Events

CEN Member Training: Securing the Future - Zero Trust, AI Guardrails, and Beyond for K-12 Schools

May 22, 2025, 11AM - 12:30PM

Presenters:

Erica Hartman, Senior SLED Account Executive, iboss
Richard Quinones, SVP Public Education, State and Local Government, iboss
Mike Robbins, Solutions Engineer, iboss

Join iboss and CEN districts for an informative webinar designed to help K-12 schools enhance cybersecurity, improve classroom management, and implement AI security guardrails. This 90-minute session will provide critical insights into Zero Trust Security, iboss features you already have access to you may be underutilizing, new iboss features tailored for education, and best practices for securing Generative AI.

AI for the CEN Community: Training Series

Jan 2025 - Dec 2025

Presenter: Izzy Sobkowski

This learning program empowers CEN members to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their operations. Participants will gain essential knowledge of AI's potential and practical applications, enabling informed decision-making and community innovation.

Program Structure:

Seminars
- Frequency: Quarterly (4 sessions/year)
- Duration: 90 minutes each
- Topics: Ethical and Social Implications of AI, Foundations of AI, Strategic Implementation of AI, and Future Trends and Practical Applications.
Member Use-Case Meetings
- Frequency: Monthly (8 sessions/year)
- Duration: 60-90 minutes each
- Focus: Practical applications, developing AI solutions, case studies, workshops on AI tools, and collaborative problem-solving for local challenges.

CEN Connect 2025 - Annual Member Conference

Wednesday, May 7 & Thursday, May 8, 2025

CEN is happy to announce that our 12th Annual Member Conference will be hosted on May 7 - 8, 2025 at the Connecticut Convention Center.

Join us in celebrating 25 years of service! The CEN Member Conference offers a unique opportunity to network and collaborate with over 700 of your colleagues and industry experts in an event crafted specifically for members by members. We are excited to bring our community together at the largest IT event of the year!

Community Wi-Fi Program Info Session Webinars

January 9 - January 24, 2025

The Community Wi-Fi program is a $10 million competitive reimbursement subgrant under the CEN Broadband Infrastructure Program, funded by the ARPA Capital Project Fund and supported by Governor Lamont’s Connecticut’s Plan for the American Rescue Plan of 2021. Designed to aid COVID-19 recovery, the program enhances internet infrastructure for work, education, health, and wellness. By leveraging the CEN infrastructure platform, the program will expand high-quality, secure, 802.11-based wireless internet access through Community Anchor Institutions (CAIs) across Connecticut, with a focus on underserved and economically disadvantaged communities. The program also promotes the adoption of eduroam®, a global platform for secure, authenticated Wi-Fi access, further extending connectivity and support to users across institutions. Any CAI can apply for grant funds to attach to CEN and expand high-quality and secure Wi-Fi in their communities.

Member Training - Transitioning to IPv6 as a preferred network protocol

Tuesday, October 22, 10am-11am

Presenter: Jason Healy

IPv6 continues to gain acceptance worldwide, but access to IPv4 resources will remain necessary for the foreseeable future. Organizations need a way to support both protocols without incurring significant configuration and troubleshooting. Suffield Academy is in the process of moving to IPv6-preferred for its network clients, giving them only an IPv6 address. Connectivity to legacy IPv4 resources is provided "as a service" using NAT64/DNS64 and related technologies. We will share a framework for making this transition, with concrete steps at each phase that attendees can use on their own networks. We will also share "lessons learned" from our production environment to help avoid common pitfalls. The techniques apply both to dual-stack networks and to networks looking to move more aggressively to IPv6-preferred or -only operation. Open-source software is used to demonstrate functionality, providing a low-cost and path for attendees to pilot and test their own implementations

Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan Workshop Series with CISA & CTNG

Date: July - August, please select a date below
Presenters: David Palmbach and Joel Fulsang

CISA and the Connecticut National Guard (CTNG) are hosting an Incident Response (IR) workshop for municipalities and schools to help ensure everyone has a cyber ready IR plan.

