Overview

January 27
11AM PT, 2PM ET

Register

State and local government IT leaders face a growing disconnect: Public expectations for always-on digital services continue to rise, even as budgets shrink, legacy systems age and staffing remain constrained.

Too often, technology investments are judged by cost alone without fully accounting for downtime, staff burnout, service disruptions and the long-term impact on public trust.

Increasingly, agencies are turning to AI-powered operations and automation to close this gap. By improving incident response, reducing system outages and giving IT teams greater visibility across complex environments, AI and AIOps platforms are helping governments move from reactive "firefighting" to more resilient, cost-effective operations.

But how do leaders quantify the value of these investments? And what metrics resonate with budget offices, auditors and elected officials?

In this one-hour Government Technology webinar, sponsored by PagerDuty, public sector and industry experts will explore how state and local governments can use AI-driven operational tools to deliver measurable ROI while improving service reliability for residents, students and employees.

Attendees will learn:

  • Why traditional ROI models often fall short for government IT — and how to adapt them
  • How downtime, slow incident response and manual processes quietly drain budgets
  • Where AI and AIOps are already delivering measurable value in government operations
  • What metrics matter most when justifying investments to oversight bodies

Speakers

Heath Newburn headshot

Heath Newburn

Global Field CTO, PagerDuty

Heath Newburn is PagerDuty’s Global Field CTO. Heath has a long history in technology, coming from the labs at IBM and has been in software development, QA, product management, support, and operations. He was a technical lead in operations on the Iridium satellite program at Motorola. Heath was the product manager for IBM Tivoli Monitoring, ran the Netcool product management team, and was the NA Sales CTO for IBM’s Cloud and Smarter Infrastructure. Heath has four adult sons and lives in Georgetown, TX with his wife and spends his time outside of tech making and finding great BBQ.

Dave Fletcher headshot

Dave Fletcher

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

Dave Fletcher served as Chief Technology Officer of the State of Utah for 17 years. Dave oversaw the State’s digital government initiatives and coordinated the introduction of emerging technologies, as well as the state’s technical architecture program. David has a long history of involvement with technology initiatives, having previously served as director of the state’s Division of Information Technology, Deputy CIO over egovernment, and Deputy Director of the Utah Department of Administrative Services.

Sean McSpaden headshot

Sean McSpaden — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

Sean McSpaden is an executive level information technology professional with over 30 years of experience in the private, non-profit, and public sectors. His background includes the start-up and management of several small businesses and he has served on the Board of Directors or in Executive Director positions for several 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations. Sean’s public service experience includes progressively responsible positions as an IT analyst, and in statewide coordination, management and leadership positions within the Executive and Legislative branches of Oregon state government.