1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:05,160 Speaker 1: The idea that five GS wireless. I mean, once you 2 00:00:05,200 --> 00:00:08,200 Speaker 1: get your connectivity to the access point, it's effectively a 3 00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:11,719 Speaker 1: wireless solution, which means that we can deploy and you know, 4 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:15,200 Speaker 1: we can expand and contract rapidly using things that are 5 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:18,799 Speaker 1: completely wireless. We've had Emmy premiers and other things in 6 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:23,520 Speaker 1: which five G was the backbone for listeners tuning in 7 00:00:23,560 --> 00:00:26,840 Speaker 1: for the first time. Welcome to the restless Ones. I'm 8 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland, and if you joined us for season one, 9 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 1: then welcome back. I couldn't be more excited to kick 10 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:37,680 Speaker 1: off another great season. I've spent more than a decade 11 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: really learning about technology, what makes it tick, and then 12 00:00:41,960 --> 00:00:45,640 Speaker 1: describing and explaining that to my audience. But it's the 13 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 1: conversations with the world's most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at 14 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:54,640 Speaker 1: the intersection of technology and business, that fascinate me the most. 15 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: In partnership with T Mobile for Business, I explore further 16 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: the unique set of challenges that CEE, I O S, 17 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: and c T O space in setting their organizations up 18 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:08,399 Speaker 1: for success. From advancements in cloud and edge computing, software 19 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: as a service, Internet of things, and of course five G. 20 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:15,240 Speaker 1: We are often left wondering how the leading minds in 21 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:19,560 Speaker 1: business continue to thrive in a world of complex organizations 22 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:23,520 Speaker 1: and ever changing technology, and what are they looking forward 23 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:30,280 Speaker 1: to tackling next. Let's find out. Our guest today is 24 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:33,440 Speaker 1: Ted Ross, the Chief Information Officer of the City of 25 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:37,520 Speaker 1: Los Angeles, California. Ted's early career was in the private sector, 26 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: but since then he has dedicated his attention and efforts 27 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: working at the city government level. That means he oversees 28 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: projects that serve not only the more than forty city departments, 29 00:01:49,160 --> 00:01:52,960 Speaker 1: but also the businesses and residents of Los Angeles itself. 30 00:01:53,640 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 1: Working in the government sector comes with its own set 31 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: of unique challenges, but much of Ted's work translates to 32 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: all industries, public or private. How do you identify which 33 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: technologies have the most promised to deliver value? How do 34 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:11,080 Speaker 1: you get buy in from various stakeholders? How do you 35 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:15,480 Speaker 1: juggle ongoing projects while also looking toward the future. These 36 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:20,000 Speaker 1: challenges are universal, and Ted's approach is one I find compelling. 37 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 1: I'll leave it to him to elaborate. Ted, I want 38 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:26,400 Speaker 1: to thank you so much for joining us today. I 39 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:30,280 Speaker 1: greatly appreciate your time. Welcome to the restless ones, excellent. 40 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:32,960 Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Great to be here. And before 41 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 1: we dive into your leadership philosophy and how you tackle 42 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,919 Speaker 1: problems in your role as ce IO of the City 43 00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, I thought we'd take some time to 44 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:46,520 Speaker 1: learn a little more about you. So can you talk 45 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:49,200 Speaker 1: at first about what drew you to the world of 46 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 1: technology in general. My dad was an aerospace engineer and 47 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:58,079 Speaker 1: he worked for Aerospace Corporation. So I remember us having 48 00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:00,680 Speaker 1: a time ex. Sinclair Ty one thousand at the house. 49 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:03,920 Speaker 1: You type in a game, you couldn't save it because 50 00:03:03,919 --> 00:03:06,120 Speaker 1: I had no internal storage. Then once the TV was 51 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 1: turned off, you'd have to turn it back on and 52 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: type the programs back in. Then fast forward to a commodore, 53 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,480 Speaker 1: fast forward to Apple two plus and two e and 54 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:16,799 Speaker 1: to C and move your way to an IBM two 55 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:19,800 Speaker 1: eighty six, where v GA graphics were fantastic. So I've 56 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 1: always been around technology. So what was your first job. 57 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: I was a telemarketer for a political office. Telemarketing is 58 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:30,560 Speaker 1: a tough job, and trying to sell people super tough. 59 00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:32,919 Speaker 1: It's a little bit easier if you're trying to sell 60 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:36,279 Speaker 1: a candidate, but it was a Michael wu for Secretary 61 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:39,520 Speaker 1: of state campaign, and I remember it helped to improve 62 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 1: my speaking ability, but it was grueling. In just a 63 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: three or four hour shift, you'd always walk away with 64 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:48,600 Speaker 1: a huge headache. I imagine that those communications skills are 65 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:52,800 Speaker 1: are one of those cornerstone skill sets you have in 66 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: your role as c i O. At the time, I 67 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: couldn't have appreciated it, But now, all these years later, 68 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: I'm very glad that I was always put through a 69 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:05,240 Speaker 1: trial by fire, whether it was giving system training classes 70 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: or whether it was just cold calling people and try 71 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:09,920 Speaker 1: to get them to either vote for a candidate or 72 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,040 Speaker 1: donate to the campaign. It really does improve your ability 73 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:16,920 Speaker 1: to get a point across, especially something as complicated as technology. 74 00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:20,920 Speaker 1: So what led you to become part of the team 75 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:23,680 Speaker 1: at the City of Los Angeles? How did you join 76 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: that group? I believe in mission driven work, and I 77 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:30,440 Speaker 1: made a decision after nine and levene to work for government, 78 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: and I ended up at the City of Los Angeles. 79 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 1: I really I'm born and raised in l A. I'm 80 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:36,920 Speaker 1: a Homer, I'm a Lakers fan, I'm a Dodgers fan. 81 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:40,440 Speaker 1: I fall right down the obvious, you know, stereotypes, but 82 00:04:40,520 --> 00:04:42,560 Speaker 1: the realities I really do like the idea that when 83 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:45,080 Speaker 1: I come to work um for all of its challenges, 84 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: I'm trying to improve technology for the people of Los Angeles. 85 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:52,040 Speaker 1: I do find that motivating. What was your career path then, 86 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 1: what what was your sort of entry level position with 87 00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:57,240 Speaker 1: the city, and and how did it lead to the 88 00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: point where you are today. My very first job was 89 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:03,160 Speaker 1: actually working out of the Department of Airports, so working 90 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: at l a X, which was super cool because my 91 00:05:05,560 --> 00:05:08,240 Speaker 1: dad worked at Aerospace Corporation for twenty five years and 92 00:05:08,279 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: they're both effectively in El Segundo, so it's nice to 93 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: kind of spend time work in a place that my 94 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:14,840 Speaker 1: dad has been all his years. But my entry level 95 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 1: job was actually accountant, and so I end up working 96 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:20,400 Speaker 1: with their financial system group and very quickly ended up 97 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:23,920 Speaker 1: supporting and running teams that run the SAP system at 98 00:05:23,920 --> 00:05:27,680 Speaker 1: the airport. Cool, and I assume there were several stuffs 99 00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:30,440 Speaker 1: between that and cee I. Oh. I don't imagine the 100 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:32,560 Speaker 1: career path goes straight from there to CEE I O 101 00:05:32,640 --> 00:05:34,680 Speaker 1: of the city. No it does not. If it did, 102 00:05:34,760 --> 00:05:38,680 Speaker 1: I think the city made a terrible