Participants will go through CISA's Incident Management resource guide, which describes how to build an incident response plan, and covers topics like detection, triage, incident declaration, creating an incident response team, communications, mitigation, recovery, and the post-incident improvement process. Several free resources will be covered during the workshop including CISA's incident response playbook and templates you can use to get started. In addition, CTNG will conduct an interactive group discussion to help participants fill gaps in their plans, share ideas, and learn from others. Executive leadership from municipalities and school districts are welcome to attend along with their IT professionals to gain knowledge and understanding on how to manage cyber incidents.
Having an incident response plan is essential to building your organizations operational resilience and should be a priority for every organization. Join in with your colleagues and help improve your organizations cyber incident response plan today!

Cyber Nutmeg 2024

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Cyber Nutmeg 2024 is a one-day event taking place on October 10, 2024 at the Hartford Marriott Downtown, designed to raise awareness of cybersecurity threats and recommended defenses to protect your organization.

This event is intended for state, municipal, and educational leaders, including but not limited to: first selectmen, mayors, town managers, superintendents, and the IT and cybersecurity professionals who support them. Given the current threats posed by various actors across the cyber domain, it is more imperative than ever that we ensure our vigilance and commitment to improving our cyber security posture across the state. The Cyber Nutmeg event is an opportunity to share our collective challenges, discuss innovative solutions, and work toward our common goal: securing our state’s networks and protecting our data.

Cyber Nutmeg consists of three main components: Threat Briefing from the FBI, Homeland Security, and CT Counter Terrorism and Intelligence (CTIC); Cyber Security Awareness Training/workshops; a National Guard led Tabletop exercise where blended groups can work collaboratively to focus on today’s most prevalent threats. It is encouraged you share openly and offer your perspective to the group. This is a great opportunity for chief executives, leaders, and technology professionals to network with colleagues, expand your professional network, and get plugged into the cybersecurity community!

Annual Member Conference - 2024 CEN Member Conference

Wednesday, May 8 & Thursday, May 9, 2024

CEN is happy to announce that our 11th Annual Member Conference will be a 2-day event hosted in-person on Wednesday, May 8, & Thursday, May 9, 2024 at the Connecticut Convention Center. The CEN Member Conference offers a unique and exciting opportunity to bond and collaborate with over 600 of your colleagues and industry experts in an event crafted specifically for members by members. Featuring more training, collaboration, education, and networking than ever before, join us as we celebrate bringing our community together!

CEN's Next Generation Infrastructure - CT's first 400G Network

Tuesday, March 12th 10:00 am - 11:00 am 2024 (Virtual Webinar)

CEN's 400G network upgrade is here! CEN CONNECT - Next Generation Infrastructure (NGI) provides a $41M investment in the network. The NGI project will provide a comprehensive infrastructure update to the CEN network expanding capacity, increasing speeds, further lowering latency, and supporting long term growth in Internet use.

Join us at an upcoming webinar to learn more of the benefits for your organization, when the implementation will occur, and what may be expected of your organization.

Cyber Nutmeg 2023

October 20, 2023

Central Connecticut State University, 8AM – 5PM

Cyber Nutmeg 2023 is a one-day event designed to heighten your awareness on cybersecurity threats and defenses you can deploy to protect your organization.

Cyber Nutmeg consists of three main components: Threat Briefing from the FBI, Homeland Security, and CT Counter Terrorism and Intelligence (CTIC); Cyber Security Awareness Training/workshops; a National Guard led Tabletop exercise where blended groups can work collaboratively to focus on today’s most prevalent threats (insert threat theme(s) here). It is encouraged you share openly and offer your perspective to the group. This is a great opportunity for chief executives, leaders, and technology professionals to network with colleagues, expand your professional network, and get plugged into the cybersecurity community!

CEN Member Training: Apply ITIL/ITSM Best Practices to Educational Technology Service Delivery

Wednesday, September 26, 1PM – 2PM

Presenters: Wanda Wager and Wade Arenburg

Understand the origins of information technology service management (ITSM) and evidence-based best practices, activities, governance, and improvement capabilities. Evidence-based practices include agile management, Lean (waste reduction) and DevOps (holistic) practices. Relate the guiding principles to your work: focus on value, start where you are, progress iteratively with feedback, collaborate and promote visibility, think and work holistically, keep it simple and practical, and optimize and automate. Link service management to your organization's overall business model and educational digital transformation. Discuss an iterative approach to adopting best practices.

