Past President's Message
HICTA President's Message - January
I would like to welcome you to the inaugural mailing of the Hawaii Information, Communication, Technology Association - HICTA. HICTA is the combination of the Hawaii Telecommunications Association and the Honolulu Chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals.I would like thank that following people for volunteering to be on the board of directors:
Past President(s) David Lau, Jeff Bloom
President- Matt Darnell
Vice President - Diane Stephens
Secretary - Ed Tavares
Treasurer - Debi Merwick
Board Members:
Art Garbiso, Eran Agmon, Dale Aiello, Donny Shimamoto, Steve Sakata, Ann Nishida-Fry
A lot of work was done by the HICTA board to make this new organization a reality. Please follow us at http://www.hicta.org for the latest information.
January's lunch meeting will focus on Practical Business Analytics by Leon Fedenczuk of Gambit Consulting Ltd.
Gartner has identified one of the top trends in 2013 to be in the area of Big Data and Data Analytics. Companies need to be able to analyze customer and business data more effectively to be able to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Few organizations evaluate the economic potential of information assets with the discipline they demonstrate in managing, deploying and accounting for traditional physical and financial assets. We are fortunate to have an expert in this area as a member of HICTA here in Hawaii.
Leon Fedenczuk is going to present case studies on business analytics based on 20 years of consulting from a variety of industries. He will address issues related to data collection, target definition, integration, pre-processing, different levels of data up-scaling, and analytical procedures. Finally, he will address application development, results of analytical models in decision systems, and ROI.
Presented examples come from marketing, telecommunications, banking, insurance, transportation, chemical, petroleum, retail, and medical industries.
Bio
Leon Fedenczuk holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, M.Sc. in Physics, and B.Sc/Ph.D. in Computer Science. His professional career has included nine years of work in Calgary/Canada developing analytical solutions for the petroleum industry. Since 1991 he is a co-owner of Gambit Consulting Ltd. and has done analytics in Canada, US, and Europe. Leon authored numerous papers and was an invited speaker to many data mining conferences.
For more information or to register check out the January Event Page.
President's Message - December
Also at our November meeting, we held our annual meeting and elected our 2013 Officers and Board Members. As you are aware, we will be closing down AITP Honolulu on December 31st and merging into the Hawaii Information, Communications, and Technology Association (HICTA). More information will be forthcoming shortly. For a preview go to www.hicta.org
The Officers and Board members we elected are needed to wind down AITP Honolulu and handle any financial and legal matters that may arise as we complete the merger and close our corporation.
2013 Officers:
Jeff Bloom, President
Matt Darnell, Vice President
Art Garbiso, Secretary
Debi Merwick, Treasurer
2013 Board Members:
Dale Aiello
Steve Sasaki
Donny Shimamoto
Please join us on December 20th for our annual Xmas Party and Tech Toys luncheon. This will be a joint AITP / HICTA (HTCA) meeting with lots of festivities and gifts.
This year our guest speakers will be Ed Wright and Steve Schutte from Verizon Wireless. Ed and Steve will be introducing their latest smart phones and tablets which will include: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1), Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Windows Phone 8X by HTC, Droid DNA and other devices.
For more information and to register check out December Event page.
Happy Holidays and I hope to see you there!
Jeff Bloom
2012 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - November
In keeping with our continuing support of the UH Information Technology Management Association (ITMA) student chapter, we held an informal Networking Mixer/Pau Hana on Oct 19th at the UH Campus Center. The event was a huge success and we had over 35 professionals in attendance, networking and building relationships with students planning a career in IT.
On November 15th ITMA will be holding their Fall 2012 Professional Interaction Night (PIN) from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm at the Oahu Country Club. PIN provides an opportunity for the IT professional community to interact with ITMA members. This event will be an opportunity to meet potential employees and interns. The experience also benefits ITMA members and provides them a chance to learn about you, your organization, your background, and how you came to be where you are today. The event is free of charge (funding is supplemented by AITP Honolulu and others). Please mark your calendars and go to the ITMA Registration page to sign up.