mistake. I made 103 00:05:38,680 --> 00:05:41,560 Speaker 1: a career move to move downtown. I joined the team 104 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 1: at the Controller's Office for the implementation of their RP system, 105 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,240 Speaker 1: and you can see the trend here a lot of 106 00:05:47,279 --> 00:05:50,000 Speaker 1: the r P early on UM, which means that if 107 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: you when you think of your stereotypically RP, you understand 108 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:55,919 Speaker 1: business process as well. You're a big fan of business 109 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,040 Speaker 1: management as well as technology. After spending some time in 110 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 1: the Controllers off, I joined the I T Agency, which 111 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: was honestly a department in crisis at the time. It 112 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:07,960 Speaker 1: wasn't the fault of the people working there, it was 113 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:09,800 Speaker 1: just a lot of staff were putting a really bad 114 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:12,039 Speaker 1: positions and the piece of the puzzle just weren't working 115 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:14,640 Speaker 1: together at all. And then with a departure the CEO, 116 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:17,599 Speaker 1: I became c I. Oh, so I jumped around across 117 00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:21,040 Speaker 1: multiple departments UM, mainly coming in from my my systems 118 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:24,400 Speaker 1: implementation experience. I imagine at the city level, you can't 119 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 1: do the move fast and break things kind of approach 120 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:30,760 Speaker 1: that you typically hear about at Silicon Valley. Yeah, it's 121 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:34,960 Speaker 1: really interesting. You know, I spent seven eight nine years 122 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:38,799 Speaker 1: in private sector before joining government, so I very clearly 123 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:41,240 Speaker 1: remember that world. But then at the same time, I've 124 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:44,080 Speaker 1: been in government for about twenty years, and so h 125 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:45,880 Speaker 1: and I spent a lot of time trying to kind 126 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:49,520 Speaker 1: of bridge the two wherever possible. In fact, honestly, if 127 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:51,359 Speaker 1: you had asked me and say, well, said, you know, 128 00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:53,640 Speaker 1: who do you see? Who do you look to when 129 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: it comes to innovation or good strategy, I don't say 130 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: other governments. You know, generally speaking, other governments are are 131 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: in a in a terrible state. They are very slow 132 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: to implement new technologies. When they implement technologies, they're often 133 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,679 Speaker 1: using what's existing on contracts, which is the worst possible 134 00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:12,680 Speaker 1: reason why you choose a vendor or they know a 135 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:14,880 Speaker 1: guy or they know a girl, and so these aren't 136 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:17,680 Speaker 1: the right ways to implement it. So you're entirely right. 137 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:21,120 Speaker 1: There's a lot of bad press regarding governments in technology, 138 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:24,240 Speaker 1: and it's not always coming down to individuals. Like I 139 00:07:24,280 --> 00:07:28,440 Speaker 1: mentioned before, I was always surprised how experienced and how 140 00:07:28,520 --> 00:07:31,960 Speaker 1: capable a lot of the individuals were. But the systems 141 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,680 Speaker 1: that they operate within sometimes are really not just antiquated, 142 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: but they could be dysfunctional at times. And so really 143 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:41,440 Speaker 1: one of the benefits of when you're the boss is 144 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: that you can't control everything, but you can certainly try 145 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:46,880 Speaker 1: to influence a whole lot of things, and so as 146 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:49,440 Speaker 1: c I O, I have spent considerable time just in 147 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 1: the last couple of years and things like employee hiring 148 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: and procurement and a variety different topics that really aren't 149 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:58,320 Speaker 1: my student be my core competency, but they make, I think, 150 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:00,600 Speaker 1: a really big difference. So, you know, there's a lot 151 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: to be said about how you innovate in government, and honestly, 152 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:07,800 Speaker 1: there is no better place where innovation impacts more people. Um, 153 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: if I worked for a private sector company, quite often 154 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:13,160 Speaker 1: I'm I'm innovating to sell a product, and that's cool. 155 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:15,720 Speaker 1: But when you're innovating in government, you're innovating to save 156 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: someone's life, you're innovating to empower people. You're you're innovating 157 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:22,520 Speaker 1: to bring someone onto the Internet who hasn't been on 158 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:25,080 Speaker 1: it before. So there's a lot of like super cool 159 00:08:25,120 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: in my opinion, you know, reasons why innovating in government 160 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:31,520 Speaker 1: is as important to use case as any No, sure, yeah, 161 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 1: the impact is enormous and it spreads across millions of 162 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 1: people who depend upon those services. I'm fully on board 163 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:43,880 Speaker 1: with that, and uh, you kind of touched on this already, 164 00:08:43,920 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: but if someone were to ask you to describe your job, 165 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:50,320 Speaker 1: how do you typically do that when you're talking to 166 00:08:50,400 --> 00:08:54,200 Speaker 1: someone who may not really have a grasp on what 167 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:57,080 Speaker 1: it is that that you do. Yeah, some of the 168 00:08:57,080 --> 00:08:59,520 Speaker 1: worst questions me is what do you do or what 169 00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: are your priorities at work? Because when you kind of 170 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:05,200 Speaker 1: get underneath the surface, you realize it's a complicated question. 171 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:07,480 Speaker 1: So you try to give us simple and straightforward answer, 172 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:10,160 Speaker 1: and and people deserve one. At a high level, I 173 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:12,760 Speaker 1: help manage technology at the City of Los Angeles. That's 174 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:14,960 Speaker 1: the high level. And so what does that mean? Some 175 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:17,560 Speaker 1: of it's very traditional. You know, we run a data center, 176 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,560 Speaker 1: We run the network so that city employees can connect 177 00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:24,280 Speaker 1: to the Internet. We run enterprise applications and websites and 178 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:27,600 Speaker 1: social media. I run a TV station of all things. 179 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:29,320 Speaker 1: In my group, you could see behind me, we have 180 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 1: an Emmy over there. Um, So there's all these different 181 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:35,240 Speaker 1: kinds of broad responsibilities of what we do. But it 182 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: also means that not just supporting and maintaining these systems, 183 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:41,640 Speaker 1: but innovating and building on them. So the ability to 184 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:44,680 Speaker 1: roll out, you know, a web nominated website, so that 185 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:48,360 Speaker 1: actually allows residents to enter their address and see all 186 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:51,439 Speaker 1: the resources and what's happening in their neighborhood, or having 187 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:54,120 Speaker 1: teams that build out in Alexas Skill or Google Home 188 00:09:54,160 --> 00:09:57,400 Speaker 1: Skill so that people could actually talk to their Amazon 189 00:09:57,480 --> 00:09:59,839 Speaker 1: Echo and ask what the city is doing this in 190 00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:02,480 Speaker 1: the this upcoming weekend, or building chatbots. So there's a 191 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:06,079 Speaker 1: lot of really cool beneath the surface items what as 192 00:10:06,080 --> 00:10:08,000 Speaker 1: well as of course all the frustration we have to 193 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:10,320 Speaker 1: manage budgets. I've got a team of four hundred and 194 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:13,080 Speaker 1: sixty five people. There's just a lot of stuff that 195 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:16,119 Speaker 1: we end up doing that covers so many different customers, 196 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:18,880 Speaker 1: and so this is never a dull moment. It's very interesting, 197 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:20,640 Speaker 1: but it could also be a certainly a challenging role 198 00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:23,360 Speaker 1: at times. And you know, COVID certainly tested our metal 199 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 1: ah and we're going to touch more on that in 200 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:27,360 Speaker 1: a little bit. And you you mentioned that you have 201 00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:30,360 Speaker 1: a team of four hundred sixty five people. It also 202 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:33,559 Speaker 1: I think benefits listeners to know the size of your 203 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:36,520 Speaker 1: customer base, not just within the city itself and the 204 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:40,640 Speaker 1: other departments that rely upon your leadership as far as 205 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 1: managing technological resources. But then you're also talking about citizens 206 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:48,280 Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, as well as the people who visit. 