|
1975 |
|
N/A |
N/A |
BDPA founded by
the late Earl A. Pace, Jr. and
the late David Wimberly |
|
1976 |
|
N/A |
N/A |
The
first digital switches telephone companies began installing include the
Western Electric 4ESS switch as Industry pivots from analog to digital;
Cray-1, the first supercomputer, designed by Seymour Cray and manufactured by
Cray Research, was installed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL);
Apple Computer Company (Apple Inc.) was officially founded • Black Data Processing Associates officially incorprated in
September 1976; BDPA
Philadelphia founded by the late Earl A. Pace, Jr. |
|
1977 |
|
N/A |
N/A |
Apple
II is launched; ATARI 2600 is released; Commodore PET 2001 announced; Tandy
Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I launched; San Francisco hosts the first West Coast
Computer Faire |
|
1978 |
|
N/A |
N/A |
Intel
introduced the 8086 CPU; the 5.25-inch floppy disk becomes a standard; the
first spreadsheet known as VisiCalc is created; one of the first successful
and widely popular word processing programs for personal computers, WordStar,
is created and released; the Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS)
predecessor to modern online forums, email, and the internet for public
communication • BDPA Washington, D.C. founded by Norman Mays |
|
1979 |
Washington, DC |
The
Role of the Black Technical Organization |
N/A |
Early
cellular systems and local networks develop; foundations of modern networking
broaden; CompuServe launches as the first consumer-accessible dial-up online
service; Texas Instruments (TI) enters home computer market with TI-99; Atari
400 and Atari 800 also introduced as popular home computers focused on gaming
and education • BDPA’s first national technology
conference was held in Washington, D.C. |
|
1980 |
Washington, DC |
A
New Era of Minority Involvement in Data Processing |
N/A |
Wide
adoption of floppy disks and early office automation tools in business
environments; Apple’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) was on December 12, 1980
offered at $22.00 per share • BDPA Cleveland founded by Norman Mays; BDPA celebrates 5-year milestone during
BDPACON80 |
|
1981 |
Philadelphia, PA |
Growth
Through Professional Association |
N/A |
IBM
PC gains traction; MS‑DOS ecosystem grows in business computing; Personal
Computer (PC) Era begins |
|
1982 |
Detroit, MI |
Entrepreneurship:
A Successful Attitude |
N/A |
Commodore
64 popular in homes; personal computing moves further into the consumer
space; history of quantum computing begins • BDPA New York Chapter is chartered |
|
1983 |
Newark, NJ |
Rise
to the Challenge |
N/A |
NetWare
network operating system (NOS) for local area networks (LANs) was introduced
by Novell; ARPANET officially switches to TCP/IP, forming the technical base
of today’s Internet; Drexel University announces a new policy requiring all
first-year students to have a personal computer, becoming the first U.S.
university to do so • BDPA Philadelphia launches a new
BDPA Student Chapter at Temple University co-founded by the late Juan Noyles and Perry Carter |
|
1984 |
Cleveland, OH |
Information
Processing: A Vote for the Future |
N/A |
Apple
Macintosh launches, popularizing GUI‑based personal computing; Drexel
University partnered with Apple, providing students with the new Macintosh
128K at a significantly reduced price |
|
1985 |
Philadelphia, PA |
A
Decade of Professional Growth |
N/A |
Microsoft
releases Windows 1.0, introducing a consumer graphical environment for
PCs • BDPA celebrates 10-year milestone during BDPACON85 |
|
1986 |
Atlanta, GA |
Securing
Your Professional Future |
Washington,
D.C.
