BDPA Foundation: Message from Atlanta Chapter President

Friday, January 24, 2014

Message from Atlanta Chapter President

Derrick Brown

On Wednesday January 15th we turned up the heat!

It’s been pretty cold in Atlanta so the need to bring the heat was more than appropriate. The evening was all about what BDPA Atlanta would be doing in 2014 and how those activities might actually do something rewarding, like putting money in your pocket.

Now, as I have said time and again it is not about me putting my own personal money in somebody else's pocket. It’s not about a prospective member showing up and expecting to get paid off the cuff. No, it’s about engaging in activities that will give a member the ability to go and find that money where it is accumulating in the industry and grab their share of it, and of course, put it in their pocket, savings account, investment account, whatever is appropriate and best.

We are embarking on an ambitious program of professional and technical development in order to add value for our members. We took the time to walk through this plan with our members and they were more than pleased.

Our approach to 2014 will be holistic in nature. We’ll be providing critical information about personal branding, the image you maintain for yourself as well as the image you present to the world, and why it is critically important. We’ll be talking about the importance of networking and how you do it well. DON’T HOLD THE WALL! Get off the wall and shake someone’s hand. And once you’ve pressed flesh follow up with conversation about what you do, why you do it, and how you do it differently, which clarifies why you do it better. Remember, build a network, leverage a network, create an opportunity.

With the effective elevation of soft skills our members will be ready to engage people from a position of confidence, assured that they have the requisite skills necessary in order to communicate effectively.

In addition to soft skills we will promote our Technological Superiority Themes. These themes are centered around some of the most innovative and hottest areas in technology. The year will cover mobility applications, hybrid clouds, smart machines, and 3D printing. Moreover we will not just offer an introduction. We will provide our members the means to actually get involved with these technologies. We will give them the information they need to make a choice. Do they want a career in one of these areas? If they do, we’ll help them find out who they have to talk to, what they have to read, what certifications are available, and who is hiring.

Tie our professional development efforts with our efforts in technology and we are providing our members with the tools they need to go out and Lock The Job, and in turn build a supremely satisfying and rewarding career.

But that’s not all.

As ever BDPA Atlanta will maintain the organization’s motto, ‘From the classroom to the boardroom’. We will continue to improve our efforts with our Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program. We will field a winning High School Computer Competition (HSCC) team to compete in the 2014 National BDPA HSCC championships being held later this year in Indianapolis.

In addition to all this, we will address the issue of getting our youth engaged in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). We recognize this is a cultural issue, and we will address it by hosting our first-ever BDPA Atlanta STEM Forum for students and their parents. We will put STEM at the forefront of our community and in so doing, maintain the trust that is implied in our motto. We are dedicated to the community and the task of getting us engaged in technology for the benefit of all.

The Aspiring Critical Thinker
Derrick 'D.S.' Brown, president
BDPA Atlanta Chapter