207 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,560 Speaker 1: Can you kind of give us an idea of the scope. Yeah, 208 00:10:51,559 --> 00:10:55,360 Speaker 1: it's terrifying at times. I'd say that jokingly. Um, so 209 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:57,440 Speaker 1: four sixty people as a whole lot of folks, But 210 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,240 Speaker 1: we spread them across nineteen different divisions and like said, 211 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:02,840 Speaker 1: a TV station, a three on one call center, network, 212 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: data center, apps, enterprise apps, websites, public safety communications. So 213 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:11,280 Speaker 1: all those handheld radios at a firefighter or a police 214 00:11:11,280 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 1: officer carries, those come through my staff. So the customer 215 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:16,679 Speaker 1: base is quite large when it comes to servicing other 216 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:20,360 Speaker 1: city departments. That's forty three city departments we service, who 217 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:24,120 Speaker 1: have a total of forty thousand employees. Then when we 218 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:26,280 Speaker 1: think about the fact that we don't just service city 219 00:11:26,320 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 1: employees and city departments, we have a lot of very 220 00:11:28,240 --> 00:11:32,080 Speaker 1: public facing services. We serve four million Angelinos, We serve 221 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 1: over five hundred thousand businesses who call Los Angeles home, 222 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:38,439 Speaker 1: and then pre COVID, at least we had forty eight 223 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 1: million annual visitors. And so we have the deliver innovation 224 00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:46,920 Speaker 1: and technology across all these customers. And you know, it's 225 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:49,320 Speaker 1: a it's a fascinating challenge as to how you do 226 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:52,000 Speaker 1: that and where you prioritize. But the reality is, I 227 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 1: can't just say, well, I'm only focused on employees and 228 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:56,000 Speaker 1: I don't care about businesses. And I can't say we 229 00:11:56,080 --> 00:11:58,520 Speaker 1: only care about businesses and who cares about residents? The 230 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:01,160 Speaker 1: realities I really need them of the needle every year 231 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:03,599 Speaker 1: in all these different areas. And not only does it 232 00:12:03,679 --> 00:12:06,960 Speaker 1: mean that I'm gauging different customer bases, I'm also engaging 233 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:09,880 Speaker 1: different business partners in the city. So I'm working with 234 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 1: the Department of you know, Recreation in parks when it 235 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:15,520 Speaker 1: comes to children trying to sign up for you know, 236 00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:20,080 Speaker 1: park park classes, or I'm working with libraries, or I'm 237 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,720 Speaker 1: you know, we're on digital inclusion, or I'm working with 238 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:25,960 Speaker 1: public works when it comes to fixing potholes and receiving 239 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,440 Speaker 1: request or three one one mobile app. So there's a 240 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:30,839 Speaker 1: whole lot to do. Uh. And then never never a 241 00:12:30,920 --> 00:12:33,520 Speaker 1: dull moment, never never time to sit and rest on 242 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:38,120 Speaker 1: Laurels well. And and you've given talks about Los Angeles 243 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:43,920 Speaker 1: and it's incorporation of different smart city technologies and solutions. 244 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:47,880 Speaker 1: And one of the presentations I saw you do was 245 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:50,600 Speaker 1: tackling something that I think a lot of people associate 246 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:53,520 Speaker 1: with Los Angeles, which is traffic, and just you look 247 00:12:53,559 --> 00:12:57,720 Speaker 1: at what would the situation be without the technological solutions 248 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:00,120 Speaker 1: that are in place, and you realize, wow, this is 249 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:03,800 Speaker 1: a very complicated problem and something that you don't necessarily 250 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:05,839 Speaker 1: see when you're in the middle of it. There's a 251 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:07,800 Speaker 1: couple of themes in my career. When I work for 252 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:11,400 Speaker 1: the Controller's Office, the Control's Office associate with money. So 253 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:13,160 Speaker 1: every time I work with someone, they said, well, has 254 00:13:13,200 --> 00:13:15,240 Speaker 1: to do with money, so that's your job, And I said, no, no, 255 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:17,040 Speaker 1: everything has to do with money. Can't be my job. 256 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:19,240 Speaker 1: That's too big a job. And then when I work 257 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:21,120 Speaker 1: as a c I, oh, they say, well has to 258 00:13:21,160 --> 00:13:23,400 Speaker 1: do with technology, therefore it's your job, and you go, 259 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 1: I can't be responsible for every possible technology and every 260 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:29,320 Speaker 1: you know, certain aspect because it's just so ubiquitous. And 261 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:31,440 Speaker 1: I think that's the reality of it is when it 262 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:34,160 Speaker 1: comes to something like traffic, it's not entirely my job. 263 00:13:34,200 --> 00:13:36,880 Speaker 1: We have an entire department of transportation, but we do 264 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:39,560 Speaker 1: work very closely with them, and technology plays a huge 265 00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:43,120 Speaker 1: role and how ELI manages traffic. We're a huge city, 266 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:46,080 Speaker 1: a lot of people move in here, traffic is always 267 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:48,640 Speaker 1: difficult to manage simply because just the volume of people 268 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:50,760 Speaker 1: and everyone wants to have their own car. But with 269 00:13:50,840 --> 00:13:53,440 Speaker 1: that being said, we have something called at SACK, the 270 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:57,200 Speaker 1: Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control System, which believed or not, 271 00:13:57,360 --> 00:14:01,280 Speaker 1: has its foundation in the Olympics when they started to 272 00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:05,400 Speaker 1: digitize and automate, which was first in the nation at 273 00:14:05,400 --> 00:14:07,600 Speaker 1: the time to do it at that scale. But then 274 00:14:07,640 --> 00:14:10,199 Speaker 1: you know, fast forward thirty years and now you've got 275 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:14,320 Speaker 1: technology which we've got thirty loop detectors that know when 276 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:16,560 Speaker 1: a car is waiting for a traffic light to turn. 277 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:19,520 Speaker 1: We have got two thousand five intersections that you can 278 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:22,360 Speaker 1: control if you want to with the laptop. We don't, 279 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:25,280 Speaker 1: but we run all these various algorithms. So if a 280 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,760 Speaker 1: president is visiting, if there's traffic on Wilshore, we can 281 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:31,200 Speaker 1: try to go ahead and change the lights on Olympic. 282 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:33,400 Speaker 1: So there's all these things that we do which do 283 00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:37,600 Speaker 1: tremendously improve traffic in Los Angeles. But we are always 284 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:40,000 Speaker 1: fighting against the idea that there's a lot of folks 285 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,200 Speaker 1: with a lot of cars who live in the west 286 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:44,320 Speaker 1: side and work on the east side of vice versa, 287 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:46,920 Speaker 1: and so we're always working to manage that. Hopefully, in 288 00:14:46,960 --> 00:14:49,680 Speaker 1: the post COVID world, we can leverage better, you know, 289 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:53,080 Speaker 1: multimodal transportation and even just people working from home to 290 00:14:53,120 --> 00:15:01,360 Speaker 1: try to help improve that. If there's one thing most 291 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:04,520 Speaker 1: businesses can agree on these days, it's that change has 292 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:07,520 Speaker 1: never come about so quickly. New ways of working have 293 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:11,040 Speaker 1: become the norm. As a result, the status quo no 294 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:13,880 Speaker 1: longer cuts it when it comes to helping businesses adapt 295 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:17,920 Speaker 1: and innovate. That's why T Mobile for Business uses unconventional 296 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:22,080 Speaker 1: thinking to help businesses work smarter and grow faster. Only 297 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:26,440 Speaker 1: T Mobile offers America's largest and fastest five gen network. 