Google’s Innovation for the Nation Virtual Summit

Known as the country’s record keeper (and my favorite place to bring D.C. visitors) the U.S. National Archives Records Administration (NARA) protects and provides public access to more than 10 billion pages of textual records, maps, photographs, videos and more than 133 terabytes of electronic records. Needless to say, that is a lot of information to manage.

Beginning in December 2012 through April 2013, the National Archives successfully moved its 5,300 email accounts to Google Apps for Government. According to a recent article in GovTech, the main reason the Administration moved to the cloud was “for better uptime and reliability.” Plus, by moving to the cloud, the National Archives are better able to accomodate its employees who want to work from home or travel often. In the increasingly mobile era, job responsibilities may not end at 5PM, so employees want to be able to work anywhere, at any time, and on any device. By moving to Google Apps, employees are able to access their email and documents (via Google Drive) remotely- which makes doing their job easier, increases efficiencies and response time, and improves services to customers.

The move to the cloud is not always smooth sailing, which is why it is helpful to hear from people who have done it already. What did they think about before moving? What kind of training did they have? What are their lessons learned? On November 19, you’ll have your chance by attending Google’s Innovation for the Nation Virtual Summit. Michael Wash, CIO of the National Archives, will be there to discuss NARA’s move to the cloud, which was named one of the top 15 Public Sector IT projects of 2013 by Government Computer News.

Google’s annual Innovation for the Nation event is free and for the first time ever- virtual. Here are a handful of things that you’ll learn without ever leaving your desk chair:

• How to secure your mobile workforce’s data
• How to provide quicker access to mission-critical knowledge
• How to build web apps to automate business processes
• Ways to engage your constituents with interactive web apps

There will also be plenty of discussion on the future of technology and what’s next.

Google’s Innovation for the Nation is from 11am to 5pm on November 19, but you can come and go as you please. It will feature representatives from Google and government thought leaders that have used technology to improve their agency. I encourage you to learn more about the virtual event (GovLoop will be there, too!) and register here. For more info, be sure to check out the video below.