When working to develop leadership skills within an organization or team, one doesn’t usually look to a cow as a prime example of effective leadership. David Murphy, COO and president of Red Wing Shoes is one exception. Murphy does not consider himself an expert on leadership, he considers himself a shoe salesman. However, when reflecting upon his past 10 years managing Red Wing Shoe Company, he does have strong feelings about company culture and the responsibilities of a corporate leader. In this engaging presentation, Murphy will share the parallels between the everyday bovine and what he believes makes a successful leader. He will discuss how this metaphor can be applied to facilitate innovation and growth throughout organizations.

Establishing and managing an effective BYOD strategy is a top priority for many executives as their organizations become increasingly dependent on mobility. As CIOs are pushed to implement a successful BYOD plan, they face a common set of challenges: protecting against security risks, driving productivity, and ensuring that employees have the right tools to be successful. Join panelists Tim Thull, Dave Buchholz and moderator Winn Schwartau as they discuss how they are approaching this mobile wave head-on. They will dive deeper into the challenges and successes faced when implementing a secure mobile strategy and discuss the impact this has had on their companies.

With the continued increase of cyber-attacks, it is more important than ever for organizations to have the right relationships established to help them predict, prevent and respond to incidents to secure their critical infrastructures. It is no longer a situation of if, but when a company will be hacked. Join Special Agent Lizabeth Lehrkamp as she discusses the changing role of the FBI in cyber security, where they are and where they want to be. Most importantly, she will answer the question of why you want to help.

Session discovery topics:

• Case studies and lessons learned
• You’ve been hacked, what do you do now?
• The importance of a strong partnership with the FBI

The way we consume and command technology is changing, and today’s enterprise organizations are keeping up with these changes by continuing to adopt cloud and virtualization solutions. In this collaborative boardroom session, seating will be limited to 25 attendees who will discuss cloud’s impact on the role and structure of the IT organization. Moderator Kris Baritt will lead this discussion and address the new technology and business skill sets required for a cloud-enabled environment, evolving IT governance activities and resource management, and the organizational shift from a technology culture to a service culture.

Due to the format of the Executive Boardroom session, there are a limited number of seats available. Seating priority will be given to CIOs. To reserve your seat, please contact Paul Wilson at 503-972-3248, or paul.wilson@evanta.com. Sponsor participation is limited to Boardroom sponsor attendees only.

Mobility is a disruptive force creating major demand for cloud offerings. In the 2012 IDG report on iPads for businesses, 79% of professionals “always” use their iPad on the road. The proportion of IT and business professionals using mobile devices is at an inflection point and today’s new mobile offerings ensure that end users and CIOs alike have the best, broadest and most secure access to their content from any device. Box’s Robin Daniels, will discuss how the rise of mobility and the spread of social capabilities across business applications is creating massive upheaval in the enterprise software market — more than we’ve seen in the past five years. Attendees will learn how these short and long-term changes are transforming IT departments and revolutionizing today’s workforce.

Like many private and public organizations today, the State of Minnesota is facing the challenge of delivering high-quality services in a time of decreased revenue and budget constraints. In an effort to promote collaboration and harness the potential of technology to transform government operations, more than 70 state agencies have consolidated their IT departments under the Office of Enterprise Technology and the leadership of State CIO, Carolyn Parnell. By consolidating IT services, Minnesota is establishing a common language among the state’s 2100 IT employees and setting the stage for innovative approaches that will result in efficiencies and cost savings throughout state government. In this session, Parnell will discuss where she is on this multi-year journey and where she sees this transformation taking the state. She will also share the challenges she and her team have faced as they embarked on this massive consolidation and the lessons they will take with them as they continue to move forward.

What will the IT infrastructure landscape look like in the next five years? With rapidly-changing environments, methodologies and delivery options, predicting the future is no easy task. Flexibility and adaptation are vital, but must be balanced with cost, service delivery, engineering and cultural factors. Join Michael Connly as he shares how he’s leading the transformation of infrastructure strategy at UnitedHealth Group.

Session discovery topics:

• Strategy implementation — why technology is the easy part
• Engineering for the next generation of infrastructure
• Preparing the organization — leveraging paths of least resistance for early adoption

As the market in Minneapolis continues to strengthen, CIOs are being challenged to build and sustain the most effective IT teams for their organizations. With the demand for technology-focused talent on the rise, top talent throughout the region is being drawn to these new opportunities. IT leaders are finding that they must be proactive in attracting and retaining this next generation of leaders in order to maintain the company’s competitive advantage. In this engaging discussion, Julie Flaschenriem, Mike Martiny, Wayne Shurts and moderator Margaret Anderson Kelliher will discuss how this changing environment is affecting the current workforce. They will share what they are seeing from this new crop of talent and what that means for their organizations as they work to cultivate the next generation of leadership.

MIT Sloan Management Review in collaboration with the IBM Institute for Business Value, recently interviewed more than 4,500 executives, managers and analysts about their analytics strategies. This presentation offers recommendations and examples based on the analysis of that study of how organizations can bolster their analytics capabilities and social business strategy. Andrew Warzecha will also discuss how the smartest organizations are using social media to produce analytics that transform insights into actions.

Session discovery topics:

• The three competencies needed and two distinct paths organizations travel to gain analytic sophistication
• Leveraging social data to anticipate opportunity
• Driving value from unstructured data

Higher customer expectations. Evolving market demands. New and emerging technologies. Greater emphasis on efficient and effective solutions. These are only a few of the challenges facing CIOs today. To successfully meet them, CIOs must develop the right people, processes and tools to support and drive business growth. In the case of Best Buy, a transformation of the IT environment was also required. Jody Davids discusses the importance of authentic leadership in times of great change and strained resources. She will discuss the role IT leadership plays in ensuring that Best Buy successfully manages the demands of a rapidly changing business environment.