Annual Member Conference - 2023 CEN Member Conference

May 11, 2023

CEN is happy to announce that our 10th Annual Member Conference will be hosted in-person on Thursday, May 11, 2023 at the Connecticut Convention Center. The CEN Member Conference offers a unique and exciting opportunity to bond and collaborate with over 600 of your colleagues and industry experts in a one-day event crafted specifically for members by members. Featuring more training, collaboration, education, and networking than ever before, join us as we celebrate bringing our community together!

Member Training Webinar: Data Retention
Thursday November 17, 1 PM - 2:30 PM
Presenters: Elise Marzik, LeAnn Power, Michelle Laubin , Bryan LeClerc

This webinar will provide an overview of data retention rules and best practices for schools and municipalities, with your questions answered by some of the state’s leading experts. LeAnn Burbank and Elise Marzik of the State Library will provide an overview of the state records retention schedules and record management policies. In addition, Michelle Laubin of the Berchem Moses law firm will speak to best practices for translating records retention schedules into preparing for FOI requests, litigation holds, and other potential risks to schools. Her colleague, Bryan LeClerc, will follow by addressing municipal records retention.

Member Training Webinar: Data Breach
Wednesday October 26, 2 PM - 3:30 PM
Presenter: David Sun

Data Breaches and Ransomware: How You and Your Organization Can Sleep a Little Better at Night

Data breaches and ransomware continue to make the headlines, and for good reason; the hackers continue to get bolder every day in their attacks. Organizations and individuals are targets and the ramifications can be significant. This presentation will review the latest trends in cybersecurity and what they mean to your organization and its people. Attendees will learn the latest business processes, management techniques to put their organization on better footing against the current cyber threat landscape.

Member Training Webinar: Data Privacy
Tuesday September 27, 1 PM - 2:30 PM
Presenters: Gwen Zittoun

Protecting the privacy of students, faculty, and staff in the public K-12 space is imperative. This presentation will address relevant federal and Connecticut statutes regarding student data privacy. This discussion will focus on Connecticut PA 16-189, as well as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Best practices for fulfilling a district’s responsibilities will be discussed, including review of a vendor’s Privacy Policy and contracting with vendors. Attendees will learn the requirements for complying with Connecticut’ student data privacy law, the federal rules relative to the disclosure to third parties of personally identifiable student information, and when parent consent is required prior to sharing student information.

Member Training Webinar: Securly's AI - The Balance Between Responsible and Effective
Wednesday July 27, 1 PM - 2 PM
Presenters: Marissa Angel, Chris Macca

With growing 1:1 initiatives in K-12 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increase in digital learning environments, schools are faced with new risks which need to be managed. Enter AI -- a technology that when used properly, can have an enormous impact on overall student wellness and beyond. Participants will leave the presentation with information that can spark productive conversations about how AI can be used positively and productively in their district. Better yet, Securly will be discussing new tools and features that were recently unveiled and as a result, will soon be added to the list of options that CEN members can procure via members-only pricing.

Annual Member Conference - 2022 CEN Member Conference

May 5, 2022

CEN is happy to announce that our 9th Annual Member Conference will be hosted in-person on Thursday, May 5, 2022 at the Connecticut Convention Center. The CEN Member Conference offers a unique and exciting opportunity to bond and collaborate with over 550 of your colleagues and industry experts in a one-day event crafted specifically for members by members. Featuring more training, collaboration, education, and networking than ever before, join us as we celebrate bringing our community together again in-person!

Webinar - Fy2022: An E-Rate Primer for Schools and Libraries
Presenters: Bob Richter, Paul Tarsa

Date: December 15, 2021

Time: 1 PM - 2 PM

This one-hour presentation (45 minutes of information, 15 minutes of Q&A) will cover the basics of the E-Rate Program for Funding Year 2022, including an overview of the Forms 470 and 471, calculating discounts, calculating budgets, eligible products, program touch points, and the rules that both service providers and applicants must follow. We’ll highlight any changes from FY 2021 (although we don’t expect many.)

