COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) β The Heartland Developers Conference has been running for about two decades, but this is the first year it's been held in Council Bluffs.
- Pottawattamie County Special Deputy Anthony Kava, known for his online investigative work, was the keynote speaker on Tuesday. He featured prominently in a Netflix documentary and Dateline NBC special.
- AIM President and CEO Dala Alphonso says there is a shortage of tech talent in the Midwest and part of AIM's mission is to close that talent gap.
- KMTV is delighted to be a media sponsor for this year's conference.
WATCH KATRINA'S STORY HERE
RELATED | 'LOVER STALKER KILLER': Pott. County investigators talk about participating in Netflix documentary
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"I'm really excited to see how the day turns out. This is a lot more than I thought it was going to be," said Eileen Long, a QA Engineer at Hudl in Lincoln.
From solving cyber crimes to the future of AI, Heartland Developers Conference (HDC) is in full swing in Council Bluffs. I'm Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel.
Organized by technology-focused nonprofit, AIM Institute, KMTV is the media sponsor of HDC. And since it's being held in Council Bluffs for the first time, I was asked to emcee.
AIM CEO, Dala Alphonso says there's no 'fluffy stuff' at this conference: "Whatever technology that it is you're interacting with β it could be entering data β somebody builds that interface. This is the group of people who do that type of stuff."
Best known as the technology investigator in the Netflix documentary "Lover Stalker Killer," Pottawattamie County Special Deputy Anthony Kava was the opening speaker.
"Sometimes I talk to cops, I talk to prosecutors, and they're lovely, but these are my people," he said.
Eileen Long was moved by Kava's message that technology can be used for good.
"Putting a little more thought into what we build at this point in time, can impact where we are 10 years in the future," Long said.
After working in social services, Drew Pauly is now an IT student. He's fascinated by how quickly technology has evolved: "β¦That I wanted to be a part of the future of where technology goes."
"In Nebraska alone, 30- to 50,000 technology jobs that go unfilled year after year," Alphonso. "Meaning that the demand is there but we're not able to find the talent."
"I didn't have a college degree. But I had a huge interest in this and I put the work into learning it," Kava said.
"So we've got to be a lot more aggressive, work twice as hard to be able to get people to come live, work here because the Midwest is awesome," Alphonso added.
"And there's no shortage of work," said Kava.
