Cybersecurity, AI to Highlight 7/9 IT Virtual Roundtable Premiere

The first-ever TRSA Information Technology Virtual Roundtable, the inaugural event for TRSA’s New IT Network, takes place at 1 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 9. This free-to-TRSA-member event will foster discussion among participants on IT issues including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI).

Through the use of Zoom’s gallery view capability, TRSA virtual roundtables simulate the networking of a small TRSA face-to-face meeting, with participants sitting at a round or hollow square table, seeing everybody in the room. Attendees present the subject matter, answering moderators’ questions, unlike webinars, in which the reverse is true. The variety of perspectives presented provides attendees with networking value and guides TRSA in developing programs to meet their emerging needs.

The roundtable attendee roster will establish the TRSA IT Network, an outgrowth of the TRSA IT Committee, formed in 2023. Network members will be:

• Informed about future roundtables
• Given suggestions for relevant reading/viewing in TRSA and business media
• Advised of in-person TRSA events featuring IT presentations

Cybersecurity and risk management have been high IT Committee priorities. A committee task force surveyed TRSA members last summer to guide TRSA projects in these fields, concluding members would benefit from:

• Templates for IT disaster planning, cyber incident response and vendor risk assessment
• Guidance to prepare for cyberattacks; related impacts, statistics and insurance
• Discussion of backup protocols

Register here for the roundtable, in which moderators will prompt participants to recount their experience with various types of cyberattacks, including ransomware.

AI’s potential to improve linen and uniform operations will be discussed. Potential applications, present and future, include:

• Video recording of employees at work with electric-eye viewing of hours of such footage in minutes to improve ergonomics
• Automated screening of employment applications
• Chat-bot-written documents, such as job ads
• Improved machine learning

Nonmember operators are welcome to participate.