Much to the excitement of its co-hosts, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC, and the Department of Information Resources (DIR), the e-Records Conference returned to live and in-person attendance on November 18, 2022, for the first time since 2019. That doesn’t mean the conference was exactly the same as it’s always been. One lesson learned in the intervening years was the indisputable reach a virtual event offers to local governments and state agencies across Texas. Therefore, the 2022 e-Records Conference was a hybrid event allowing attendees to choose to attend in-person or wait a few days and access recordings of the sessions that were captured day-of.

The e-Records Conference hosted 54 different Texas state agencies, 12 institutions of higher education, and 51 local governments, as well as 29 private sector groups and three entities from out of state. On-demand options brought in 68 additional attendees, including 39 local government attendees, illustrating the increased reach of offering recorded sessions for those not able to join in-person on the day.

Presenters and 303 attendees discussed a myriad of topics from an opening keynote session about the future of hybrid work (a reality many continue to experience) to the ever-popular public information request response case studies and approaches that encourage citizen engagement and information access.

Take a quick skim of the agenda and it becomes immediately obvious that data governance is on the forefront of everyone’s mind. Many of the sessions helped hone an entity’s approach to data governance, like Kim Kaluba, from Boomi, who discussed what attendees should learn about data governance, which first and foremost begins with setting a solid framework centered around data management policy, as well as Dr. Rhiannon Sanchez, from the Lower Colorado River Authority, and her presentation going into a deeper dive regarding establishing and developing a data governance plan.

There was also a through-line from past eRecords Conferences. Matt Kelly and Jeremy Wilson, both from DIR, delivered a session about Cybersecurity and SB 475 (a follow up to the 2021 conference presentation about the details and demystification of SB 475) that provided details about the current security projects that emerged from the bill including the Cybersecurity Incident Response Team among others.

While we cannot provide access to the recordings after the fact, several sessions provided session slides, which can be found on the conference webpage.

We hope you join us next year!