XGI Preview: Stimulus Frames Conversation As XChange Government Integrator Kicks Off

There's never a dull moment where public-sector IT is concerned, but this year is one of the most exciting in recent memory, as a new presidential administration and a massive economic stimulus effort -- the $787.2 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- promises a number of IT opportunities for solution providers looking to broaden their public-sector reach.

Right at the heart of the action is XChange Government Integrator, which kicks off this Wednesday in Washington, D.C., and will welcome vendors, analysts and more than 100 solution providers to the Gaylord National Hotel.

Whether those stimulus opportunities will be as fruitful as rumored is a matter of debate, and as Channelweb.com has continued to analyze ARRA and the VAR-specific implications of stimulus since the act's February 2009 passage, a great many schools of thought have emerged on the subject.

Don't expect that heated discussion to die down at all in the next few months, either; the "stimulus scramble," as one solution provider recently described it, is getting hotter by the minute.

XChange Government Integrator will add plenty of fuel to the fire, starting with a kick-off keynote Wednesday from Andrew Bartels, Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst. Bartels will provide a rundown of IT opportunities specific to ARRA, as well as offer a review and outlook for tech vendors and IT solution providers in the public sector, including what to expect in 2010 and beyond.

Also stay tuned later Wednesday evening for a presentation by Jill Aitoro -- a senior reporter at Government Executive magazine and Nextgov.com, as well as a former Channelweb.com editor -- on both the excitement and the realities of the Obama administration's push for an "open and transparent government."

Thursday morning the action shifts to the SLED side, where Assistant Managing Editor Chad Berndtson leads a panel of state and local government speakers as part of a long-running XGI tradition. Joining him for the morning will be Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, CIO of New York state; Liza Lowery Massey, of the Center for Digital Government and a former CIO of Los Angeles and San Francisco; and Eric Swanson, Director of the Center for Shared Solutions at the Michigan Department of Technology. What's on their minds? What's keeping them up at night from an IT perspective and how can solution providers help? From stimulus to social networking, you'll find out.

Among the usual XChange slate of boardroom appointments and a vendor pavilion, XGI will also present world premieres from Hewlett-Packard and IBM, both of whom will speak about new initiatives for their partner communities in the public sector.

And on Thursday night, Everything Channel will honor solution providers and vendors across 11 categories at the 2009 Government Integrator Awards Dinner, sponsored by Oracle and Samsung. The end of the awards ceremony will bring "the big one" -- the 2009 pick for Vendor Public Sector Channel Executive of the Year.

On Friday, the last day of the conference, XGI will join Everything Channel Editorial Director and Senior Vice President Robert DeMarzo for a frank discussion of public-sector spending priorities with leading channel executives from vendor public-sector arms and government solution providers alike.

Concurrent sessions focused on education and health care will then offer solution provider-to-solution-provider insight on each of those hot, yet challenging public-sector verticals, and then finally, joining the event will be leading analysts from government IT researcher Input to offer some closing perspective.

It's going to be an action-packed event -- it's an XChange conference, after all -- so stay tuned for daily updates, coverage, slide shows, Tweets and video interviews all week long.

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