Lean into the boring because innovation has never been about flash, it has been about the slow, day-to-day empowerment of frontline users and familiarization of leadership to the tools. In that spirit, we've embraced AI from ground level up. Takeaways:
Day-to-day use cases to familiarize and normalize AI for staff and leadership
Launch internal staff training programs focusing on AI in their personal lives without pushing work aside
Organized an assistance team to help staff and share lessons learned
Brandon Williams, Innovation and Strategy Manager, Eagle County
In a meandering effort to serve in what seems like every chair in public service, Brandon has worked for the Feds in arms control and nonproliferation, both domestic and overseas, as an analyst, inspection team leader and diplomat. Following years of foreign service, Brandon and his wife moved to Colorado, where he joined Lake Dillon Fire-Rescue - a path that led to working at the State's Emergency Operations Center. After deploying social and Google collaborative tools at the State EOC, Brandon joined the Department of Public Health and Environment, where he worked in both communications and "Shadow IT," helping implement Google as an alternative to state-provided systems. When the State went Google, Brandon moved to the Governor's Office of Information Technology to lead the State's Google Team, which he did for 4 years until becoming Colorado's first Digital Transformation Officer. A wild, great ride, but Brandon and his family's hearts never left the mountains, their local communities, his parents, and people and when the chance to head "home" to work technology, operations and mental health/public health issues with Eagle County came along, he ran with it like he stole it and now serves as Eagle County's Data Visualization and Productivity Manager.
Chris Grumbine, Cyber Security Analyst, Eagle County
Chris came to the county government from a background in youth development and organized recreation. After running summer camps in California, Chris became an IT person out of necessity when PtP network hardware that had been installed in 2004 suddenly failed. Being in a remote location with a constrained budget, Chris decided the best course of action was to learn how to "do it all" himself. Fast forward 7 years and one relocation to Colorado, Chris Grumbine is now the Cyber Security Analyst with Eagle County IT.