First HSCC Competition |
NSFNET
expansion accelerates academic and research networking in the U.S.;
Microsoft’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) was on March 13, 1986 offered at
$21.00 per share • Dr. Jesse Bemley and J.E.F. launch
BDPA’s High School Computer Competition (HSCC); BDPA Chicago Chapter is chartered; BDPA is introduced to Navy, Marine Corps,
and Coast Guard officers and USNA, USCGA, NROTC, and HBCU alumni of the
National Naval Officers Association (NNOA) |
|
1987 |
New Orleans, LA |
A
Bridge to Success |
New
Orleans |
NetFrame
Systems Inc. is founded and introduced its first line of high-performance,
modular network servers exclusively designed to run network operating
systems; GSM standard work advances early foundations of global digital
mobile telephony; the first Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA)
conference is hosted by Career Communications Group (CCG) in Baltimore • Dr. Jesse Bemley and J.E.F. launched BDPA’s I.T. Showcase with
BDPA’s youth A.i. initiative; BDPA Baltimore Chapter is chartered in 1987. |
|
1988 |
Chicago, IL |
Growth
and Success by Design |
New
York City |
NeXT
Computer, also known as “The Cube”, was introduced by Steve Jobs’
post-Apple company, NeXT, Inc.; |
|
1989 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Ideas
in the Making |
New
York City |
Tim
Berners‑Lee invents the World Wide Web (WWW) concepts, HTML, and HTTP
foundation • BDPA launches
I+Plus Magazine [ISSN 1048-1265] in Washington, D.C. |
|
1990 |
Washington, DC |
Education
and Technology Bonding for Excellence |
Washington,
D.C. |
Formal
proposal for the World Wide Web published; early web protocols begin to solidify • BDPA celebrates a 15-year milestone during BDPACON90; NASA
Astronaut Colonel Charels F. Bolden, Jr., US Marine Corps deploys the Hubble
Space Telescope, pilots the Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-31 mission in April
1990, presents a 35mm slide show at BDPACON; during BDPACON, BDPA SITES
Students design and present an Ai model focused on the shopping behaviors of
Black teenagers in malls, employing structured Ai schemas in a language known
as PROLOG. |
|
1991 |
New York, NY |
BDPA
Getting to the Core of Technology |
Detroit |
Public
description of the World Wide Web; Linux kernel announced, influencing
open‑source ecosystems; CompUSA opens |
|
1992 |
Detroit, MI |
Shaping
the Information Technology Professional: Current and Future |
New
York City |
GSM
digital mobile standard expands; early text messaging and mobile data
standards form |
|
1993 |
Kansas City, OH |
Cultivating
Tomorrow’s Leaders in the Heart of America |
Detroit |
Mosaic
web browser releases to broader public, popularizing the World Wide Web |
|
1994 |
Cleveland, OH |
Unleashing
the Power of a Creative People |
Chicago |
Netscape
Navigator launches, accelerating World Wide Web with browser‑based computing
and widespread commercial ISP adoption; Internet & Web Era begins |
|
1995 |
Philadelphia, PA |
Linking
Business, Education and Technology |
Detroit |
Windows
95 and mainstream internet adoption push PCs into everyday life; IBM acquired
Lotus Development Corporation in 1995 for $3.5 billion, one of the largest
software M&As of its time; the first Women of Color (WoC) STEM
Conference, hosted by Career Communications Group (CCG) is held • BDPA celebrates a 20-year milestone during BDPACON95; BDPA-DC serves as BDPA’s Host
Chapter for the Million Man March |
|
1996 |
Atlanta, GA |
Building
World Class Skills for Information Technology |
Detroit |
Widespread
adoption of the graphical web browser; early e‑commerce begins to take shape;
the term “Digital Divide” was coined describing the widening gap
between those with and without access to information technology (I.T.) • The Information Technology Senior
Management Forum (ITSMF) was founded; during BDPACON ’96, BDPA launches
“BDPA.org” in Atlanta with Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI), Bell South, and Washington, D.C.-based US Black On-Line (USBOL) |
|
1997 |
Houston, TX |