CEN Virtual Member Town Hall

Dates Offered: September 30, 2021, October 5, 2021, October 14, 2021

Time: 10 AM - 12 PM

Join us for a town hall style meeting on Microsoft Teams! We are excited to meet virtually with our members from across the state to share important and timely CEN updates, to hear your feedback, and to learn more about how we can work and grow together.

The meeting agenda will include:

CEN Service Dashboard
UC/VOIP RFP
Security Services RFP
NextGen CEN Infrastructure Update
Eduroam
Member Conference
Quarterly Training Schedule

Quarterly Training - AI and Proctoring & Alternative Assessments
Speakers: Kaitlin Walsh, Daniel Facchinetti, Barbara Johnson, Jenn Kozniewski
Moderator: Sam Lee
Panelist: Doug Casey

Date: September 23, 2021

Time: 1 pm

Over the past year and a half, K-12 schools, higher education institutions, and libraries have faced numerous challenges concerning monitoring students virtually while maintaining student data privacy policy. Join us September 23, 2021 at 1 pm for this interactive discussion to learn and share best practices and discuss alternative assessment methods. There will be a 30-minute open Q&A following the event with student data privacy expert, Doug Casey, and our well-versed group of speakers available for questions.

ERN - All Hands Meeting

Dates: July 13-15, 2021

CEN is encouraging research active institutions to take a moment to register for the virtual ERN All Hands Meeting being held July 13 - 15, 2021, in six 2 hour sessions spaced over three days. If you haven't already done so, please do so now! The virtual All Hands Meeting (AHM) gives the community an opportunity to come together and discuss current and future ERN projects, collaborations and partnerships, the five ERN Working Groups’ efforts, future funding opportunities, future workshops, and other topics. With a flexible schedule at hand, attendees can pick and choose sessions that are most relevant to them! Join one, or join them all. ERN will be sending Zoom information to only those who register. Please make sure to register by July 9, 2021. More details will be posted on the ERN website, https://ernrp.org, once the schedule is finalized.

Annual Member Conference - 2021 CEN Member Conference

Date: May 11-13, 2021

CEN would like to thank everyone who attended and participated in the 2021 Virtual Member Conference! CEN and its Member Engagement Advisory Council hosted our Annual Member Conference virtually May 11-13, 2021, in place of the traditional in-person event.

The virtual format featured the same wide-ranging display of emerging technologies, best practices, member – vendor partnerships, and innovative solutions to the challenges faced by the CEN membership. Recordings of all sessions will remain active until February 24, 2022 for all registered participants to access. Visit the link here to log in and watch the sessions that you missed during the event. CEN Virtual Member Conference

Annual Member Conference - 2020 CEN Member Conference CANCELED

Date: October 6-7, 2020

We have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Annual Member Conference scheduled in Hartford on October 6-7.

In light of the continuing challenges and uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the unpredictability of travel restrictions, budgetary challenges, and the ongoing health and safety concerns of our membership, the EDAC in conjunction with CEN leadership felt holding the event as scheduled is unrealistic and impractical. All conference registrants will receive a full refund.

Goodness Gracious, Great Walls of Fire: CEN's Border Firewall for Advanced Protection
Presenters: Stephen Shaw, Rick Cheung

Date: November 13, 2020

Time: 1pm - 2pm

CEN’s Firewall Service provides increased protection with enterprise grade, high availability Fortinet technology and a level of service choice, Virtual (co-managed) or Managed, to fit the needs of each subscribing member. Both services offer the same technology and security features and benefits. This session will provide members with a better understanding of how this firewall will work in their architecture, and how CEN's Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP), Foresite, can help streamline the migration from an on-premises firewall to the hosted model. Additionally, Foresite provides the expertise to help members build a more rigorous and thorough base of rules and policies to improve their security profile, and they will provide the ongoing support to effectively protect members from the barrage of threats.

