Happy days may not quite be here again quite yet. But people are plainly feeling more confident about getting the heck out of their dining room offices. What a contrast. Just as cold weather sets in for much of the nation, a springlike thaw occurs in the capacity of people to meet in person.

Wednesday night I emceed the annual awards ceremony of AFFIRM, the Association For Federal Information Resources Management. The long-running nonprofit brings the federal IT industry together with federal IT practitioners. Its goal is to foster improvement in how the government manages information technology — an activity with a yearly tab of $100 billion. Actually more, with the addition of Technology Modernization Fund and American Rescue Plan money designated for modernizing the government’s IT.

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