This month we will host our first annual AITP Hawaiian Open Golf Tournament, Nov 21st, at Hawaii Prince Golf Club! The format will be a 4 man scramble (no handicaps). Registration is open and you can register as an individual or as part of a four member team. Entries should be submitted by Friday November 16th. Event will include a great box lunch, heavy pupus/cocktails after the event, cigars, and prizes! Come join the fun! For more information and to register go to the Event page.
Please also join us on November 29th for our next AITP Honolulu luncheon and Annual Meeting. Our speaker will be Edward (Ed) Wright, Data Engineer, Verizon Wireless. Mr. Wright's topic will be: Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) How to create a Secure Mobility Roadmap and Mobile Device Management Strategy.
Increased penetration of multi-platform smartphones and tablets, and pressure from mobile workers to support BYOD, has been pushing Mobility Programs to the top of the IT priority list. The workforce is largely creating the demand and device choices, rather than the IT department driving this out from the center. While organizations try to satisfy their mobile workers' requirements by acquiring new technologies and products from their IT vendors, it is necessary to put consistency behind these mobility program initiatives and to effectively govern them.
Ed has 22 years in the Telecommunications industry working at BELL Labs, Lucent, and Verizon Wireless. Ed is currently working with business customers to ensure the highest quality on wireless projects, from the user experience to support and compliance needs. For more information and to register check out our November 29th Event page.
Aloha,
Jeff Bloom
2012 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - October
In keeping with our continuing support of the UH ITMA student chapter, we will be holding an informal Networking Mixer/Pau Hana on Oct 19th at the UH Campus Center. The event is free and soft drinks & pupu's will be provided courtesy of AITP. An email with more details and a registration link will be coming soon. Please mark your calendar and we hope to see you there as we continue to reach out and build relationships with students planning a career in IT. See the AITP - UH ITMA Professional Mixer page for more information.
Please join us on October 11th for our next AITP luncheon meeting and workshop. Our speaker will be Donny Shimamoto, CPA. CITP, CGMA, founder and managing director of Intraprise TechKnowlogies LLC. Mr. Shimamoto's lunch topic will be Using the IT Budget as a Strategic Management Tool. He will also be hosting a workshop from 9:30 to 11:30am to discuss A Systematic Approach to IT Budgeting. Donny is a recognized national expert in IT management and international author/speaker on business intelligence initiatives. Donny helps many organizations by bridging accounting and IT to strengthen organizational governance and risk management, improve business processes through IT, and increase the effectiveness of decision-making through business intelligence and evidence-based management. For more information and to register please visit the IT Budgeting - Proactive Management Strategies that you need to know, page.
Aloha,
Jeff Bloom
2012 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - September
As many of you know, there are too many IT organizations in Honolulu vying for our limited time and membership. This has been raised to our Board and I'm happy to say we are listening. Last week we had a Joint board meeting with the HTCA Board (Hawaii Telecommunications Association) to discuss a possible merger. Both boards are in agreement that a potential merger makes sense. We have formed 3 ad hoc committees to review and make recommendations so we can hopefully complete a merger by the end of 2012. Right now we are in the early stages of discovery and I expect to have specific details to report in October (before our annual meeting). If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at president@aitphawaii.org.
Lastly, please join us on September 20th for our next AITP luncheon meeting. Our speaker will be Anthony Giandomenico, Director of Business Solutions and Marketing at Referentia. Mr. Giandomenico will be discussing Security and Risk Management. He is extremely knowledgeable in protecting critical infrastructures such as financial institutions, hospitals, and all government agencies. His experience is expansive covering intrusion detection and firewall technologies, incident response procedures, security and penetration assessments and technology integration. Check out the Security and Risk Management page for more information or to register.