No-Cost Cybersecurity Tools and Resources with the MS-ISAC
Presenters: Brian Calkin, Kyle Bryans

Date: October 21, 2020

Time: 1pm - 2pm

In this session, we will seek to provide an introduction to the free services and resources offered by the MS-ISAC to assist the public sector, including a deeper dive into our new no-cost MDBR solution. In a connected world, cybersecurity is the responsibility not only of our IT leaders and specialists, but everyone within an organization. The MS-ISAC is the focal point for cyber threat prevention, protection, response and recovery for the nation's state, local, tribal and territorial (SLTT) governments. Collaboration and information sharing among members, private sector partners and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are the keys to success.

Using Personas for Accessible Design
Presenter: Kathryn Weber-Hottleman

Date: September 30, 2020

Time: 1pm - 2pm

There are a few steps that developers and designers can take to incorporate accessibility from the beginning of a solution’s design. One way of doing this is to create additional personas that are users with disabilities. Having a primary persona with a disability means that disability will never be far from developers’ and designers’ minds. Another way to keep accessibility present is to include it in scenario design.

Effective Vulnerability Management
Presenter: Kevin Hayes

Date: August 13, 2020

Time: 1:30pm - 3pm

Vulnerability scanning is a keystone necessary to stabilize your organizations’ security posture. This webinar is divided into equal portions learning, demonstration and FAQ session to clearly outline and highlight the benefits most applicable to your specific organization. In this webinar we will cover: An overview of risk management concepts; The current threat landscape; A live demo showcasing vulnerability exploitation; Key vulnerability scanning and management concepts; Practical examples of vulnerability scanning; Open Q & A Session

Data Privacy and Contact Tracing
Moderator: Karen Warren
Presenters: Doug Casey, Sebastian Zimmeck, Mike Newcomb, Chris Sette
Click here for presenter bios.

Date: July 22, 2020

Time: 1pm - 2:30pm

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in many areas. Education institutions are particularly hit hard as there will be a need to re-open campuses safely. It will be extremely important to bring back students and ensure safety at the same time. Hesitation is likely, as the classroom is not an easy place to practice social distancing. In addition to promoting personal hygiene, regulations will likely include the ability to track potential outbreaks early and isolate affected students and staff. “Contact tracing” is a key method that will help to mitigate a major outbreak on campus. Contact tracing is a process that is activated when you have a confirmed case of COVID. This process involves tracking down everyone who has had close contact (within six feet over for more than a couple of minutes). Join representatives from Wesleyan University, Meriden Public Schools, The State of Connecticut, and Juniper Networks as they discuss the technologies emerging in the space, the challenges of implementation and the implication of using them.

Network Recommendations in the Age of COVID-19
Thursday July 16, 1pm - 2:30pm

Join Craig Holland, Director of IT for Newington Public Schools, and Ryan Kocsondy, Director of CEN, for a session dedicated to “Network Considerations in the age of COVID-19”. This discussion will review important considerations for IT Professionals, Institutional Leaders, and Policy makers to be aware of in preparation for Fall 2020 activities and beyond. Topics include: Broadband Speed Guide, Video Requirements by platform, Network Load Calculations, COVID Realizations on Network Performance, General Guidance for hybrid environments, and Public Policy Recommendations.

Keeping Students Safe at Home - Featuring iboss
Thursday June 25, 1pm - 2:30pm

Protecting students while on-line learning at home and ensuring CIPA compliance are primary and urgent requirements for CEN’s K-12 IT community. CEN has partnered with iboss to provide members solutions at no additional cost. This session will provide information on the features and capabilities of the iboss cloud product, how and why your member colleagues migrated to the cloud from hosted or on-prem school appliance solutions, and it will offer a forum for questions, answers, and sharing.

Keeping Students Safe at Home - Featuring Securly
Wednesday June 17, 2pm - 3:30pm

Protecting students while on-line learning at home and ensuring CIPA compliance are primary and urgent requirements for CEN’s K-12 IT community. CEN has partnered with Securly to provide members solutions at discounted pricing. This session will provide information on the portfolio of Securly student safety products and how they protect students at school, at home, and elsewhere. The session will include first hand feedback from your member colleagues and a forum for questions, answers, and sharing.

CEN Town Hall Meeting

Join us for a CEN Town Hall meeting on May 15 or 22! We are excited to meet virtually with our members from across the state to share important and timely CEN updates, to hear your feedback, and to learn more about how we can work and grow together.

