Calgary CIO Community
Executive Summit
June 9, 2026 | Hyatt Regency Calgary
June 9, 2026
Hyatt Regency Calgary
Collaborate with your peers
Get together with Calgary's top CIOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.
Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CIOs today:
Driving purposeful innovation through AI adoption and governance
Building resilience with stronger alignment, risk reduction and identity management
Elevating leadership influence to shape vision and position technology as a business driver
Calgary CIO Governing Body
The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CIOs, For CIOs®.
Governing Body Co-Chairs

Ross Ballendine
Trimac Transportation
VP, IT

Jan Bradley
City of Calgary
CITO

Jason Hinchliff
Cenovus Energy
CDIO & VP Data & IT

Catherine Mendonsa
Mark Anthony Group of Companies
VP & CISO
What to Expect
Agenda
8:00am - 8:30am Registration & Breakfast
8:30am - 9:15am Gartner Keynote
Power Tactics to Build and Win Support for Your Strategic Plan
Brandon Germer
Senior Director Analyst
Gartner
Creating an effective IT strategy is a top priority for technology leaders, yet more than half fail to deliver on their objectives. Success depends on building strong stakeholder support and executing a strategy that aligns with enterprise goals. This session outlines the power tactics CIOs and CISOs can use to strengthen strategic impact.
In this keynote you will learn how to:
- Distinguish long‑term strategy from strategic and operational plans
- Understand the key steps in producing long‑term strategy and where you can contribute
- Explain how IT investments are selected and how they enable enterprise success
9:15am - 9:40am Networking Break
9:40am - 10:25am Breakout Session
From Data to Decisions — How Strong Foundations Can Unlock Scale
Jason Hinchliff
CDIO & VP Data & IT
Cenovus Energy
A modern data strategy demonstrates the impact of putting clear business ownership behind data. By assigning accountable owners, measuring quality, modernizing platforms and evolving governance into a practical operating model, Cenovus has built a repeatable system where data is trusted, reusable and decision‑ready at scale.
Join this session to learn how to:
- Modernize your data platform to enable reliable integration, performance and AI scale
- Embed ownership and measurable quality to drive accountability and improve decision confidence
- Create a governed data product marketplace that makes trusted data easy to discover, reuse and standardize
9:40am - 10:25am Executive Boardroom
Designing Infrastructure that Accelerates Enterprise AI Outcomes
Hosted by Equinix
AI is reshaping how quickly organizations must deliver insights and where data and workloads need to live to support that demand. CIOs are finding that cloud centric strategies can drive new pressures around cost, latency, resilience, and sovereignty. Rethinking data and workload placement is becoming an essential lever in enabling better business outcomes.
Join this session to discuss:
- How data locality influences performance, resilience, and operational efficiency
- Ways to reduce technical debt while strengthening enterprise wide value delivery
- How sovereignty considerations shape infrastructure decisions across the stack
9:40am - 10:25am Executive Boardroom
The Human Side of Security — Navigating Shifting Culture
Jeneane Whyte
Director, Information & Cyber Security
Cenovus Energy
Ask ten CISOs what their job is and you’ll get ten different answers—because effective cyber leadership depends on context, culture, and people. As AI continues to transform security operations, CISOs are challenged to build sustainable teams and culture without losing the human element of leadership.
Join this session to hear about and discuss:
- Sustaining effective cyber teams amid shifting organizational and security cultures
- Leading diverse and distributed teams at scale
- Managing change while developing future cyber leaders
10:25am - 11:10am Networking Break
10:35am - 11:00am Peer-to-Peer Meetings
Peer-to-Peer Meetings
Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.
11:10am - 11:55am Breakout Session
From “Block AI” to Governed Enablement — An Executive Blueprint for Accountable AI Adoption
Hosted by Zscaler
AI is now a board-level priority - and a board-level risk. When exposure becomes unclear, organizations often resort to temporary measures such as blanket blocking, emergency funding motions, and ad hoc decision-making. Executives need a practical blueprint that defines decision rights, enables measured adoption, and demonstrates that AI risk is being actively managed rather than deferred. A Zero Trust approach across internet access, AI applications, SaaS, and private applications supports continuous AI Red Teaming and secure access plus runtime guardrails to translate governance into enforceable controls.
Join this session to discuss:
- Establishing decision rights and an operating blueprint that aligns business strategy, IT enablement, and risk governance
- Using continuous AI Red Teaming to inform prioritization, funding, and remediation with evidence rather than assumption
- Replacing stopgap blocking with measurable guardrails and reporting that executive sponsors and boards can evaluate with confidence
11:10am - 11:55am Executive Boardroom
Securing Tomorrow — Rethinking Data Recovery Strategies
Hosted by Veeam
CISOs are challenged by the growing sophistication of cyberattacks and the increasing complexity of IT environments, making traditional recovery approaches insufficient. Ensuring rapid, reliable recovery is now central to organizational resilience and trust, yet many security leaders struggle to integrate recovery into overall security strategy. Exploring new paradigms in cyber recovery can empower CISOs to proactively safeguard business continuity.
Join this session to explore:
- Integrating recovery into incident response plans
- Assessing cyber resilience beyond prevention
- Bridging gaps between security and IT operations
11:55am - 12:30pm Lunch Service
Apply to Participate
Apply to participate in the Calgary CIO Community Executive Summit.
Gartner facilitates exclusive, C-level communities by personally qualifying and understanding the priorities, challenges and interests of each member.
Our selective approach maintains the high quality of the network and ensures top-level discussions with peers from the world’s leading organizations.
Each application will be reviewed, and once your participation is confirmed, you will have access to year-round community programs.
Location
Venue & Accommodation
Hyatt Regency CalgaryHotel Parking Information:
Valet: $50/car
Self-park: $19/car
A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Calgary at a reduced conference rate. Reservations should be made online or by calling 403-717-1234. Please mention G-GART to ensure the appropriate room rate.
Deadline to book using the discounted room rate of $379 USD (plus tax) is May 18, 2026.
Community Program Manager
For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.