298 00:15:26,920 --> 00:15:29,560 Speaker 1: It's just one reason they're better able to help businesses 299 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,440 Speaker 1: solve the real world challenges they face as they evolve. 300 00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:37,560 Speaker 1: For instance, their new WFX solutions help team members stay 301 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:41,480 Speaker 1: connected and productive where work happens. With nearly two and 302 00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:43,400 Speaker 1: a half times the network coverage of a T and 303 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:47,320 Speaker 1: T nearly four times more than Verizon, and forty billion 304 00:15:47,320 --> 00:15:50,840 Speaker 1: dollars invested in network and business improvements over the next 305 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:54,200 Speaker 1: three years, T Mobile for Business is better for your 306 00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:57,840 Speaker 1: business right now and into the future. See what they 307 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:00,840 Speaker 1: can do for your organization at Team mobile dot com. 308 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:04,520 Speaker 1: Slash Unconventional Open Signal awarded. T Mobile fastest five G 309 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: network based on average speeds. USA five G User Experience 310 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,960 Speaker 1: Report January. Capable device required converts not available in some areas. 311 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,280 Speaker 1: Some users may require certain planner features ce t mobile 312 00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:22,080 Speaker 1: dot com. It was clear to me that Ted had 313 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:24,920 Speaker 1: a unique set of challenges as the CEO of one 314 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:28,560 Speaker 1: of the world's largest cities, with fifty eight counties, four 315 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:33,760 Speaker 1: two municipalities, and hundreds of employees serving the needs of 316 00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:37,440 Speaker 1: all Californians, and with all that responsibility and weight on 317 00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:40,760 Speaker 1: his shoulders, I was curious to understand his leadership style 318 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:45,080 Speaker 1: and how he tackled the challenges of the job. How 319 00:16:45,160 --> 00:16:49,920 Speaker 1: much of your job goes into just balancing priorities. I 320 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:54,880 Speaker 1: would imagine that you are looking at so many different factors. 321 00:16:55,280 --> 00:17:01,160 Speaker 1: Whenever you're considering an implementation of new technology, it has 322 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:05,400 Speaker 1: to be pretty overwhelming. I've learned a lot, and you're 323 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:09,119 Speaker 1: now hearing experienced two thousand and twenty one Ted and 324 00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:11,880 Speaker 1: not Ted from five years ago. But one thing I've 325 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:14,160 Speaker 1: certainly learned is first of all, to have a north star, 326 00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:16,720 Speaker 1: and and for us, our north star is going to 327 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:20,040 Speaker 1: be the residents, the businesses, and the visitors. So that 328 00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:23,560 Speaker 1: is just you know, full stop. Those are our top priorities, 329 00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:25,920 Speaker 1: and so when it comes to a customer focus, those 330 00:17:25,960 --> 00:17:28,400 Speaker 1: are the most important customers. So even when we're servicing 331 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:31,480 Speaker 1: other departments and other city employees, it's always in light 332 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:34,800 Speaker 1: of adding value to that north Star. Secondly, we have 333 00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,800 Speaker 1: to juggle a lot of lists. So the Mayor's office 334 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:40,240 Speaker 1: has lists. They come in the form of executive directives 335 00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:42,679 Speaker 1: or Mayor's Office requests, and then there's a list of 336 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:45,439 Speaker 1: items that we as a department, no we should be 337 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:47,720 Speaker 1: doing that no one has asked us to do, and 338 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:50,320 Speaker 1: I think quite often governments ignore that. They just quote 339 00:17:50,359 --> 00:17:52,720 Speaker 1: unquote do what they are asked. So what we do 340 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:54,880 Speaker 1: in my department is we have something called the list 341 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:56,920 Speaker 1: of lists. So we take all these lists, we emerge 342 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,760 Speaker 1: them alltogether, and we're frequently going through them using metrics 343 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:03,360 Speaker 1: to see for initiatives that we're working on. We're doing 344 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:06,119 Speaker 1: project management. There's all these different kinds of things we do. 345 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:09,639 Speaker 1: Is that we can help prioritize, focus and deliver. At 346 00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:12,400 Speaker 1: any given point, we're juggling a hundred ninety to two 347 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:16,240 Speaker 1: different projects as a department, and we're closing a lot 348 00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:17,920 Speaker 1: of them out and we're getting a lot of new ones, 349 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,800 Speaker 1: and so it is. It is always a challenge, and 350 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:22,639 Speaker 1: I think one of the ways we focus it is 351 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:25,480 Speaker 1: we try not to prefer one stakeholder over another, but 352 00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:28,280 Speaker 1: we try to keep the needle moving among all stakeholders. 353 00:18:28,880 --> 00:18:32,000 Speaker 1: That definitely sounds like there is a lot on your plate. 354 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:36,399 Speaker 1: So then I'm curious what sort of challenges do you 355 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:41,439 Speaker 1: typically encounter when you want to do an integration of 356 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:44,600 Speaker 1: new technologies. I assume you have to get buy in 357 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: from multiple different parties in order for that to happen. 358 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:51,040 Speaker 1: Can you talk about what that is like for you 359 00:18:51,359 --> 00:18:55,280 Speaker 1: or is there just no universal approach that you can 360 00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:59,600 Speaker 1: touch on the reality is you've got to bring coalitions together, 361 00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,000 Speaker 1: and you've ought to have teams of people. You've got 362 00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:05,919 Speaker 1: to have allegiances among elected officials and finance people and 363 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:09,480 Speaker 1: HR folks, etcetera. Which does mean that quite often you're 364 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:12,120 Speaker 1: making multiple extra passes to try to put the ball 365 00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:14,239 Speaker 1: in the hoop. But that really is the nature of 366 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:17,119 Speaker 1: working in government, and it's not I I love the 367 00:19:17,119 --> 00:19:19,240 Speaker 1: old quote and it says it's not about great ideas, 368 00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:22,480 Speaker 1: but it's about making great ideas happen. That is, execution 369 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:25,399 Speaker 1: becomes an extremely important part. So quite often what I 370 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:28,480 Speaker 1: find is, let's say i'm building stakeholders among other departments, 371 00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:31,080 Speaker 1: I'm really looking into their mission and their purpose. When 372 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:34,080 Speaker 1: you have forty three different departments, they all have different missions, 373 00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:36,720 Speaker 1: and almost none of them their mission is to create 374 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:40,639 Speaker 1: an integrated user experience for somebody. So they may appreciate 375 00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:42,879 Speaker 1: the concept, but when push comes to shove, they're going 376 00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:45,719 Speaker 1: to be focused on their constituency and they're very specific mission. 377 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:48,879 Speaker 1: So you're often selling mission and trying to kind of 378 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:51,119 Speaker 1: get buying into their mission as a part of a 379 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:54,440 Speaker 1: technology experience. When it comes to employees, it's a completely 380 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:57,280 Speaker 1: different thing. Sometimes you have people who are married to 381 00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:00,480 Speaker 1: a certain proprietary ecosystem. You know, they've and trained in 382 00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:02,159 Speaker 1: Cisco and they don't want to touch a p or 383 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:04,399 Speaker 1: they've been trained in Fordnite, they don't want to touch Cisco. 