The Municipal Association of SC and its technology partner, VC3, will offer Tech Talks throughout the 2025 Annual Meeting — quick, 15-minute sessions about critical information for municipalities.
Here are some of the sessions to be covered. The full meeting agenda is on the Association’s website. and on the Municipal Association of SC app, which can be downloaded through the App Store or Google Play.
AI Applications in Local Government: Empowering Public Safety, Transportation, Urban Planning and Resident Services
Municipal officials may use AI tools like CoPilot and ChatGPT to increase efficiency and get answers to difficult questions. This presentation will look at broader AI applications that are starting to positively impact municipalities. By showcasing examples of cities and towns using AI to improve various public services, it will give a sense of today’s cutting edge, and what may come to municipalities in the near future.
Advanced AI Tips for ChatGPT, Word, Excel and Outlook
Many users are still learning and experimenting with the basic features of AI tools. This session will offer advanced AI tips for ChatGPT and Microsoft CoPilot, providing new ideas about how to use these powerful tools.
A Guide to Municipal IT Budget Planning
It’s important for cities to create a detailed IT budget to help uncover inefficiencies, save money and better execute goals. This presentation will cover the components of an IT budget, tips on presenting IT budgets to council and budgeting examples.
Disaster Recovery Checklist and Best Practices for Municipalities
A disaster recovery plan for IT, be it for a ransomware attack or natural disaster, goes far beyond just data backup. Recovered data isn’t very helpful when it looks like a pile of random stuff needing to be pieced back together. This session will share IT disaster scenarios and a nine-point disaster recovery checklist.
Is Your Municipality Compliant with CJIS’s Updated MFA Security Policy?
In 2024, the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services mandated multi-factor authentication, or MFA, on all systems that can access Criminal Justice Information, or CJI, data. That means MFA must be deployed on all devices that can access CJI data regardless of location, including mobile devices, physical workstations, and remote access. This presentation will explain why it’s important to address this mandate as soon as possible.
Why Municipalities Need a .gov Domain and Professional Email Provider
A need for professionalism is very important when residents deal with government. For many, the .gov email address, which has become expected and standard for government, and should be part of a professional email domain that lends a municipality a stamp of legitimacy. Also, decisions on where to store email data can affect email delivery, records retention, and compliance. This presentation will look at each email issue separately and offer some ways to resolve them.
The End of Windows 10 Support: What’s Happening, Why It’s Important and What to Do Next
Think of Windows 10 like having a 10-year-old car — and after October 14, 2025, no mechanic or car technician can provide maintenance or repairs on it anymore. It’s only a matter of time before the car wears down, introduces significant safety risks, and one day just stops working. This presentation will cover of the severe problems of using Windows 10 past its expiration date.
Still Relying on Antivirus? It’s No Longer Enough
Antivirus software used to be as common as locking the front door, serving as the primary defense for anyone looking to protect their IT network against cyber threats. Today, cyber intruders can often bypass traditional antivirus protections with disturbing ease. Learn why antivirus cannot keep up with today’s threats, why endpoint detection and response, or EDR, is now the current baseline standard in cybersecurity, and why many cyber insurance providers categorize EDR as a must-have for policy qualification.