Aloha,
Jeff Bloom
2012 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - May
On April 26th AITP helped coordinate the UH/ITMA "Professional Interaction Night" at Oahu Country Club. Thanks to all our members who attended. We had a diverse group of IT professionals from over 25 public and private organizations attend. The feedback from both the students and professionals was very positive and we will continue to build our relationship with UH students pursuing a career in IT related fields. If you are interested in sponsoring a student at one of our monthly lunches or would like to offer a summer internship for a student, please contact me at president@aitphawaii.org
Lastly, please join us in May for an in-depth workshop and lunch presentation on Storage 101 by Tom Riggins, Senior Systems Engineer with Nimble Storage. Tom will be discussing storage concepts, data structure and how this affects storage operations, types of connectivity, storage tools like snaps and clones as well as tiering and replication concepts. For more information and to register, click "here".
Aloha,
Jeff Bloom
2012 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - April
One point Sonny mentioned was that OIMT will be looking for input from the IT community as his plans are formalized in the next few months. Please stay tuned to AITP and we'll let you know how you can participate. We hope to have Sonny back before the end of the year to give us another update. If you were not able to attend the luncheon, you can find Sonny's presentation here.
This past week your AITP Board approved the establishment of the Univ. of Hawaii's IT Management Association (ITMA) as a new AITP Student Chapter. Let me be the first to welcome the students to AITP. If you are interested in sponsoring a student at one of our monthly lunches or would like to offer a summer internship for a student, please contact me at president@aitphawaii.org
On March 15th we had an AITP/ITMA "networking mixer" at UH. Thanks to all our members who attended. The feedback from both the students and professionals was very positive and we are in the planning stages to make these "networking mixers" a regular event at the beginning of each semester to build our relationship with UH students pursuing a career in IT related fields. Also, please watch for information on the ITMA/AITP "Professional Interaction Night" event coming in early May.
Lastly, please join us on April 19th for an in-depth workshop and lunch presentation: Data Governance for the Executive. Our featured speaker is Jon Deutsch, Vice-President and Global Managing Principal for Financial & Insurance at Information Builders, bringing twenty years of Executive leadership in Product Development, Operations and Marketing in the IT Software and Services industry. For more details and to register go to please click, here.
Aloha,
Jeff Bloom
2012 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - March
This past September OIMT released their "Roadmap for Transforming Information Technology Systems." We look forward to hearing about how the IT transformation is shaping up across the state.
Your AITP Board has also been busy building our relationship with the IT Management Association (ITMA) club at UH. We are in the final stages of establishing ITMA as an AITP Student Chapter. In keeping with the theme of building relationships with IT students, we are planning an informal AITP/ITMA "mixer" on March 15th from 5:45pm to approx. 7:30pm at UH, Saunders Hall, Room 624. Refreshments will be provided at no charge. This is a perfect opportunity to meet some of our future IT professionals. If you would like to attend, please register, "here".
We look forward to seeing you on the 15th and at our monthly luncheon on the 28th.
Aloha,
Jeff Bloom
2012 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - February
This month we have an exciting event planned in lieu of our regularly scheduled luncheon meeting. AITP Honolulu, in cooperation with the Hawaii Telecommunications Association (HTCA) is presenting an all-day conference and luncheon on Tuesday February 7th at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. This year's theme is Technology: A Path to Hawaii's Economic Sustainability. For more information and registration details see link on Upcoming Events. AITP members will receive a special discounted price.
At last month's meeting James Brady, Director of Technical Services at Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, gave us an in-depth look at the current and near term IT projects being worked on at HHSC. For those of you who missed Jim's presentation, you can find it here.
The AITP Honolulu Chapter is working on a mentorship program with the Information Technology Management Association (ITMA) club at UH Shidler School of Business. ITMA has asked if any of our members would be willing to "job shadow" a student for a day so they could get a firsthand look at working in the IT profession in Hawaii. If anyone is interested, please contact me at president@aitphawaii.org
Mahalo,
Jeff Bloom
2012 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - January
For a complete listing of our chapter leaders, please go to http://www.aitphonolulu.org/chapter-leaders If you are interested in serving on a committee, becoming a board member, or have any suggestions on how AITP Honolulu can better serve the IT community, please contact me at jbloom@synergyonline.com
The Board looks forward to making 2012 a great year for IT in Hawaii. Stay tuned for more details.