384 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,280 Speaker 1: And so sometimes you have just these very fundamental things 385 00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:09,320 Speaker 1: when you're impacting so much job and you want to 386 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:12,119 Speaker 1: go ahead and help make improvements on something, and you 387 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:14,199 Speaker 1: often gave them to buy into that. But what do 388 00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:16,280 Speaker 1: you quite often find is if you work with a 389 00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:18,919 Speaker 1: group of professionals, if you could start to create the 390 00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:21,400 Speaker 1: sense of urgency for change, if you really show how 391 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,600 Speaker 1: the status quo is really failing an important group of people, 392 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:26,800 Speaker 1: and you can show a clear path as to where 393 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:29,280 Speaker 1: we need to go, often people will start to buy in. 394 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:32,920 Speaker 1: And then it requires oversight. It requires actually making sure 395 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,760 Speaker 1: that people haven't dropped the ball. And so, yeah, being 396 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:39,359 Speaker 1: a c I O in many organizations involves execution, especially 397 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,919 Speaker 1: in government, and I imagine that is complicated by the 398 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:47,560 Speaker 1: fact that we live in a democracy. The leaders can 399 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: change frequently over a period of like a decade or 400 00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:55,680 Speaker 1: twelve years. And so does that make it more challenging 401 00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:59,440 Speaker 1: to make further long term plans not really knowing who's 402 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,200 Speaker 1: going to be in charge perhaps another four years down 403 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,320 Speaker 1: the road. It does, It really does. And so take 404 00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:07,720 Speaker 1: for example where I stand today. You know, I serve 405 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:10,800 Speaker 1: under Mayor Eric Carcetti, and I'm confirmed by city council, 406 00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:13,280 Speaker 1: and I've got a city attorney that I pay attention 407 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:16,159 Speaker 1: to in a city controller. So that's eighteen different elected officials, 408 00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,480 Speaker 1: very intelligent people, men and women who see the world 409 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:21,560 Speaker 1: in a very different way and have their own perspectives 410 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:25,360 Speaker 1: our mayor uh he ends his second term next year, 411 00:21:25,840 --> 00:21:28,000 Speaker 1: and so it affects the way I think the mayor's 412 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,639 Speaker 1: office operates. It doesn't mean I should change and maybe 413 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:33,400 Speaker 1: slack off. It's nothing like that. It just means that 414 00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:36,280 Speaker 1: they're doing things to close up their term, and I 415 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:38,280 Speaker 1: need to pay attention and keep in mind of not 416 00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:40,480 Speaker 1: just what they're doing, but also making sure that there's 417 00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:43,280 Speaker 1: a good transition. One of the benefits is i may 418 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:46,119 Speaker 1: be a political appointment, but I worked in civil service 419 00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:49,600 Speaker 1: for fifteen plus years, so I'm very experienced and very 420 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,720 Speaker 1: aware of kind of the transition. I served under multiple 421 00:21:52,760 --> 00:21:56,000 Speaker 1: controllers and multiple mayors, etcetera. You know, where there's a 422 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,280 Speaker 1: transition of power that needs to be a smart transition 423 00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:01,159 Speaker 1: of good technology. And that's why when we discussed our 424 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:04,240 Speaker 1: list of lists. There's priorities that the Mayor's office provides, 425 00:22:04,440 --> 00:22:07,440 Speaker 1: there's priorities that council provides. But then there's also list 426 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:10,560 Speaker 1: of priorities that what we know as tech professionals. And 427 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:13,080 Speaker 1: so no one asked me to implement droople, we did it, 428 00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:15,280 Speaker 1: and no one asked me to implement service Now for 429 00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:18,200 Speaker 1: ticketing and service management. We did it. These aren't things 430 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:21,360 Speaker 1: that we asked anyone either permission for or their advice on. 431 00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:24,159 Speaker 1: Because we knew that this would improve our ability to 432 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:26,600 Speaker 1: be able to roll things out and ask permission for 433 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,159 Speaker 1: the cloud. We just started taking hardware refresh and started 434 00:22:30,200 --> 00:22:32,879 Speaker 1: reallocating it so that we could start moving workloads up 435 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,919 Speaker 1: into the cloud. We have two plus workloads already, a 436 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:38,000 Speaker 1: lot of sas systems and others, and so we're making 437 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,000 Speaker 1: that migration. So there are there's a balance of doing 438 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:43,120 Speaker 1: what you're told and doing what you're asked, as well 439 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:45,040 Speaker 1: as trying to do what you know is right and 440 00:22:45,119 --> 00:22:47,040 Speaker 1: hopefully you get it right, and if you get it wrong, 441 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,280 Speaker 1: you feel fast, you learn, and you migrate to something else. 442 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:52,960 Speaker 1: And so it really is a challenge when it comes 443 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:55,359 Speaker 1: to the long term. So we often are thinking in 444 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:57,680 Speaker 1: the world of one year plans to year plans, three 445 00:22:57,720 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 1: year plans. We're not really in the world of ten 446 00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,240 Speaker 1: year plan ends. Smart cities is a bit of a 447 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:05,000 Speaker 1: of a difference. Ce I o s all over the 448 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:10,560 Speaker 1: world have the tough job of trying to explain sometimes 449 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,120 Speaker 1: very complicated technologies to different stakeholders in order to get 450 00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:17,520 Speaker 1: buy in. Do you have your own approach to this 451 00:23:17,720 --> 00:23:21,280 Speaker 1: because you start talking about things and we'll mention more 452 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:24,040 Speaker 1: about in a minute. But like blockchain, for example, that's 453 00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:27,560 Speaker 1: one of those topics that if you're not really technologically savvy, 454 00:23:27,720 --> 00:23:30,840 Speaker 1: it seems like it's magic. So how do you go 455 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:36,240 Speaker 1: about that. I knew you were going to blockchain with 456 00:23:36,280 --> 00:23:39,240 Speaker 1: that one first and foremost. I'm full of analogies, and 457 00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:42,440 Speaker 1: I never intend walking into the room to use the analogy, 458 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,480 Speaker 1: But next thing you know, it pops off. And I'd 459 00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:46,199 Speaker 1: say most of the time it's a pretty good analogy. 460 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:48,600 Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a terrible one. But I was recently in 461 00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,480 Speaker 1: the budget discussion in which we were discussing, you know, 462 00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,760 Speaker 1: because of the economy, where we should make cuts, and 463 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,000 Speaker 1: the analogy used as I said, listen, if we were 464 00:23:57,000 --> 00:23:59,480 Speaker 1: the kind of organization that always bought a new car, 465 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:01,679 Speaker 1: then maybe we can kind of float maintenance for a 466 00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: while because the car is new and we know it 467 00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:06,000 Speaker 1: will last. But if we're an organization, let's say on 468 00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,399 Speaker 1: server infrastructure, network infrastructure, where we know we have a 469 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:12,080 Speaker 1: lot of old stuff, you can't cut on the money 470 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:14,359 Speaker 1: that you need to keep those things going. And so 471 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:16,119 Speaker 1: I said, so if you have a used car, and 472 00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:18,720 Speaker 1: it's been around for seven eight nine years. You don't 473 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:22,080 Speaker 1: eliminate funding that's need to repair that car, because repairs 474 00:24:22,080 --> 00:24:24,080 Speaker 1: are going to come up. That's the cost of having 475 00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:27,359 Speaker 1: an older car. And so it's just a classic analogy 476 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:30,080 Speaker 1: that a lot of people can identify with because they 477 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,080 Speaker 1: know the idea of owning a new car versus owning 478 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,080 Speaker 1: a use car and what it means. I just don't 479 00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: think most folks related to let's say, network infrastructure, and 480 00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:39,480 Speaker 1: that's that's the analogy that we used in that one, 481 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:41,440 Speaker 1: and honestly, it just came out spur of the moment. 