Quicken Loans has earned the reputation of being one of the best places to work in the U.S. This type of recognition comes from having team members who are proud of where they work and the leaders they work for. CIO Linglong He of Quicken Loans believes that developing trust with your team members and with your business is an essential part of fostering an inspired and successful work environment. This trust drives alignment with the business, as well as positive transformation and innovation. Join He as she opens the day by sharing her leadership vision. She will discuss how she supports and empowers her team to be ambassadors of change not only in IT, but within the entire organization.

With the threat of cyber attacks becoming more of a reality every day, it is imperative that organizations work with one another and the government to ensure they are prepared for a security breach and all of its possible outcomes. Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done. In this session, David Behen will look back on this past year and share Michigan’s efforts to protect businesses against cyber threats. He will discuss the importance of private and public sector collaboration and the extra steps your organizations can take to maintain security.

Session discovery topics:

• Creating an educated and prepared workforce
• Combining cyber and physical security
• The positive aspects of cyber security

With more than 7,000 employees globally, Ford IT is fast becoming a lean and agile IT team. Steffen Mueller-Urbaniak, director for Ford Motor Company IT for the Americas, will share the “ONE IT” story about IT’s migration from a regionally focused organization, to a globally integrated one that leverages global talent distributed around the world. He will present ideas for attracting and retaining the best IT talent by using the Employee Value Proposition (EVP). In addition, he will explore how Ford IT has helped influence the business by utilizing digital worker tools for employee collaboration and transformed the automobile with in-vehicle technology such as SYNC, with the global support of a lean and agile IT team.

As organizations are flooded with new technologies, the role of the CIO has to adapt and change to meet the growing demands of the business. Though it is important to understand the mechanics of building and running a strong IT system, it has become even more crucial to have the soft skills necessary to handle varying personnel, business and technical situations. In this session, panelists will share some of their greatest successes and toughest failures when it comes to being a leader at their organizations. They will shed some much needed light to newer and future IT leaders on the skill sets that more and more CIOs see as essential to being a successful business leader.

The cloud is officially here to stay, prompting CIOs to ask, “What is next?” In this interactive boardroom discussion led by Director of Data Center Practice, Tony Berg, CIOs will share whether or not they believe the potential of cloud is being fully realized. They will explore what CIOs are doing to establish a successful foundation for cloud at their organizations.

Discussion topics:

• Balancing application and workloads between data centers
• Establishing a private cloud with public characteristics
• Creating effective and efficient business processes

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 Jennifer Stockwell at 503-808-9812 or jennifer.stockwell@evanta.com.

Social media is incessantly changing and CIOs are challenged with the task of finding the best way to leverage social tools across the enterprise. At companies around the globe, employees and customers measure the technology they work with against the standards set by popular consumer tools. They expect their digital experiences to be intuitive, fun, interactive, mobile, fast, social, sharable, easily personalized, multi-platform, integrated and more. GE understands this and is leading the way with several intuitive collaboration and mobile application platforms. Ron Utterbeck will share details behind GE’s journey, the tangible value brought to the business, and methods for today’s CIO to accelerate the adoption of social technologies across the enterprise. Join Utterbeck to learn how you can harness the power of social tools.

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 empower their business by implementing 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 Arjay Patrick, Jim Nelson and moderator M.S. Krishnan as they discuss the pros and cons to developing a BYOD strategy. They will share how they are approaching employee owned devices and whether or not it is worth the time, money and security to implement.

As the volume and complexity of business data continues to increase, CIOs are charged with designing and deploying efficient strategies for managing disaster recovery. Part of this mandate is a renewed focus on the “First and Last Mile” — in other words, the connection to the building, and its significance in reliability and disaster recovery. In this panel discussion Hans Erickson, CIO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, Comcast Business Class’ Tom Abraham, director of enterprise services and Bob Chodkiewich, manager enterprise sales engineering will lead a conversation that explores how CIOs can implement effective business and IT strategies for disaster recovery in 2013.

The traditional role of a CIO consisted of the acquisition, integration and application of technology, but over time, this role has changed to include more of a business and industry focus. The past few years have seen this change accelerate. CIO’s are now required to be more than a cost cutter when it comes to managing the IT environment. As a result, the role of the “Next Generation CIO” is of a multi-faceted nature with focus on areas such as leadership and change management. More importantly, the “I” in CIO will no longer just stand for Information, but will morph into a blend of integration, innovation, inoculation, international, irritation and information.

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 Jennifer Stockwell at 503-808-9812 or jennifer.stockwell@evanta.com.

The state of Michigan has experienced tremendous adversity, yet enjoys a rich heritage of innovation. That same spirit of imagination and inventiveness will help businesses emerge from their challenges and reach new heights. In this interactive talk, Josh Linkner will share his work as a Michigan entrepreneur, VC inventor and author, while helping participants jump start their own creativity to drive meaningful and immediate results. Attendees will learn specific techniques to unleash their most valuable resources — human creativity, imagination and original thinking.

As technology expands the way marketing is understood, led and practiced, opportunities are emerging for CMOs and CIOs to collaborate in new ways, transforming their organizations to drive business growth. They have moved from beyond support roles to having a strategic seat at the executive table and both are equally essential for the organization to operate successfully. CMOs and CIOs should be collaborating, not just on data issues but with business challenges. Join us to hear how CMOs and CIOs are moving away from being acquaintances on parallel paths, to strong allies who partner to realize their organization’s goals and expectations.

Michigan’s job landscape is improving at a significant rate, creating more jobs and opportunities for growth in many of the state’s top companies. With this rapid growth comes the need for strong and developed IT talent. This
demand is rampant across all industries and is leading to a severe talent shortage, causing competition on a national level. In this session, panelists will discuss what they are doing to attract and retain their top talent. They will explore different approaches to dealing with the diverse workforce, from the recent graduate to the veteran employee, and will share how they are setting themselves apart as organizations that people of all ages and skill levels are eager to work for.

Steve Carrington was challenged with establishing a more effective transactional process to award premium advertising space to key clients for more than 14 billion advertising pages in 52 weeks, and across hundreds of markets. He decided to answer this challenge by implementing a complete process transformation. In this session, Carrington will share the case study of this dramatic renovation and the significant effect it has had on Valassis. He will present his lessons learned and provide recommendations on how you can be an effective change agent for your organization.

Session discovery topics:

• The importance of simplicity
• Embracing risk
• Dealing with the culture of challenge

Great organizations are built on remarkable stories and powerful leadership. When it comes to accelerating growth and innovation, they are the ‘secret sauce.’

Based on a powerful approach he calls Five Level Leadership, Doug Keeley uses amazing stories of the world’s greatest leaders and brands to show how the power of story and focused leadership make the difference in organizations. Using unforgettable video and music, and threading his narratives through the conference, he promises to challenge you as leaders and inspire you to rethink your approach to getting the most out of your team.