Thursday Program

12:30 PM   Registration & Seating

1:00   Welcome and Introductions -Dean Martin, Hagerstown, MD

1:15   Pastoral Invocation & Prayer -Paul Zehr,  Bayfield, ON

1:30   Who and What is "Intelligent"?   - Dave Burkholder, Pittsgrove, NJ
The rapid and exponential advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology over the past several years are giving many people new insights into what it means to be “intelligent”. AI is automating many tasks that formerly only humans could accomplish, yet researchers and developers struggle to replicate what we’ve long taken for granted. We’ll discuss recent AI developments to to analyze its features, hype, and matters of central concern.

2:15   Business Cybersecurity in a World of Risks  - Marvin Martin, Hagerstown, MD
Amid the usual demands of business, the rising tide of cyber-attacks also clamors for your attention. This session presents practical strategies you can adopt to better understand today’s threats and strengthen your cybersecurity posture.

3:00 BREAK

CF Partner Highlights  
​ Compass has partnered closely with a handful of other tech organizations over the past years. We’ve invited two of them to share their perspectives and projects.

   3:30   Brotherhood Project: MW Private Online  -Mahlon Martin, Mount Forest, ON

   4:00   Tech Partner:  eMyPeople, LLC  -Nathanael Byler, West Farmington, OH

4:15   AI and the Future of Internet Filtering - Dave Burkholder, Pittsgrove, NJ
​ “How are you going to filter AI?” is a common question we hear these days. We’ll summarize recent DrawBridge developments regarding the filtering of AI chatbots and platforms, as well as addressing some overarching concerns from our perspective.

5:00 Supper

Evening General Session

6:00   Registration & Seating      Moderator--Evan Beidler, Mt. Pleasant Mills, PA

6:30   When Johnny Can't Think  - James S Martin, Versailles, MO
For centuries inventors, architects, artists, and writers sweated out the process of birthing new ideas; now ChatGPT does it for them. What happens when we turn over our creative labors to machines? Will we eventually live in a world in which software, books, songs, and sermons are just edited chat bot creations?

7:10   Click Here to Verify your Credit Card  - Joel Steiner, Bayfield, ON
​ Anyone with an email account or internet access needs their alertness sharpened at regular intervals. Scammers don’t give up trying new bait. What are common online scams, scares, and hooks that everyone should stay alert for? What should you do immediately if you suspect you’ve clicked on the wrong thing?

7:45   Walls or Watchmen?  - Dean Martin, Hagerstown, MD
What is the best defense against the dangers of the Information Age? Some people prefer strong walls that prevent incursion from internet evils. Others depend more on watchmen to closely monitor online traffic. Is there still a place for “watchmen upon the walls”?

 

8:20   Keep Yourselves from Idols   - Eli Wideman ,  Madoc, ON

​ The first letter of John ends with a seemingly random P.S. warning about idols. How many of the questions around changing technology are really questions about our loves and loyalties? Perhaps these four words of the Apostle are the best technology advice ever written.

9:00 PM   Dismissal 

Friday Program

The sessions below will be covered throughout the day, presented by various Compass staff members. Workshops will be sub-divided into smaller groups for more effective discussion and training time. The final schedule will be posted on our website closer to the event date.

8:00 AM  Coffee and Registration  

8:30 Welcome and Orientation

GENERAL SESSION: Project Development Review  

Countless lines of new code get committed every year in the Compass Dev corner. This talk will review the progress of recent and current projects in the pipeline.

WORKSHOP: Managing Apps and Appstores

​ Parents and tech committees wish there would be an easier approach. Leaving the commercial app stores open can be a liability for some users, and locking them is highly inconvenient at times. Custom app stores are a compromise, and require high maintenance. We’ll consider various approaches, especially the new option to manage iOS apps by category.

WORKSHOP:  Tech Committee Members: Enrollments, Support, MDM, Portal Use  

​ If you serve in any tech committee capacity where you help your members get devices filtered, or assist with basic support questions related to filtering–this workshop is for you. We’ll answer your questions on setup procedures, device replacements, and common MDM issues. Also, we’ll demo how you can use the Odoo portal to more easily manage devices and accounts.

WORKSHOP: Becoming a DrawBridge User  

​ Group A: Basic overview, dashboard familiarity, configuring allow/block rules, bypasses

Group B: Managing devices, remote and local, diagnostic tools

Group C: Managing policies, blanket blocks, reports

 How do I create Access Policies for this Device? How do I interpret this usage report? This talk will be given in three parts, focusing on the general business owner as well as those with more advanced skills. This talk should deepen your familiarity with the many features in your DrawBridge.

GENERAL SESSION: Always Share Your Toothbrush​  

​ But consider carefully whether to share your internet connectivity. Sharing limited resources has an apparent savings that’s attractive initially. But conditions apply, that only become apparent later - such as when two people need the same vehicle at the same time, or the shared water pressure drops, or the shared electric line trips breakers. This talk will explain how similar constraints apply to sharing DrawBridge internet connectivity.

12:00 PM  LUNCH

GENERAL SESSION:   Managing Video & Streaming Services

At every stage of business life, video content has quickly become unavoidable. Training requirements, product assembly demos, trouble-shooting helps, etc. How can Christian businesses manage both the opportunities and liabilities of video media? Our support staff receive many questions along these lines and this talk will review some of the Media Room features. This period will end with open discussion opportunity for you to share your questions and suggestions.

WORKSHOP: Lost & Found: Data Backup Best Practices  

Anyone who has owned computers or devices for any years can tell a cautionary tale of how they once lost important data. What are cost-effective ways to keep your personal or business data backed up? Are free cloud storage options secure and private? Whether it’s your family photos or your business accounting records, you can’t afford to procrastinate building backup solutions.

GENERAL SESSION:  Compass & Tech Partners: Allies for Your Network  

Many businesses  pay an MSP or IT vendor to keep systems running. How can Compass team up with your MSP to provide DrawBridge-related support? Your MSP could be a DrawBridge dealer and take care of all your network needs.

WORKSHOP: MapleLeaf for Windows

Five The MapleLeaf solution for securing Windows machines continues to be under active development as we strive to keep up with an evolving Windows operating system. This talk will give you an overview of MapleLeaf functions and features you may not be aware of.

WORKSHOP:  Highway N etwork Diagnostic Tool  

​ “When my internet goes down, I call Compass before the ISP because it’s easier to get through to someone.” This talk will demo how you can use Highway Network Scanner as a diagnostic tool for situations like that. The more the customer can help himself the better, and if problem is ours, the more information that can be provided the sooner the situation can be resolved.

GENERAL SESSION: Previewing the New Usage Reports

The current usage report design is one of the oldest features of the current DrawBridge, and it’s time for a refresh. We’ll give an overview of current redesign work and seek to get your feedback on the effectiveness and readability of the changes under consideration.

GENERAL SESSION: Ten Years of AutoFixing  

​ An internet filter, by definition, will sometimes display a block message. And sometimes, there are legitimate reasons to proceed to the desired website anyway. Ten years ago the AutoFix feature was released to help those situations. Since then, AutoFix has been extensively redesigned to be more flexible for both users and accountability contacts. But AutoFix is a complex feature, and we’ll try to address the common questions in this session.

4:30 PM  Open Discussion  

Be prepared with your questions from any of the topics, or suggestions for improvements to our services.

5:00 PM  DISMISSAL