Overview

August 9

Find out how Project THOR — a collaboration between the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments (NWCCOG) and multiple Colorado counties — is bringing accessible, affordable and reliable broadband internet to rural communities in the state. The project connects more than 400 miles of existing public and commercial fiber to bring service to underserved areas.

On Aug. 9, Government Technology will host a live webcast where officials from NWCCOG and experts Ciena will explain how 14 communities are collaborating to strengthen middle-mile infrastructure which supports cost-competitive broadband service for local governments, schools, healthcare, public safety and the public. This session will cover:

Lessons learned and best practices for building broadband networks
Insights on tapping into grants and other funding mechanisms for broadband projects
Strategies for sustaining broadband networks long term

Speakers

Bob Woolley — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

Bob was the chief technical architect for the state of Utah’s Department of Technology Services, including the development of the state’s Utah.gov portal. Utah has been widely recognized in these areas with numerous national awards. He has also been a technical lead and RFP writer for the WSCA/NASPO Cloud and Data Communication Procurements. He has experience with state, county and higher education employee skill assessments and technology upgrade implementations, including large-scale database migrations from RDMS to NoSQL platforms. He has extensive private-sector experience with Microservices Architecture implementation and DevOps using hybrid cloud deployment patterns.

Daniele Loffreda

Senior Advisor, State/Local Government and Education (SLED) and Healthcare, Ciena Solutions Development

Daniele Loffreda is Senior Advisor, State/Local Government and Education (SLED) and Healthcare in Ciena’s Solutions Development organization. In this role he leads Ciena’s initiatives applying next generation networking technologies to help these sectors deliver higher quality experiences to their constituents through disruptive technologies, optimized cloud strategies, virtualized infrastructure and improved data security. Daniele has more than 25 years of experience helping customers leverage Information, Communications and Technology solutions provide greater value, streamline their operations and generate higher returns on network investments. In addition to his current role at Ciena, Daniele has worked in pioneering roles at AT&T, Sprint and Fujitsu. He has presented at numerous industry conferences, and published articles and posts on next generation network connectivity as a critical foundation of enterprise transformation.

Nate Walowitz

Regional Broadband Program Director, Northewest Colorado Council of Governments

Nate Walowitz is an innovative telecommunications and technology program executive and serves as the Regional Broadband Program Director for the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments (NWCCOG). http://nwccog.org/programs/broadband/ Since 2014, his technical advisory services to local governments has led to the deployment of broadband to unserved areas and bringing over $37M in state matching grant funds to NW Colorado community broadband projects. Most recently, NWCCOG was previously awarded a $1M matching grant to build out Project THOR, an open access, resilient middle mile network across 10 counties in NW Colorado. This funding been supplemented by an additional $5.5m in state grant funding to continue to the extension and interconnection of two existing publicly owned open access middle mile transport network for benefit of many Colorado communities across rural NW Colorado. Prior to NWCCOG, Mr. Walowitz spent years consulting to industry and governments providing innovation business solutions in IT, wireless deployment, terrestrial networks and applications, including developing public safety communications solutions and standards. He started his career in telecommunications with world-class corporations including Avant-Garde Computing, Southwestern Bell, and Wildfire Communications. When not working in broadband Mr. Walowitz serves his community as a Captain with Evergreen Fire Rescue, and a member of the Jefferson County Type 3 Incident Management Team.

Jon Stavney

Executive Director, Northwest Colorado Council of Governments

Jon Stavney is the Executive Director of Northwest Colorado Council of Governments, a regional agency providing services across 10 counties with 31 member counties and municipalities within a 6 county region. Jon’s prior experience as a Town Manager, County Commissioner and Mayor combined with his years of experience as a construction superintendent and project manager give hime a unique perspective in advising leaders, and managing a diverse, dynamic regional organization.

Webinar

Hear How Communities are Collaborating to Connect Rural Colorado