482 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,240 Speaker 1: But I'm full of analogies. When it comes to something 483 00:24:44,280 --> 00:24:47,280 Speaker 1: like blockchain. Boy, that's a difficult one because it is 484 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,560 Speaker 1: a level of auto magical, you know, solution when it's 485 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: all said and done, and so all you're trying to 486 00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:55,040 Speaker 1: do is break things. Its classic systems. Now it's break 487 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:56,760 Speaker 1: it into its pieces. You know, how you keep a 488 00:24:56,800 --> 00:24:59,520 Speaker 1: record here on this database instead of keeping a record 489 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,120 Speaker 1: on this data base that we own. There's a different database, 490 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:04,440 Speaker 1: and it uses a complex algorithm to make it work. 491 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:07,520 Speaker 1: You've seen it with bitcoin. People aren't stealing bitcoin all 492 00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:09,960 Speaker 1: the time, So that's how blockchain and effectively work. So 493 00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,919 Speaker 1: you're taking it, you're really boiling it down. But the 494 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:16,120 Speaker 1: reality is is once you've boiled it down, they'll kind 495 00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:18,760 Speaker 1: of understand it. They'll often fact check you a little 496 00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:22,520 Speaker 1: bit quite often when it comes to technology. Your reputation 497 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:25,520 Speaker 1: is extremely important, and so they look at you and say, well, 498 00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,159 Speaker 1: I trusted you on smartphones, and I trusted you on 499 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:31,760 Speaker 1: early early earthquake warning. I'll trust you on this one. 500 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,679 Speaker 1: So having a reputation and building a level of trust 501 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:37,679 Speaker 1: with your stakeholders is important because things go wrong. You know, 502 00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:42,400 Speaker 1: there's data breaches, there's you know, server failures, there's network outages. 503 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,280 Speaker 1: They need to know that you're upstanding, you work hard, 504 00:25:45,320 --> 00:25:48,600 Speaker 1: and you're capable before those things happen, so they can 505 00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 1: trust you as you're resolving them. There are a couple 506 00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:53,480 Speaker 1: of things I really want to talk about. One of 507 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:58,359 Speaker 1: them is how impressed I am at the city's ability 508 00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:02,280 Speaker 1: to pivot in the ache of the COVID nineteen pandemic, 509 00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:06,680 Speaker 1: being able to go from a more centralized approach where 510 00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:09,320 Speaker 1: people are coming to specific buildings in order to do 511 00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:13,520 Speaker 1: work to working from home. From my understanding, it sounded 512 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:16,680 Speaker 1: like it was a pretty rapid deployment to go from 513 00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:18,400 Speaker 1: one to the other. Can you talk a little bit 514 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:21,320 Speaker 1: about that process? Yes, it was, and I can't help 515 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,760 Speaker 1: but smile both out a sense of a great appreciation 516 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,880 Speaker 1: for my teams and what was accomplished, and also kind 517 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:30,480 Speaker 1: of a smile of let's not think about how traumatic 518 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:34,359 Speaker 1: the whole experience was, right, but I'll never forget. It 519 00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:36,960 Speaker 1: was the end of February two thousand and twenty when 520 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:38,960 Speaker 1: the CDC was saying it's not a matter of if. 521 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:41,320 Speaker 1: But when then we all started to realize it was 522 00:26:41,320 --> 00:26:44,040 Speaker 1: going to be a global pandemic. At first, there was 523 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,119 Speaker 1: the question of, well, do we take people who are 524 00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,879 Speaker 1: maybe you know, over sixty five and they tell the 525 00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:51,520 Speaker 1: work little do we realize how fast it would become 526 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,639 Speaker 1: everybody teleworking for a long time. Um, So what we 527 00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:57,840 Speaker 1: did was I sat down with the team. This is 528 00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,600 Speaker 1: early March, and I said, Okay, we're gonna have to 529 00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,240 Speaker 1: telework fifteen thousand people. How would we do it. Everyone's 530 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:05,800 Speaker 1: eyes roll and everyone's oscillates, because up until that point, 531 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,920 Speaker 1: we really had about thirty five teleworkers in a city 532 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:12,399 Speaker 1: of forty thousand employees. And the initially answer was what 533 00:27:12,520 --> 00:27:14,840 Speaker 1: we can take our existing solution and try to scale 534 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:16,679 Speaker 1: it out. But it didn't take but five minutes to 535 00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,359 Speaker 1: realize that that was a terrible idea. Everyone's gonna unanimously 536 00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,000 Speaker 1: hate it. I'll never forget. One of our managers says, well, Ted, 537 00:27:22,080 --> 00:27:24,600 Speaker 1: they can't expect us to deliver all the functionality they 538 00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:26,119 Speaker 1: have at work at home, and I said, oh no, 539 00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:28,440 Speaker 1: they expect it. Let let you know, don't don't get 540 00:27:28,480 --> 00:27:30,719 Speaker 1: it twisted. The idea of them being sent home and 541 00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:33,800 Speaker 1: flailing is not an acceptable answer. So what we did 542 00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:38,639 Speaker 1: We worked with cybersecurity network apps folks UH and some others, 543 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:40,560 Speaker 1: and we very quickly were able to stand up a 544 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:44,200 Speaker 1: solution in which we had a very robust remote desktop protocol. 545 00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: We started to implement strong cybersecurity with two factor and 546 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:51,080 Speaker 1: other things, because we had to stand up identity management, 547 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,080 Speaker 1: you know, remote access, a long list of things to 548 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:56,600 Speaker 1: make sure that everyone could access as many apps as 549 00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,720 Speaker 1: possible from day one. And then lo and behold, March 550 00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:02,720 Speaker 1: nine teeth Safer from Home order everyone is sent home. 551 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:07,240 Speaker 1: Within seventy two hours, we had ten thousand people teleworking, 552 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:10,800 Speaker 1: and then about two weeks later we had eighteen thousand 553 00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:14,200 Speaker 1: plus people teleworking and there were so many lessons learned 554 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:16,960 Speaker 1: in it. It was so dramatic, so fast, all the 555 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:19,760 Speaker 1: stuff you learned with agile software development, all the stuff 556 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:22,080 Speaker 1: you learned with user center design. We had to do 557 00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:24,879 Speaker 1: it and do it very quickly, and most governments don't 558 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:27,560 Speaker 1: do it very quickly, and I think, you know, is 559 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 1: one of our our The fact that we had so 560 00:28:30,240 --> 00:28:33,360 Speaker 1: few issues is one of our proudest achievements that will 561 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:41,000 Speaker 1: never forget. Now, having a deeper understanding of Ted's leadership 562 00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: style and philosophy, I really wanted to dive into what 563 00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:49,320 Speaker 1: he thought about emerging and maturing technologies and how the 564 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:54,520 Speaker 1: City of Los Angeles is implementing solutions relying on those technologies. 565 00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:01,680 Speaker 1: I'm curious what the City of Los Angeles is doing 566 00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:06,840 Speaker 1: along the lines of incorporating absence services in the five 567 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:12,160 Speaker 1: G infrastructure world. Are you exploring that. Yes, absolutely are 568 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:15,000 Speaker 1: huge fans of five G for a number of reasons. 569 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,400 Speaker 1: First of all, as a government, our role is to help, 570 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:21,960 Speaker 1: you know, facilitate the deployment to five G and that's 571 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,040 Speaker 1: one of those things that directly a city government like 572 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,240 Speaker 1: IRIS can implement. So we've already had over two thousand, 573 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:29,760 Speaker 1: five hundred five G access points. We were one of 574 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:33,000 Speaker 1: the first large cities who had five G and we're 575 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,520 Speaker 1: in the process of implementing and I say implementing, it's 576 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,280 Speaker 1: allowing and facilitating the implementation of five G of of 577 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,080 Speaker 1: another three thousand access points in the next three years. 