The BTA at 100 Kansas City provided an opportunity to celebrate the Business Technology Association’s founding and recognize its achievements and contributions across a century of service to the industry. The celebration began with a reception at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, a memorable setting for reflecting on BTA’s own -year journey—from its early roots to its lasting technological, educational and business impact on members. It also set an optimistic tone for the opportunities ahead.
The three day agenda included multiple receptions, three interactive main stage educational presentations, a choice of four breakout sessions, a dealer panel, an overflowing exhibitor room and a 1920’s themed celebration and evening with the legendary Jay Leno.
Master Your Mind & Memory
Instead of giving a standard keynote, Jim Kwik treated the session like an interactive workshop. The core of his talk revolved around two main frameworks: MOM for memory (motivation, observation, methods) and BE FAST for picking up anything quickly (belief, exercise, forgetting preconceptions, active learning, state of mind, and teaching others).
He kept everyone moving, too, as we were constantly up on our feet doing superhero poses, an arm-turning visualization trick, and back-to-back matching exercises. He also threw in acronyms like SUAVE for remembering names, MEDS RX for brain health, and even had us build a body-based memory palace mapped to ten brain-boosting foods. The real takeaway, though, was his warning about AI: it’s stripping away the mental friction that makes our brains work. He punctuated that by sharing, “Your mind is like a parachute – It only works when it is open” and I observed the entire audience nodding in agreement.
Pablos Holmon
Innovate or Die Trying
Like a scene out of a movie, Pablos Holman leapt on stage while removing his jacket and personified the topic under discussion. Pablos argued the future’s better than we think, if you zoom out. He walks through energy (we need 10x more, not a few percent), nuclear (buried reactors, safe, nobody wants to admit it), plastic and gold recycling via new enzymes, and cement that lasts centuries like Roman concrete. His big point: real “deep tech” barely changed in 25 years while software ate all the attention. AI and robots aren’t the enemy, they’re how we finally tackle malaria, cancer and physical industries stuck in the 80s. Humans just have to stop being scared and build.
Future-Proofing Your Dealership: Technology Investments That Pay Off
In his main stage presentation, CTO of GreatAmerica Financial Services, Arvind Rao walked through how many office technology dealers keep making their operations messy by buying the wrong tools. There is a tendency to either cut complexity or pile on more of it, and many dealerships tack on software without considering tangible outcomes. The talk focused on repairing alignment across automation, remote service, MPaaS, and hybrid IT. If a tool doesn’t boost uptime or simplify staff workflows, it isn’t worth the spend. The main takeaway was simple: pick unified platforms that scale, measure real ROI instead of vague promises and make sure your team will use them.
Who Needs Print Management Now That We Have WMPP, MUP & WPP?
A panel at BTA dug into Microsoft’s Windows Modern Print Platform (WMPP, plus MUP and WPP) and what it means for dealers. The consensus was it’s not killing print management, rather it’s reshaping it. Panelists said government and education are rushing in without much planning, then calling for help once things break. Security matters, but for those two sectors it’s really aging infrastructure driving the move. Commercial B2B customers are moving slower and staying less affected for now.
Big gaps came up too. Scanning, fax drivers, wide format, production print, even POS printers at retail counters. None of that is addressed yet. One panelist doesn’t expect a real mandatory rollout until 2028 or so, despite Microsoft’s July 2027 target. The advice landed on being proactive instead of waiting for the “it’s broken” call. Get educated now, watch DCA tools evolve toward something more agnostic and treat this as a chance to grow IT revenue, and not just a threat to the old print business.
MPSA scholarship donation in honor of the BTA100
Celebration Dinner
The BTA at 100 celebration dinner was held in the historic Kansas City Union Station that was transported back in time to the roaring twenties. Jazz music filled the grand hall and many attended in their finest three-piece suits and flapper dresses. The awards ceremony during dinner recognized BTA luminaries through the years and the MPSA scholarship donation in honor of the BTA 100. “The hardest working man in showbiz”, Jay Leno, was the nightcap to a perfect evening.
Nicholas Ames
With more than 30 years of experience across public accounting, audit innovation, and technology transformation, Nicholas brings deep expertise in applying advanced data solutions to drive performance and change. Most recently, he held key roles at PwC, where he contributed to the firm’s data lake solution, next-generation audit tools, and the rollout of AI agents to enhance service delivery and operational intelligence.