The meeting agenda will include:

Cloud Services Updates
Network Enhancements
Support for 1:1 Initiatives
Filtering & Student Safety
Advisory Councils Update
Member Conference Plans
Open Forum

We hope to see you there! Please register here to select your preferred date.

Webinar - Important and Time Sensitive E-Rate News - Category 2 Enhancements
Friday, 1/31, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Category 2 E-Rate rules and budgets have been recently changed providing increased benefits to K-12 districts/schools and libraries. There are applicable changes to the current E-Rate Funding Year 2020 (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021) and to future years. This webinar provided by CEN and E-Rate Provider Services included a description of those changes and an explanation of how your organization can benefit.

Topics covered included:

Additional budget for Funding Year 2020
Districtwide budget and rule changes for Funding Year 2021 and beyond
Example budget calculations
Eligible CEN services

Strategic Planning Workshops - CEN Town Hall Meetings

The CEN Team invited our members to join us for Town Hall style meetings. We met in-person with our members from across the state to share important CEN updates, to hear your feedback, and to learn more about how we can grow together. Last year, we had great success with similar meetings to collaborate on the development of CEN’s 5-Year Strategic Plan. At our upcoming Town Hall meetings, members heard more about the goals of that plan and what it means for you and your organization.

We offered meetings at these locations around the state:

CEN Forum - Protecting Our Communities from Ransomware Attacks

We were joined by CEN community members, security experts, and homeland security representatives for an important CEN Forum - Protecting Our Communities from Ransomware Attacks on November, 19 at Central Connecticut State University.

News stories are plentiful of cities and towns paying tens of thousands of dollars to ransomware hackers to get their data back, and this does not include the millions spent in cleanup and in rebuilding a network following an attack. Ransomware attacks are perhaps the greatest current threat to our members' networks, private data, operational continuity, and financial health.

Quarterly Training Sessions - Cyber Defense Clinic

The CEN Engagement and Development Council is pleased to invite you to our next quarterly training event. This event will be a Cyber Defense Clinic presented by Cisco. This training will provide hands-on interaction with the latest tools for IT professionals to hone their cybersecurity expertise. Join us for this unique opportunity to work with an advanced set of automated, integrated, cybersecurity technologies. Participants will experience common cybersecurity attack situations in a virtualized lab environment, including the opportunity to play both the role of attacker and defender.

This event will be held on October 3rd, at Central Connecticut State University, and it is open to all CEN Members. Participants will need to bring a laptop to the training and register prior to the event for a free CCO ID to access Cisco resources. The CCO ID can be easily obtained by following the instructions here: CCO ID Video

View additional details and register here!

Quarterly Training Session - Digital Accessibility Workshop

The third quarterly training was held on June 6, 2019. This presentation included an overview of global standards for digital accessibility, the broad and narrow applications of digital accessibility, technology used to address accessibility and accommodations, training and resources available for faculty, staff, and students, and guidance on how to draft a plan for universal institutional accessibility. The training took place at CCSU and was streamed to ECSU, SCSU, WCSU, and UCONN Stamford. Stay tuned for details on the next quarterly training.

Annual Member Conference - 2019 CEN Member Conference

The CEN member conference is a unique opportunity to join over 500 of your colleagues and industry experts in a one day event geared to educate, communicate and collaborate about common issues in cybersecurity, community best practices, education and innovation, and technology community awareness. Last year's conference featured a keynote by Dr Kate Darling of MIT, 28 parallel sessions to choose from, hot lunch and more! You can view a photo gallery from this event on our Conference page.

Quarterly Training Session - Broadband Tool Kit Workshop

The second quarterly training took place February 22, 2019. The "Toward Gigabit Libraries" project, funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), has created a "Broadband Toolkit" and customized "Broadband Improvement Plan" designed to help public and tribal librarians learn about their current broadband infrastructure and internal information technology (IT) environment. This interactive training took place in at the CT State Library Service Center in Middletown and was steamed live to libraries in Stratford, Old Saybrook, Mansfield, and Litchfield.

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