578 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:46,160 Speaker 1: So our ability to fast track permitting to come up 579 00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:49,440 Speaker 1: with standardization to keep costs low so that companies can 580 00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:52,680 Speaker 1: can implement five G in our urban environment allows it 581 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:55,200 Speaker 1: to be accessible for business as residents and others. So 582 00:29:55,240 --> 00:29:57,760 Speaker 1: that's like first and foremost one of the greatest things 583 00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:00,640 Speaker 1: government can do is to facilitate the implement notation of it. 584 00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,120 Speaker 1: But when it comes to our use case of it, 585 00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:06,600 Speaker 1: like there's so many great options for it. So you know, 586 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:08,880 Speaker 1: quite often when you have an old city like ours. 587 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:11,920 Speaker 1: Technically our city was found in sevente so you can 588 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: imagine we have old street sold sewers, we have a 589 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,200 Speaker 1: lot of old infrastructure that just comes with a large, 590 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:20,480 Speaker 1: old urban environment. The idea that five GS wireless, I mean, 591 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,120 Speaker 1: once you get your connectivity to the access point, it's 592 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:26,760 Speaker 1: effectively a wireless solution, which means that we can deploy 593 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 1: and you know, we can expand and contract rapidly using 594 00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:33,320 Speaker 1: things that are completely wireless. We've had Emmy's and Star 595 00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: Wars premiers and other things in which five G was 596 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:38,280 Speaker 1: the backbone. You didn't have to go and roll a 597 00:30:38,280 --> 00:30:40,840 Speaker 1: bunch of wires out. You already had ubiquitous five G 598 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,840 Speaker 1: connectivity up to gigabit speeds, and they could run an 599 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:48,400 Speaker 1: entire venue, rollout VR wirelessly, rollout communications, you know, do 600 00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,720 Speaker 1: all these huge multimedia aspects that take up a lot 601 00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:54,760 Speaker 1: of bandwidth and do so completely wirelessly. But as a 602 00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:57,440 Speaker 1: city and as an organization, there's all sorts of use 603 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:01,040 Speaker 1: cases and I honestly I liken it to early Internet. 604 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,080 Speaker 1: But when I think about early Internet, I think about 605 00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:07,480 Speaker 1: all these all this upside and people not really knowing 606 00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:10,000 Speaker 1: what to do with it. But then introduce e commerce, 607 00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:13,400 Speaker 1: introduced social media, introduced these use cases that take this 608 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:17,280 Speaker 1: technology that had these you know blue background, yellow text, 609 00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:21,240 Speaker 1: you know HTML, you know websites that someone goes, what's 610 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:24,160 Speaker 1: the benefit of this the to then now have these 611 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,000 Speaker 1: you know, rocking and rolling organizations completely built on it. 612 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:29,760 Speaker 1: So I think a five D that way, And for 613 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:31,880 Speaker 1: the city of l A, you know, great example comes 614 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:34,560 Speaker 1: down to things like you know, sanitation, trucks. We have 615 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,920 Speaker 1: sanitation trucks in which we've added cameras, and those cameras 616 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:41,640 Speaker 1: can actually pan. So if you imagine a sanitation truck 617 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,400 Speaker 1: drives the entire city every week, there's a sanitation truck 618 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:47,360 Speaker 1: driven picking up people's trash cans, covering probably eighty to 619 00:31:47,480 --> 00:31:50,080 Speaker 1: nine of the city. So instead of me waiting for 620 00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:52,400 Speaker 1: a resident to tell me that there's graffiti on the wall, 621 00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:56,080 Speaker 1: what if the sanitation truck camera could identify it for me? Right, So, 622 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:58,600 Speaker 1: instead of this poll approach, what about a push approach 623 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:02,280 Speaker 1: to city services that's transformational. And you know it's not 624 00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:06,200 Speaker 1: just transformational, it has tremendous effect on equity. So we 625 00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,480 Speaker 1: often know that like disadvantage, neighborhoods are less likely to 626 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:11,480 Speaker 1: tell the government that they have graffiti or they have 627 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:14,400 Speaker 1: a pothole, etcetera. Well, why wait for them? Why why 628 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 1: always benefit the you know, the wealthier communities who are 629 00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:21,440 Speaker 1: very aggressive and very you know, I love to advocate 630 00:32:21,440 --> 00:32:24,520 Speaker 1: for the neighborhood. Why to identify the pothole, identify the 631 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:28,880 Speaker 1: graffiti using computer vision? Office sanitation truck you know, connected 632 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,200 Speaker 1: to the cloud through five G where I'm moving mass 633 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,440 Speaker 1: amounts of data, but I'm leveraging machine learning and AI 634 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:36,960 Speaker 1: to be able to do the type of computer vision 635 00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,640 Speaker 1: required to make sure that that is truly graffiti and 636 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:42,640 Speaker 1: not something else, and do so in a secure way 637 00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:45,360 Speaker 1: where I'm not violating people's privacy. Those are the kinds 638 00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:47,720 Speaker 1: of things that five G starts to enable. And that's 639 00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:50,680 Speaker 1: a look up part of the expression. That's a badass 640 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:53,880 Speaker 1: concept for a city to be able to actually unilaterally 641 00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:56,480 Speaker 1: understand where its issues are and be able to start 642 00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,400 Speaker 1: to assign those resources without a resident ever having to 643 00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:02,360 Speaker 1: complain or tell you about it. Oh, absolutely, you don't. Again, 644 00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:05,240 Speaker 1: you don't think of city government as necessarily being proactive 645 00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:09,120 Speaker 1: in those cases, it's usually reactive. So having technology enable 646 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:12,640 Speaker 1: the ability to be proactive, to start to address problems 647 00:33:12,680 --> 00:33:15,440 Speaker 1: before perhaps anyone even has the opportunity to report that 648 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:20,360 Speaker 1: there is a problem that is transformational. And previously you 649 00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:23,400 Speaker 1: you mentioned the Olympics and how that had a big 650 00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:28,600 Speaker 1: role in the the early implementation of technologies that changed 651 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:31,800 Speaker 1: how traffic management is done in the city of Los Angeles. 652 00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:35,400 Speaker 1: I imagine that means that we're going to see a 653 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:40,080 Speaker 1: lot more technological innovation than how high band frequency five 654 00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:45,280 Speaker 1: G can deliver such incredible experiences and to me, the 655 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:49,720 Speaker 1: Olympics would be the one of the perfect places to 656 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,000 Speaker 1: really showcase what that technology can do. Is that something 657 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:55,800 Speaker 1: that the city has been looking at as well? Absolutely? 658 00:33:56,080 --> 00:34:00,480 Speaker 1: Um Now, I'll put in a disclaimer. Every Summer Olympics 659 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,640 Speaker 1: says that we are the most technologically advanced Summer Olympics 660 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:07,160 Speaker 1: to date. And of course because every four years technology moves, 661 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:10,160 Speaker 1: so yes, they set it back, you know, in ninety six, 662 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:12,799 Speaker 1: they'll say it in two thousand and twenty eight. But 663 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,000 Speaker 1: with that being said, if you think about the year 664 00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:17,680 Speaker 1: two thousand and twenty eight, you're thinking about a time 665 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:20,520 Speaker 1: frame in which autonomous vehicles will have much more traction, 666 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:25,760 Speaker 1: five G will be ubiquitous, augmented reality, virtual reality, you know, AI, 667 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:29,600 Speaker 1: machine learning, all these technologies will have had not just 668 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:33,000 Speaker 1: been introduced, but have much more maturity. So I really 669 00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:36,399 Speaker 1: do expect the two thousand Olympics to be something completely 670 00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:38,640 Speaker 1: next level. And so what do you see it. We 671 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:41,320 Speaker 1: see it in two areas. One area is actually running 672 00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:44,960 Speaker 1: the Olympics itself, is creating this fantastic experience for the 673 00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:47,120 Speaker 1: people who fly in. Let's say you fly into l 674 00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:50,240 Speaker 1: a X, you are have a concier service that helps 675 00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:53,160 Speaker 1: you get to your hotel. It helps you get two restaurants. 