Aloha,
Jeff Bloom
2012 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - December
Aloha and Thank you for a great 2011,
Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - November
Aloha,
Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - October
Aloha,
Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - September 2011
This month's Event will discuss the competitive landscape in Hawaii with many banks and credit unions vying for a share of your wallet. What role does technology as a strategic tool and lever for efficiency and scale. Join us for this informative session.
Aloha,
Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - August
AITP's August panel will be on Research in Hawaii: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times. Our panelist will be Dr. David Curb from UH Medical School, Dr. Ken Cheung from Oceanit and Keith Matsumoto from Hawaii Technology Development Venture. Jeff Bloom will moderate the panel and we will explore what is working in Hawaii research and the challenges. There are many states that enjoy research clusters built around Internet2, academia and industry (Life Sciences, Healthcare, Defense). AITP and the IT community would like to understand and see research in Hawaii grow in the future and take advantage of our diversity in the sciences; Astronomy, Energy, Ocean Marine, Agriculture, Life Sciences and Defense. Join us for this important and insightful panel in August.
You may follow my service project at http://sccpvd.blogspot.com though I may have
more pictures than words to share.
Aloha,
Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - July
Welcome to July! As we celebrate the 4th and the freedoms we have in America we have the perfect month lined up for AITP members and the IT community. This month we have a handful of events that we are promoting and they are all No-Charge (FREE). Please click on our Upcoming Events tab and check out the IT Management event on July 20th in conjunction with Hawaii Pacific University and three software development events one with Valtech on a free Agile lunch & learn on July 13th and don't forget to sign up for Thirsty Third Thursdays with Henk Rogers and HTDC on July 21. So everyone enjoy your FREEdom July and please plan on attending our Research & Development session in August; R&D "The Best of Times, The Worst of Times" a panel moderated by Jeff Bloom.
Also included in this month's events listing is Valtech's Agile Essential Training which will be heavily discounted to AITP Members. Be sure to check it out!
Aloha,
Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - June
Aloha,
Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - May 2011
Please join us for this workshop to sharpen your knowledge and network with colleagues in our technology community.
Aloha,
Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - April 2011
Aloha, Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - March 2011
I also wanted to point out the launch of our social networking badges on the left side of this page you can link to AITP with Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. I would encourage you to try them out. We would like these social networks to help bring us closer together as an IT community and feel free to ask a question, post a job need or anything you think the AITP community can help you with.
Aloha,
Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - February 2011
Aloha, Thank you to everyone who joined us for our January luncheon with State Comptroller, Bruce Coppa. This month our industry focus is Healthcare and we will be hearing from the Hawaii Health Information Exchange. One of my clients told me that healthcare is the Olympics of IT and I fully agree with this point of view. The criticality, complexity and importance of healthcare pushes and leverages IT unlike any other industry. However, the money and the costs in healthcare are pushing the industry into uncharted territory. I urge our AITP community to attend the AITP February luncheon to learn about what HHIE is doing in Hawaii and the impact across the nation as they strive for a shared agenda in healthcare. Healthcare and the cost will affect all of us including our business and companies and is projected to be one of the toughest challenges in this generation. We look forward to seeing all of you for this important and informative gathering.
Aloha, Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
New President for 2011!
Happy New Year from the AITP Board and new 2011 officers! I will be the 2011 ATIP Honolulu Chapter President and look forward to serving the AITP community along with the board to bring you informative and valuable monthly luncheons, periodic workshops and most important a sense of community with the IT ranks in Hawaii.
Being with IBM, my passion is technology but we have seen the influence of technology reach every part of the business and our daily lives. That said I think IT professionals have a critical need to take time to understand how their role impacts and interfaces with the business.
In 2011, AITP Honolulu will help bring focus to this idea, the Business of IT, by having IT sessions in every major industry throughout the year. We think this strategy will bring the best speakers to you as members versus just focusing on what new thing may be on the table.
Also this year we want to welcome the addition of the AITP University of Hawaii student chapter led by the ITMA club at Shidler College. We are ironing out a few more details but formalizing our connection to the next generation of IT leaders is something we hope each and every one of you will be able to benefit from.
