IN-PERSON

Chicago CIO Executive Summit

December 4, 2024 | Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile

December 4, 2024
Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile

APPLY TO PARTICIPATE

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Chicago'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:

Advancing the business through data accessibility and literacy

Utilizing AI to improve business processes and drive value

Maintaining a resilient cybersecurity strategy in an ever-evolving threat landscape

Chicago 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

Rita Fisher

Reynolds Consumer Products
CIO and EVP, Supply Chain

Ron Guerrier

Save the Children
CTO

Rajeev Khanna

Aon Corporation US
Global Chief Technology Officer

Laura Kohl

Morningstar
CIO

Mike Parisi

ITW
VP CIO

Jane Possell

CNA
EVP, Chief Information Officer, Analytics, Operations

Gagan Singh

Ascension
Chief Information Officer

Tom South

Northern Trust
Executive VP & Chief Information Officer

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CIO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Chicago CIO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Evanta's Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda


December 4, 2024

7:45am - 8:30am  Registration & Breakfast

8:30am - 9:15am  Keynote

Words That Work — Executive Power Language

Val Wright headshot

Val Wright

Global Leadership & Innovation Expert, Author

Guest Speaker

 For CIOs, the stakes are extraordinary in every conversation. Revenue of millions or billions is in jeopardy during board meetings, investor calls, media interviews, customer interactions and employee conversations. The most successful executives realize this and prepare what to say and when to say it with precision. Val Wright shares new ways to approach common business conversations.

Join this keynote to learn:

  • The power of the written word to demonstrate the value of technology
  • How to cultivate a dynamic relationship with your board and get positioned for board roles
  • Powerful retorts and feedback that overcome resistance every time and consistently delivers results

9:15am - 9:40am  Networking Break

9:40am - 10:25am  Breakout Session

Would You Be Your Own Customer?

Jeff Burlin headshot

Jeff Burlin

Senior Director, Executive Engagement Programs

Twilio

As a consumer, you have certain expectations of trust in the businesses you shop at and the organizations you engage with. Building trusted relationships with customers requires a multi-faceted strategy that spans everything from data privacy management to delivering seamless personalized experiences that anticipate customer needs. We can all think of companies that meet this ideal of great customer engagement and…some that don’t. Now be honest – does your organization meet your own personal standards for trusted experiences?

Join this session to discuss:

  • Unifying and activating customer data to earn, not erode, customer trust
  • Crafting strong customer and stakeholder feedback loops
  • Creating highly personalized experiences that anticipate customer needs

9:40am - 10:25am  Breakout Session

Applications Overload ― Strategies to Simplify, Optimize, and Mitigate

Business today runs on an ever-growing landscape of enterprise technology across multiple cloud environments. The average enterprise uses 1,000 applications, multiple clouds, and thousands of physical assets. As generative AI improves developer productivity by almost 40%, an explosion of new applications will be created with AI embedded in the next few years. All this complexity creates operational inefficiency and exposure to vulnerabilities.

Join this session to learn about:

  • Creating visibility across disparate systems to resolve the right issues at the right time
  • Simplifying ecosystems to improve efficiencies and optimize costs
  • Mitigate security vulnerabilities in your applications

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Executive Boardroom Presented by Lenovo and Intel

Eric Ellis headshot

Eric Ellis

CTO, Public Sector & Innovation Strategist

Lenovo

Additional details coming soon.

Executive boardrooms are intimate and interactive sessions designed to foster dynamic dialogue around a specific, strategic topic. These private, closed-door discussions encourage attendee participation and are limited to 15 attendees (seating priority is given to CIOs).

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Advancing Customer Experience ― A Pathway to Business Growth

Geoff Hooper headshot

Geoff Hooper

Director, Enterprise Solutions Engineering

RingCentral

Leading CIOs seek to create a seamless user experience and leverage AI for superior customer outcomes. By creating more intimate and personalized interactions, AI can significantly improve client satisfaction and drive business growth.
Join this session to discuss how to:

  • Streamline processes and tailor AI insights for a better customer experience
  • Capture and analyze customer interactions to derive actionable insights
  • Increase the efficiency and effectiveness in customer-facing functions

Executive boardrooms are intimate and interactive sessions designed to foster dynamic dialogue around a specific, strategic topic. These private, closed-door discussions encourage attendee participation and are limited to 15 attendees (seating priority is given to CIOs).