Looking
at Tomorrow, Today |
Hartford |
DVD
format gains traction, moving media from analog to digital storage |
|
1998 |
Orlando, FL |
Unveiling
the Magic of Emerging Technologies |
Detroit |
Google
founded, laying groundwork for search‑driven advertising and information
access; Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was acquired by Compaq |
|
1999 |
Atlanta, GA |
Closing
the Gap in Information Technology |
New
York City |
Napster
and peer‑to‑peer file sharing disrupt the music industry and digital rights
debates; NVIDIA’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) was on January 22, 1999 at
$12.00 per share; Xerox and Novell co-develop an initial Internet Printing
Protocol (IPP) draft standard called the Lightweight Document Printing
Application (LDPA) • BDPA Members called out of retirement
to meet industry’s “Y2K” (Year 2000) demands, for computer
programmers, systems analysts, and consultants, particularly those with
expertise in legacy mainframe systems, COBOL,
and date conversions. |
|
2000 |
Washington, DC |
Taking
IT to the Net: From High-Tops to High-Tech |
Detroit |
Dot‑com
bubble peak and crash redefine tech investment and valuation strategies; AOL
acquires Time Warner for $162 billion • BDPA celebrates its
25-year milestone during BDPACON 2000; “Y2K” threats avoided |
|
2001 |
Chicago, IL |
Empowering
the Nation Through Information |
Memphis |
Mobile
and Wi‑Fi adoption grow despite the dot‑com bust; focus shifts to sustainable
business models |
|
2002 |
Orlando, FL |
Changing
the Culture of IT: From Access to Ownership |
Memphis |
Internet
usage and broadband adoption surge; early Web 2.0 patterns emerge; Compaq was
acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2002 for $25 billion • Disney
co-sponsors BDPACON02; BDPA’s
Rhode Island Chapter is officially chartered |
|
2003 |
Philadelphia, PA |
Information
Technology: From the Classroom to the Boardroom |
Memphis |
Human
Genome Project completion announced, catalyzing bioinformatics and health
data science |
|
2004 |
Dallas, TX |
BDPA:
Securing Our Future Through Technology |
Memphis |
Facebook
founded, beginning the rise of modern social networks; Google’s Initial
Public Offering (IPO) was on August 19, 2004 offered at $85.00 per share |
|
2005 |
Detroit, MI |
Driving
Innovation, Bringing Value and Embracing Change |
Southern
Minnesota |
YouTube
founded (2005) and rapidly grows, changing online video distribution; the
acquisition of AT&T Corporation by SBC Communications Inc. was completed
with SBC keeping the “AT&T” brand • BDPA
celebrates a 30-year milestone during BDPACON05 |
|
2006 |
Los Angeles, CA |
Picturing
the Future of Information Technology |
Chicago |
Amazon
Web Services (EC2/S3) gain traction, seeding the modern cloud computing era • BDPA Northern Virginia (NoVa) Chapter was chartered in 2006 |
|
2007 |
Washington, DC |
Global
Strategy for the IT Professional |
Southern
Minnesota |
First
Apple iPhone released, transforming smartphones and mobile UX; AWS S3/EC2
expansion anounced; Mobile and Cloud Era begins • bdpatoday® (ISSN 1946-1429) was launched May 1st, 2007 |
|
2008 |
Atlanta, GA |
Harnessing
Emerging Technologies to Advance IT Careers |
Southern
Minnesota |
Petascale
era of supercomputing formally begins when supercomputers first achieved and
sustained performance exceeding one petaFLOPS (one quadrillion calculations
per second); Android and iPhone ecosystems start scaling, redefining mobile
computing; Hewlett-Packard (HP) completed its acquisition of Electronic Data
Systems (EDS) for $14 million; both HP and EDS were
legacy sponsors of BDPA |
|
2009 |
Raleigh, NC |
Challenges
for Today | Strategies for Tomorrow |
Southern
Minnesota |
Bitcoin
network launches, marking the beginning of decentralized cryptocurrencies;
Dell acquired Perot Systems for $3.9 billion • Former
Acting Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) B. J. Penn is BDPA’s keynote speaker at
BDPACON09 via BDPA and NNOA; Navy
awards full $180,000 NROTC scholarship to BDPA HSCC finalist Raven Stevenson;