Lastly, I want to ask for your help to give the board and me your feedback on how we can help you and the IT community in Hawaii make steps towards a stronger tomorrow. Catch us at the monthly luncheons or send me an email at ssakata@us.ibm.com
2011 will be an exciting and challenging year as we emerge from the downturn as we continue to experience challenges in government budgets at the County, State and now Federal level with earmarks for 2011 vaporizing. Lets pull together and leverage IT for a stronger Hawaii.
Aloha, Steven Sakata
2011 AITP Honolulu Chapter President
President's Message - December 2010
Wow this year has flown by! Can you believe that we're already in the last month of the year? It has been an interesting year for me as President as I worked with the chapter's Board of Directors to strategically realign our chapter with the greater needs of our Hawaii IT community. This is just the beginning of a lot of changes that you will see more of as we move into 2011.
A large part of the changes has been to increase our outreach and communication with both our Chapter members and the Hawaii IT community at-large. The revival of the Aloha Gram in electronic format, plus the update and relaunching of our chapter web site at: www.aitphonolulu.org were two major initiatives that I wanted to make sure happened this year.
Additionally, thanks to the efforts of several board members, we have renewed our relationship with the University of Hawaii Shidler School of Business, getting back in touch with both their academic program and converting their ITMA (MIS) Club to an AITP Student Chapter. Please join us for the Dec 9 event in which we will be providing "speed mentoring" to the students in a fun and interactive event.
Next year, I will be moving on to AITP's national board as one of the Western District Directors and helping to bring additional programs to all of our chapters and members.
Thank you again for the opportunity to serve, and I look forward to seeing all of you at future AITP events!
Aloha,
Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP
2010 Honolulu Chapter President
2011-2012 Western District Director Elect
President's Message - November 2010
Welcome to the new AITP Honolulu Web site! Sorry that we have been a little disconnected this year, but your 2010 Board of Directors has been working hard to realign our Chapter programs with several AITP national initiatives underway.
The revival of the Aloha Gram was one of our first steps to help keep you informed about what is going on in the IT community both here in Hawaii and around the nation. We're continuing this with the relaunch of the Web site.
Stay tuned as we transform our Chapter into THE association for IT Business Professionals in Hawaii. If you have any questions or concerns about our Chapter or would like to get more involved, please e-mail me at president@aitphawaii.org.
Yours truly,
Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP
2010 Honolulu Chapter President
2011-2012 Western District Director Elect
President's Message - October 2010
It's amazing how quickly the year is passing by, we're already in the 4th quarter and in the home stretch for the year. After well over a year of effort, I am pleased to report that we have successfully started our first NEW STUDENT CHAPTER with the University of Hawaii Shidler College of Business IT Management Association (formerly known as the "MIS Club") agreeing to convert into an AITP Student Chapter.
To help support the students we are planning to hold two events:
- Student & Professional Mixer, December 2, 2010 - get to meet the students and provide some "speed mentoring" on what it is like to be in the IT profession and provide some career advice.
- Golf Tournament, December 8, 2010 - proceeds to fund our chapter's Student Chapter and Academic Support Initiatives.
We are still in the early stages of forming the student chapter and planning the events above, so if you would like to get involved in working with the students, helping to plan activities, or participating in activities (e.g. mentoring, internships, office tours, resume workshops, guest speaker, etc.) with them please let us know.
Aloha,
Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP
2010 Honolulu Chapter President
2011-2012 Western District Director Elect
President's Message - September 2010
Sorry that we have been out-of-touch this year. Your 2010 Board of Directors has been working hard to realign our Chapter programs with several AITP national initiatives underway. The revival of the Aloha Gram is one of our first steps to help keep you informed about what is going on in the IT community both here in Hawaii and around the nation. Stay tuned as we transform our Chapter into THE association for IT Business Professionals in Hawaii.
If you have any questions or concerns about our Chapter or would like to get more involved, please e-mail me at president@aitphawaii.org.
More information to come in future issues...
Yours truly,
Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA.CITP
2010 Honolulu Chapter President