Economic Issues To Highlight Government XChange

That familiar catch phrase from the 1992 presidential election may well frame discussion at Everything Channel's Government Integrator '08 XChange conference in Washington, D.C. May 7-9.

More than 120 solution providers focused on the public sector market together with IT vendors active in the government and education markets will convene at the Gaylord National Hotel for the fourth annual Government Integrator XChange.

And for many in the public sector market, 2008 marks a perfect storm of uncertainty. This election year marks the first time in four years that the country will switch presidents in the midst of a war. Michael Fox, senior vice president and director, marketing and sales at SRA International, a Fairfax, Va. solution provider specializing in strategic consulting services to the federal government, predicts a short-term boom in government IT spending. "Agencies will be in a hurry to spend their IT budgets prior to the transition to the new administration," he said.

Solution providers, he said, would be wise to take advantage of the short-term boom, because as the new administration takes over, he predicts IT spending to slow considerably during the transition of power.

And then there is the ongoing war in Iraq. Solution providers remain concerned that the war is siphoning billions of dollars that will crimp spending across all government programs, including IT.

"The problem you've got in an election year is that people are more frozen than they have been in the past," noted Ron Rittenmeyer, chairman and CEO of EDS, Plano, Tex. "There is a lot of money being diverted to the war effort. Government is okay. We are closing deals but I think it's an area where we don't know what 2009 is going to bring."

At Government Integrator XChange a panel of solution providers will discuss the economic and political climate in a general session panel War, Recession and Politics: What does it mean for the public sector?

In another general session, Michael Humke, Hewlett-Packard Vice President, Public Sector, Solution partners Organization will talk about how solution providers can prosper in the lagging economy by focusing on consolidation and virtualization. And Bob Sampson, IBM's general manager, global public sector will show solution providers how IBM can help them go after the $1.5 trillion global public sector market.

Keynoting the event will be Commander Kirk Lippold, USN (ret.) who commanded the USS Cole when it came under a suicide terrorist attack by al Qaeda in the port of Aden, Yemen. Commander Lippold is currently the president of Base to Peak, LCC, a consulting firm specializing in training, crisis management and long-range strategic planning.

The event will be capped by the GovernmentVAR awards ceremony that will reward solution providers and vendors who have demonstrated excellence in the public sector market during the past year.