Oracle and BDPA launched BDPA’s Oracle Scholars Program during BDPACON09 with
$50,000; BDPA Hampton Roads Chapter was founded; BDPA Southern Minnesota
“Three-peats” HSCC |
|
2010 |
Philadelphia, PA |
Access
for All |
Southern
Minnesota |
Apple
launches the iPad, popularizing modern consumer tablets; D-Wave One: first
commercial quantum computer released; Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun
Microsystems for $7.4 billion • Chief of Naval Operations
(CNO), Admiral Gary Roughead, U.S. Navy, keynotes BDPACON10 in Philadelphia |
|
2011 |
Chicago, IL |
Ignite, Inspire & Empower: The GPS of Future Technologists |
Southern
Minnesota |
IBM
Watson wins on Jeopardy!, showcasing practical breakthroughs in applied
AI/NLP; the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) allocated the last
remaining blocks of IPv4 addresses to the five Regional Internet Registries
(RIRs), effectively depleting the global free pool of addresses—IPv6 has
arrived • CompTIA honored Earl A. Pace, Jr. by inducting
him into the IT Hall of Fame as an innovator for co-founding BDPA; BDPA-DC launches its inagural episode of Popular Technology TV (PTTV); with support and sponsorship from
Tec-Masters, Inc., BDPA Huntsville was launched |
|
2012 |
Baltimore, MD |
Transforming
the IT Professional |
Atlanta |
Facebook
IPO, symbolizing the dominance and monetization of social media platforms;
CompUSA shutters all retail stores |
|
2013 |
Washington, DC |
Diverse
Opportunities in the Age of Convergence |
Southern
Minnesota |
Edward
Snowden disclosures ignite worldwide debate on surveillance and
cybersecurity • Roland Martin served as the opening
keynote during BDPACON13, BDPA’s 35th annual technology conference |
|
2014 |
Indianapolis, IN |
Race
to Innovate |
Washington,
D.C. |
Amazon
announces Alexa/Echo, kick‑starting the mainstream smart speaker market |
|
2015 |
Washington, DC |
40TH
ANNIVERSARY- The evolution of I.T. |
Atlanta |
Windows
10 launches; rise of “as‑a‑service” everything (XaaS) in software and
infrastructure; HP split into HP Inc. (HPQ) and HP Enterprise (HPE) • BDPA celebrates a 40-year milestone during BDPACON15; General
Colin Powell keynotes |
|
2016 |
Atlanta, GA |
BDPA
Connect 2016 |
Atlanta |
Public
cloud adoption inflection point; containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)
becomes core enterprise tech; Dell acquires EMC for $67 billion |
|
2017 |
Cincinnati, OH |
BDPA
Disrupt 2017 |
Southern
Minnesota |
Bitcoin
hits record highs; blockchain and ICOs dominate tech and finance headlines;
Cisco completes its acquisition of AppDynamics for $3.7 billion • BDPA-DC launches CyberEarth at Howard University, the Association’s first annual Earth Day
Tech Summit and APBI |
|
2018 |
New Orleans, LA |
BDPA
2018 – Experience the Future Now! |
Southern
Minnesota |
GDPR
goes into effect, reshaping global data privacy and compliance practices |
|
2019 |
Atlanta,
GA |
BDPA
2019 |
Atlanta |
AI/ML
and edge computing push into mainstream enterprise deployments; 5G launches
in first major cities; National Exascale Day was founded in 2019 by Cray
(acquired by HPE) and the US Department of Energy to celebrate the scientists
and researchers working on the next generation of supercomputers • BDPA-DC launches Tablets For Teens program to provide new tablet PCs for award winning SITES, NASA
STEM, or JROTC students |
|
2020 |
Virtual/HBCU
Collider |
vBDPACON20 –
DiversIT: Digital in Transformation |
Southern
Minnesota |
Pandemic
drives emergency digital transformation; massive growth in cloud, remote
work, and online learning platforms • BDPA partners with
Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to co-host an HBCU Collider with BDPACON;
BDPA-DC in partnership with The H.O.P.E. Project DMV, earned a $300,000
Microsoft Community Skills Grant as part of Microsoft’s $15 million Community
Skills Program; BDPA
and HPE held their first commemorative Exascale Day (10.18) webinar and
advanced industry briefing |
|
2021 |
Virtual |
Powered
Together – A Revolution of Excellence |
St.