676 00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:56,040 Speaker 1: You're being pushed coupons if you're so interested, so they 677 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:59,960 Speaker 1: could help incentivize going to one restaurant over another. You're, 678 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:02,840 Speaker 1: you know, doing your tourism. You've got this complete digital 679 00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:05,799 Speaker 1: experience to help you navigate a large city of four 680 00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:07,840 Speaker 1: and sixty nine square miles as well as get you 681 00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,920 Speaker 1: two and from your venues, contactless payment, single payment methods 682 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,719 Speaker 1: that whether using Uber or a city bus, you can 683 00:35:14,920 --> 00:35:16,560 Speaker 1: use the same app to be able to make those 684 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:18,680 Speaker 1: things happen. So there's a long list of these tremendous 685 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:22,279 Speaker 1: benefits that helped the event itself. But I have to 686 00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:24,480 Speaker 1: hand it to Mayor Eric Garcetti, and he said, listen, 687 00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,720 Speaker 1: it's not just about the event itself, because that comes 688 00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:30,160 Speaker 1: over the matter of a few short for weeks. It's 689 00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:33,520 Speaker 1: really about the legacy that's left after the Olympics. After 690 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:36,800 Speaker 1: the Olympics, most folks don't know that the Amateur Athletic 691 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:41,520 Speaker 1: Foundation created this this grant in which something like almost 692 00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:45,160 Speaker 1: a million youth have had free youth sports because of 693 00:35:45,160 --> 00:35:47,000 Speaker 1: the money that was invested in and came out of 694 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:51,120 Speaker 1: the Olympics. And so you know, eight hundred thousand plus people, 695 00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:53,840 Speaker 1: including many of which young girls who are traditionally often 696 00:35:53,880 --> 00:35:57,399 Speaker 1: aren't incorporated into youth sports, have had these tremendous opportunities. 697 00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:59,680 Speaker 1: So when we look at the Olympics, we're not just 698 00:35:59,719 --> 00:36:02,480 Speaker 1: folks on the Olympics themselves, but what is the legacy 699 00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:05,960 Speaker 1: that we leave. What is the infrastructure, the fiber optic infrastructure, 700 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:10,399 Speaker 1: the five G infrastructure, the applications, the digital concierge, these 701 00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:13,360 Speaker 1: things that we can use for the Olympics, But unlike 702 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:16,080 Speaker 1: some other countries, we don't just abandon it right after 703 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:19,200 Speaker 1: the Olympics are over, but we continue to parlay that. 704 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:22,640 Speaker 1: That's a great answer to that question. I live in Atlanta, 705 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:27,840 Speaker 1: so I look at the Olympics and how that helped 706 00:36:27,880 --> 00:36:30,160 Speaker 1: transform the city I live in, and I think about 707 00:36:30,320 --> 00:36:33,920 Speaker 1: the technology we have today and how that could have 708 00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:39,640 Speaker 1: been such an enormous boon to the city both during 709 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:43,120 Speaker 1: the Olympics and beyond, and it just makes me wish 710 00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:45,880 Speaker 1: that we had been further along. But now we live 711 00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:48,160 Speaker 1: in a different world where we do we just we 712 00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,960 Speaker 1: get those constant notifications that we can act on and 713 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,640 Speaker 1: we can implement and have that make an impact in 714 00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:57,319 Speaker 1: our lives. So I find this truly exciting, and I 715 00:36:57,360 --> 00:37:00,400 Speaker 1: love the fact that you're talking about infrastructure does have 716 00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:04,000 Speaker 1: utility beyond a truly phenomenal event. I don't want to 717 00:37:04,040 --> 00:37:08,480 Speaker 1: downplay the Olympics, but something that has utility beyond just 718 00:37:08,719 --> 00:37:13,720 Speaker 1: those couple of weeks in a summer, So that's very exciting. Yeah, 719 00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:17,280 Speaker 1: I'd say it's good to deliver good technology for the event, 720 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:20,640 Speaker 1: but it's great to deliver technology that service the event 721 00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,480 Speaker 1: and services over four million people or over forty eight 722 00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:26,680 Speaker 1: million visitors thereafter. And when you work in government, I'm 723 00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:28,920 Speaker 1: a taxpayer. I don't want to spend money on something 724 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:31,760 Speaker 1: that's throw away. That's not how government needs to operate. 725 00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:34,080 Speaker 1: I need to be able to incorporate things that really 726 00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:37,040 Speaker 1: will provide utility and value because people are paying their 727 00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:42,120 Speaker 1: taxes for it. We all know that in the world 728 00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:46,799 Speaker 1: of tech, there's always one more thing. So here's the 729 00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:51,200 Speaker 1: one more thing. I wanted to ask ted Ross, what's 730 00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:54,880 Speaker 1: the best piece of advice you would share to your peers. 731 00:37:56,239 --> 00:38:01,120 Speaker 1: I would say, you know, understand your government, nderstand your organization, 732 00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:03,759 Speaker 1: and then understand what private sector is doing with technology 733 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:07,040 Speaker 1: and then make that that crosswalk. There's so many great 734 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,640 Speaker 1: things that private sector companies are doing with technology, and 735 00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:11,279 Speaker 1: it's not because they have a bunch of money. It's 736 00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:14,279 Speaker 1: because they understand, they get it, they have a philosophy, 737 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:16,759 Speaker 1: they understand what technology means and what and what it 738 00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:19,520 Speaker 1: means to be digital. So cross apply that into government 739 00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:22,040 Speaker 1: and you don't have to bring their budgets with you. 740 00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:23,600 Speaker 1: You can leverage a lot of things they do that 741 00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:25,400 Speaker 1: are actually pretty low cost. So that would be my 742 00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:29,840 Speaker 1: advice to my colleagues. Ted, thank you so much for 743 00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:34,160 Speaker 1: your time and your expertise. I greatly appreciate my pleasure, 744 00:38:34,200 --> 00:38:36,080 Speaker 1: thank you for having me, and I hope that folks 745 00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:43,480 Speaker 1: listening to it find these kinds of topics interesting. One 746 00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,040 Speaker 1: thing I have come to appreciate as I've had the 747 00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:49,600 Speaker 1: chance to speak with tech leaders in business is how 748 00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,040 Speaker 1: valuable communication skills are when it comes to doing your 749 00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:57,319 Speaker 1: job effectively. Yes, you need a good eye for technology. 750 00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:00,040 Speaker 1: You need to be able to envision new approaches to 751 00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:03,080 Speaker 1: old problems. You need to be able to pivot quickly 752 00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:06,560 Speaker 1: when issues arise. But you also have to do all 753 00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:12,319 Speaker 1: of this while maintaining delicate connections between different departments, divisions, executives, 754 00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:16,560 Speaker 1: and customers. Those are lessons that apply across the board, 755 00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:22,800 Speaker 1: no matter what sort of organization we're looking at. Thank 756 00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:25,680 Speaker 1: you for tuning into the restless ones. Be sure to 757 00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:28,400 Speaker 1: subscribe to the show, as we will be having conversations 758 00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:31,880 Speaker 1: with forward thinking leaders throughout the year, learning what makes 759 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,640 Speaker 1: them tick and what it's like to lead in a 760 00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:38,640 Speaker 1: world that is in a constant state of change and evolution. 761 00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:48,520 Speaker 1: I've been your host, Jonathan Strickland. These days, new ways 762 00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:51,040 Speaker 1: of working have become the norm, and the status quo 763 00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:53,560 Speaker 1: no longer cuts it when it comes to helping businesses 764 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:57,240 Speaker 1: evolve and grow. That's why Team Mobile for Business uses 765 00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:01,680 Speaker 1: unconventional thinking to help businesses see ease innovation only. T 766 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:05,799 Speaker 1: Mobile offers America's largest and fastest five gene network, which 767 00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:10,400 Speaker 1: makes their new WFX solutions possible, letting businesses stay connected 768 00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,880 Speaker 1: and productive where work happens. See what T Mobile for 769 00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:16,279 Speaker 1: Business can do for you at t mobile dot com. 770 00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:20,040 Speaker 1: Slash Unconventional Open Signal awarded T Mobile fastest five G 771 00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:22,640 Speaker 1: network based on average speeds USA five G User Experience 772 00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:26,360 Speaker 1: Report January. Capable device required converts on available in some areas, 773 00:40:26,400 --> 00:40:28,640 Speaker 1: Some users may require certain Planner feature see t mobile 774 00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:32,400 Speaker 1: dot com