The Government Huddle with Brian Chidester

Akash Mandavilli, Co-founder of GovEagle joins the show to explore how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the government contracting process. He also shares insights into how AI can accelerate proposal development, improve accuracy, and help organizations navigate the evolving landscape of government acquisitions and he covers trends in AI adoption, strategies for winning contracts, and the balance between automation and relationship-building in procurement. 

Jon Baba, Senior Vice President of the Defense Markets at LMI joins the show to discuss the evolving defense landscape and how technology, strategy, and efficiency are converging to shape the future of national security. We also discuss the new administration's defense priorities, including homeland defense and deterrence in Asia the role of AI and emerging technologies in increasing military efficiency and readiness.

Dan Wolf, former Deputy CIO of the Commonwealth of Virginia and Director of State Programs at the Alliance for Digital Innovation joins the show to unpack the evolving landscape of government modernization at the state and local levels. We also discuss the barriers to cloud adoption, how procurement reform can accelerate modernization, and the impact of accessibility mandates on state digital services and why compliance is driving cloud migration.

Amy Crawford, Director of Market Planning at LexisNexis Risk Solutions to discuss the increasing fraud in government benefits programs and reveal results from the latest True Cost of Fraud™ Study for SNAP Agencies & Integrated Eligibility Systems (IES). We also talk about the need for legacy service delivery modernization & early fraud detection PLUS what state and federal agencies can do today to fight fraud while optimizing efficiency and experience. 

Maxwell Shuftan, Director of Mission Programs at SANS Institute joins the show to discuss the state of the government cybersecurity workforce and methods for recruiting some of the best talent into the public sector. We also discuss training initiatives that can be a game-changing strategy to unlock a hidden workforce and the national security implications that these roles have on our country.

Billy Biggs, President and Chief Revenue Officer at Technomile joins Breaking the Huddle to discuss research that his company just released to quantify the DOGE impact on vendors and some of the biggest challenges he sees for companies that are looking to pursue a public sector business in this environment.

Tom McConnell, Practice Area Director for Business and Digital Transformation at LMI joins Breaking the Huddle to explore how LMI has evolved its role in supporting government agencies by unlocking efficiencies in government processes, enabling agencies to better engage stakeholders and optimize internal operations. We also discuss LMI’s "Magnify" approach—an extensible human-centered design framework—and the organization's forward-thinking vision for the future of government technology.

Joel Krooswyk, Federal Chief Technology Officer at GitLab joins the show to discuss some of his predictions for the Federal government this year including his thoughts on the proliferation of Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs), AI in software development, and the renewed focus that agencies will place on cloud technology. We also discuss his thoughts on compliance as a strategic enabler and why DevSecOps will continue to grow in popularity. 

Lucas McCabe, a Data Science Fellow at LMI joins Breaking the Huddle to uncover fascinating insights into the world of data science, research, and AI safety. We discuss the story behind the naming of LIGER, LMI’s innovative platform, and dives into his groundbreaking work on interdisciplinary data science, including a network science analysis of the opioid epidemic in collaboration with the CDC and SUNY Buffalo.

Courtney Kay-Decker, Deputy Chief Experience Officer at the Internal Revenue Service joins the show to discuss some of the biggest barriers to modernizing the IRS’s digital experience, and how is the organization is working to overcome them. We also talk about how the IRS defines success when it comes to modernizing its digital experiences for citizens and the role personalization plays in the IRS's digital engagement strategy.