Thank you to all the attendees and presenters for making this event a success!
It was great for us to be able to get these training events going again and we are looking forward to our next event in the Spring!
For those of you who missed this one, I will give a quick summary of topics and presenters below along with their contact information if you want to follow up with them.
Our own Keith Grube presented on doing investigations on tribal land. Some of the takeaways were to go slow, understanding that each tribe has a different culture, language, and customs. Get to know these before charging in and making waves. It won’t take long for everyone to know you are there! Get to know some of the language and at least know how to say “Hi” and “Thank you”, language and showing that you acknowledge their history and sovereignty go a long way. Keith’s company is Owakpmani and you can contact him at keith@keithgrube.com.
Jennifer McManus of McManus Tax was the next presenter and did a fantastic job of summarizing some of the most important facets of keeping good accounting records. For those of us who don’t love accounting, getting a professional to help us can:
- Save us money!
- Keep us out of trouble with the IRS and State Dept of Revenue!
- Help us track our revenue and expenses to find trends, patterns, and balance our books.
- Make it much easier when it comes to tax time and we are preparing our taxes.
Jennifer walked us through some of the most important financial documents that help us run our business, discussed employee/contractor status, showed us some of the most popular accounting software, and answered the many questions we had as small business owners. Thank you Jennifer!
You can reach Jennifer at jennifer@mcmanustax.com or through her website at https://www.mcmanustax.com/
Aaron Amick discussed Digital Hygiene and Privacy and Security concerns around our most vulnerable tech (phones and laptops). Aaron warned us that it would be like drinking from a firehose and he wasn’t kidding! The amount of information he shared was impressive. He discussed the difference between privacy and security and some of the vast amounts of data that we give away through the use of our normal Android and Apple devices. It was frankly terrifying to know how much specific data that we transmit every second of every day. Aaron then walked us through the process of using open source OS software and apps on a Google Pixel phone that would allow us to take greater control of our data and greatly reduce the specificity and amount of data that we give away.
Aaron teaches a two day DHAC course that we can highly recommend to gain further knowledge and insight in how to take more control over our data and protect our information. Aaron can be reached at dhac@graphenegoat.com and through his website https:/graphenegoat.com/courses/dhac/
Our final presenter of the day was Cody Brown of Security Research Group. Cody discussed the myths and realities of “hacking” computers and phones and gave us a real-time view of how simple it was to hack a computer. Scary fast! Cody also discussed some of the various standards of compliance in the digital/cyber security world and gave us some insight into the more robust methods and terminology used to protect our systems and data. We got even more insight after hearing about some actual case studies that resulted in some large financial losses and how those were accomplished using fairly rudimentary means. After sharing those stories, Cody informed us about some techniques that could greatly reduce the potential of being hacked and having our money or data stolen.
Finally we had some great questions and answers about upcoming trends in the cybers security and compliance and regulations of data that will affect us all.
Cody can be reached at cody@securityresearch.us and through his website https://securityresearch.us/
Attendees of this conference received a lot of great and useful information and will also get a certificate of completion for 8 hours of Continuing Education.
Thanks to everyone who participated! And especially to Keith Shores (Education Committee), Lael Henterly (Public Relations Committee), and Ken Peterson (Education Committee) for organizing and executing a great training event!
See you all at the Spring Educational Conference!
Greg Glassock
President, PNAI
