing to be able to talk about a topic that you’re not often encouraged to discuss in the workplace.”
Another highlight was the keynote speech by CIO Trey Webb which encouraged everyone in the company to apply the concept of craftsmanship to their daily work. “Even when selling a product, you can have craftsmanship,” said Webb. “If you’re the person supporting the product, installing the product, designing the product: you can achieve craftsmanship in every aspect of those roles… It can be hard to take that extra 15 minutes to go above and beyond, but it will pay off in the quality of your work.”
A tech fair during lunch (sponsored by Broadsoft/Cisco) showcased live demos of a Maker Select 3D printer, home automation featuring Alexa by Amazon, and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. The day ended with a happy hour sponsored by Integration Partners.
The day closed with a speech by Allied’s Chief Operating Officer Ron Pyles, who said “The extent to which we stay on top of technology and that we have it embedded in our culture and our thoughts, that’s what will keep us ahead of the curve.”
