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Category: 
Online > Event Coverage > Mid Atlantic

Title of entry: 
FedScoop's Coverage of the 2024 ACT-IAC Imagine Nation ELC Conference

Issue or Publication date:
October 29, 2024; November 5, 2024; November 12, 2024; December 11, 2024

Publication name: 
FedScoop

View Website home page:
fedscoop.com

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
Please enter a URL that will direct judges to the entry: 
https://fedscoop.com/federal-it-officials-ai-executive-order-one-year-later/
Additional URLs, if needed:
https://fedscoop.com/gsa-chief-advocates-for-simplified-cloud-buying-best-value-contracting-as-congress-considers-legislation/
https://fedscoop.com/federal-data-management-career-path-needs-improvement-cdo-council-vice-chair-says/
https://fedscoop.com/radio/administrator-robin-carnahan-sat-down-with-the-daily-scoop-to-discuss-progress-gsa-has-made-over-the-last-few-years-whats-ahead-and-how-the-agency-has-fared-in-its-charge-to-make-the-damn-websites/
https://fedscoop.com/radio/sonny-westcott-cisa-isd-chief-meteorologist-discusses-the-growing-impacts-of-extreme-weather-on-critical-infrastructure-the-role-of-ai-in-forecasting-and-sustainable-solutions-for-resilience/

Entry Essay: 
Each October, the FedScoop editorial staff sets out for Hershey, Pennsylvania, to do comprehensive coverage of the premier industry conference in the federal technology space: ACT-IAC’s Imagine Nation ELC. While there’s plenty of Hershey Kisses and other candy in the company’s namesake homesite, the conference is an unparalleled, offsite opportunity for leaders in the space to build community, share best practices and often break some news.

With that in mind, over the course of two days and nights, team FedScoop embeds itself among the federal IT officials who converge on Hershey to report, source build, engage and, in some cases, drive the conversations happening during the conference.

This past fall, FedScoop produced close to 10 stories and pieces of journalism in covering and participating in the conference. From interviewing the administrator of the General Services Administration, as well as the agency’s CIO, and other top federal tech officials for the publication’s podcast to conducting on-the-ground coverage of panels and sideline interviews, FedScoop left Hershey with a robust array of stories that met the needs of readers who didn’t make it. On top of that, the stories also extended the tail of the event for those who did attend, by giving them new insights they might not have experienced due to conflicting schedules and promoting the conversations that occurred online in an accessible and shareable format, like a podcast.

In particular, this year’s Imagine Nation ELC came as the federal tech industry faced two major disruptive forces: the ongoing roller coaster-like adoption of artificial intelligence by federal agencies and the impending uncertainty of a presidential administration change. In particular, FedScoop’s story analyzing the impact of the AI executive order — which coincidentally was signed by President Biden the year prior while the team was at the same conference — one year later was one of the top stories to come out of the team’s coverage.