Atlanta CIO Executive Summit

What’s the greatest lesson Val Wright learned about innovation from her experiences with executives from Starbucks, LinkedIn, Financial Times and Google? Time and again she says she’s learned it’s not the economy, market conditions or competition that’s holding businesses back. The secret is locked inside how leaders ruthlessly (in a thoughtful way) manage their time, energy and resources. Join Wright to learn how to focus your time and energy on products, profits and customers to catapult your long-term growth.

Success in today's business landscape relies more on technology than ever before. And with that technology now moving faster than ever, dynamic leadership in the CIO role is correspondingly essential. As the CIO continues to get stretched by increased expectations to keep the lights on, speak the language of business and wear their strategist/futurist hat, that leadership onus is becoming increasingly challenging. Serial CEO Brent Wouters shares his perspectives on the necessity for dynamic leadership from the CIO and how CIOs can continue shaping and driving their organizations into the future.

The $192 million renovation of Philips Arena is much more than a remodel — it’s an entire technological transformation creating a world-class, interactive customer experience. In this session, Marcus Wasdin and David Elgin will showcase their current and future business systems, operations and capabilities, from point-of-sale hardware to their one-of-a-kind Top Golf Swing Suites. Join them as they explore the guiding principles, philosophies, goals and challenges of a renovation this size. Hear how they are making the same type of aggressive renovations on the systems and data that drive the day-to-day business operations and overall fan experience.

Artificial intelligence is “one of the most important things that humanity is working on,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai told MSNBC earlier this year. “It’s more profound than, I don’t know, electricity or fire.” And it’s why companies are – and, if they are not, should be – staking their future growth on AI and machine learning. In this session, hear how Google is leveraging “machine intelligence” learning technologies in its business for its own strategic advantage. Find out how AI is unlocking capabilities and transforming resources at a scale previously unthinkable and unimaginable.

Today’s cyber threat landscape is one of unprecedented complexity – and risk. Malicious actors are more persistent than ever, and the modern perimeter is only becoming harder to define. Across the cloud and across the enterprise, what high-level strategies should today’s CIO leaders embrace to ensure their organizations’ critical assets stay secure? Join your peers to share best practices in cybersecurity, ranging from staffing to communication strategies to key technologies.

Picture a leader and who do you see? People who are consistently exposed to leaders who fit one profile, will be more likely to notice leaders who fit that same profile in the future. Even today, when asked to depict a leader, an overwhelming number draw a male figure. As companies are making efforts to promote gender diversity in leadership, they must expose employees to more women in leadership positions. One of the best ways to check your assumptions on any business initiative is to know where you stand among your peers. This interactive session features prominent women in IT leadership roles and illuminates their diverse perspectives, allows participants to hear how we can all work together to promote diversity in IT and explores context around the metrics.

The future of work continues to evolve, and every day that future is brought closer by the accelerating business demands of digital transformation, emerging cultural norms and the capabilities of new technologies and innovations. Digitally-enabled businesses must strive to be more global and work outside their normal bounds. The session will explore the growing demand for transparency and less hierarchy in the workplace alongside the advent of real-time communications tools. Hear use cases from firms that are on the leading edge of implementing more data-driven decision making, AI-enabled processes and new models for information security.

In a business environment driven by technology, the ongoing evolution of the cloud, the emergence of everything-as-a-service, and the redefined data center are essential considerations for IT executives. With their promise of greater agility, enhanced service levels, and innovation enablement, these offerings present an attractive path for the enterprise seeking to leverage every advantage. But no two organizations are the same, and charting a course amid a cacophony of tools, providers, and promises is an increasingly complex endeavor. In this session, you and your peers will examine the present and future of the cloud and build strategies for navigating them to ensure maximum agility, security, and new ways of doing business.

Panic Squad returns with more Laugh Out Loud Leadership for our afternoon keynote! 

We win more often than we realize. Discover how creating a culture of celebration will motivate your team to push past comfort zones, build momentum and accomplish more.

At The Coca-Cola Company, a lot has changed since 1886. Digital experiences give consumers endless options for researching, buying and interacting with brands at their fingertips 24/7 — challenging traditional models of designing systems and solutions. As CIO of The Coca-Cola Company, hear Barry Simpson share how Cola-Cola’s IT is in constant motion to sustain and increase digital leadership at the company to engage consumers with fresh intensity, drive value for customers and transform the workplace for its people.