Louis |
Widespread
shift to remote/hybrid work tools; explosion in video collaboration and
cloud‑first architectures |
|
2022 |
Atlanta,
GA |
Honoring
Our Legacy, Accelerating the Pace, |
St.
Louis |
Global
rollout of 5G networks accelerates; major cloud providers expand AI and
ML‑as‑a‑service offerings; Frontier (Oak Ridge National Lab) officially
breaks the exascale barrier at 1.1 exaFLOPS; the Exascale Era begins • National BDPA’s Legendary Co-Founder Earl A. Pace, Jr. passes; The BDPA Story, 1st edition, is
published by Ken Wilson, Norman Mays, and the late Earl A. Pace, Jr.; BDPA
Huntsville wins its first grant from Meta’s (formerly Facebook) Data Center
Community Action Grants for the FLIGHTS program |
|
2023 |
Atlanta,
GA |
Future
Now! |
Southern
Minnesota |
Breakout
year for generative AI in public consciousness; rapid adoption of chat‑based
AI tools; Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard for $69 billion one of the
largest pure tech M&A’s in history; Broadcom acquires VMware for $61
billion; U.S. Air Force UARC at Howard University established through a
five-year, $90 million contract agreement with DOD • BDPA’s
Monroe Chapter received a $350,000 appropriation from the State of Louisiana
for their JROTC IT workforce program as part of the state’s 2023 legislative
session’s funding |
|
2024 |
Atlanta,
GA |
Big
Data & Predictive Analytics (B.D.P.A.): Forged by the Power of Ai |
Atlanta |
Ai
dominates CES and major dev conferences; continued surge in large language
models and Ai copilots • BDPA-DC awarded $725,000 Digital
Workforce Transformation grant from NASA; the Honorable Harry Coker, White House Cyber Czar, keynotes
BDPACON24 |
|
2025 |
Atlanta,
GA |
A
Legacy of PACEsetting Innovation |
Northern
Virginia |
Ongoing
Ai boom; rapid expansion of generative Ai tools across productivity suites
and consumer apps • Dr. Jeanette James, Senior Vice
President, Bank of America and BDPA’s Northeast Regional Vice President,
keynotes BDPACON25; BDPA reaches its 50-year milestone during BDPACON25 |
|
2026 |
Indianapolis,
IN |
Innovation
in Motion: Keeping PACE with Emerging Trends |
TBD |
BDPA
Indianapolis to co-host BDPACON26; BDPA Philadelphia 50th Anniversary; BDPA
Chicago 40th Anniversary |
|
2027 |
TBD |
TBD |
TBD |
BDPA
Baltimore 40th Anniversary |
|
2028 |
TBD |
TBD |
TBD |
BDPA
Washington, D.C. 50th Anniversary |
|
2029 |
TBD |
TBD |
TBD |
Zettascale
Era projected to begin, 10^21 IEEE 754 Double Precision (64-bit) operations
per second (ZettaFLOPS), 1000 times more powerful than today’s Exascale
Supercomputers |
|
2030 |
TBD |
TBD |
TBD |
BDPA
Cleveland 50th Anniversary |
|
|