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

10:25am - 11:05am  Networking Break

10:30am - 10:55am  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Evanta’s Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

11:05am - 11:50am  Breakout Session

Building Your Own Software in the GenAI Era

Paulo Rosado headshot

Paulo Rosado

CEO & Founder

OutSystems

Frank Schmid headshot

Frank Schmid

Chief Technology Officer

Gen Re

Global reinsurer Gen Re decided to build custom applications internally after realizing that off-the-shelf solutions didn't meet their particular needs. Frank Schmid, CTO of Gen Re, and Paulo Rosado, CEO of Outsystems, will discuss how an AI-powered software development platform can help teams build faster and without incurring technical debt.

Join this session to learn:

  • Eliminating technical debt without creating the technical debt of the future
  • Preference of platforms over tools to make use of network effects
  • Low-code’s position in the GenAI era
  • AI-assisted coding copilots in the world of low-code development

11:05am - 11:50am  Breakout Session

IT as a Business Driver — Driving a Digital Mindset with Better Employee Experiences

Today’s CIOs face lofty expectations and a changing set of skills necessary to be successful. They are expected to build healthy team cultures remotely, drive the adoption of emerging technologies, align with corporate objectives and the list goes on. To meet this moment, how can CIOs support employees to better enable digital business in complex organizations?

Join this session to discuss:

  • How CIOs should focus on delighting employees through superior IT and unrestrained productivity
  • Proactive identification of employee experience issues before they become IT problems
  • Effective automation to powerfully remediate problems in seconds

11:05am - 11:50am  Executive Boardroom

Change Management Leadership for IT Adoption

Brian Peterson headshot

Brian Peterson

Co-Founder & CTO

Dialpad

Shazia Mian headshot

Shazia Mian

CIO

Witt/Kieffer

Technology is one challenge, people and culture are others. CIOs are tasked to provide the necessary tools, training, and process adjustments to optimally use Gen-AI throughout the enterprise. Yet, key change management strategies are needed to effectively implement Gen-AI projects.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Evangelizing GenAI use case adoption and overcoming hesitation
  • Ensuring trust and safety so users have confidence in AI outputs
  • Securing resources and developing strategies to bring organizational adoption effectively

11:05am - 11:50am  Executive Boardroom

Keep the Party Going — Strategies to Securely Scale Your Cloud Native Success

Brent Schroeder headshot

Brent Schroeder

Head of Office of the CTO, CTO Americas

SUSE

Cloud native computing promises a future of agility, scalability and responsive innovation. Early adopters celebrate its virtues while signaling caution that pitfalls hidden in its complex landscape must be addressed.

Join this session to discuss practical strategies that:

  • Accelerate developer adoption and operational scale
  • Mitigate the security risks of new attack surfaces and rapid change
  • Optimize costs and organizational efficiency

Executive boardrooms are intimate and interactive sessions designed to foster dynamic dialogue around a specific, strategic topic. These private, closed-door discussions encourage attendee participation and are limited to 15 attendees (seating priority is given to CIOs).

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

11:50am - 12:35pm  Lunch Service

12:35pm - 1:10pm  Keynote

Transforming Application and Service Delivery for the Modern IT Environment

Jason Trunk headshot

Jason Trunk

Chief Enterprise Architect

Island

Delivering business critical applications safely is a delicate balancing act. The user experience is frequently compromised as application, infrastructure, and security teams negotiate the adoption of new services. Unfortunate trade-offs are sometimes necessary to address operational needs for the sake of maintaining security, but these trade-offs can make certain use cases unfeasible or diminish their value to the organization.

In this session, we will discuss:

  • Revolutionizing workspaces by balancing productivity, security, availability, and user experience.
  • How quickly new technologies like the enterprise browser can be adopted to provide a competitive advantage
  • Strategies for reducing the effort required to deliver applications and enhance organizational operations

1:10pm - 1:35pm  Break

1:35pm - 2:20pm  Breakout Session

The Recipe for a Successful Spin-Off

Eric Firer headshot

Eric Firer

CIO, Kellanova North America

Kellanova

A spin-off presents an opportunity for IT to drive value, promote an innovative culture, and build an effective team. However, the CIO must balance planning for the new company while minimizing disruption to current employees and customers. Eric Firer shares how the lessons learned through Kellanova’s spin-off can be applicable to many aspects of IT.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Defining an IT operating model to organize talent, processes, technology and data
  • Building a high-performing team to make an impact and execute business goals successfully
  • Leading effective communication and change management through complex transformation

1:35pm - 2:20pm  Breakout Session

Demonstrating IT’s Value to the Board

Janet Zelenka headshot

Janet Zelenka

EVP, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Information Officer

Stericycle

Christopher Przybysz headshot

Christopher Przybysz

CIO

Ideal Industries

CIOs face several challenges when presenting to the board of directors. By communicating in business terms and focusing on optimizing shareholder value and managing risk, CIOs can ensure the board understands how IT investments drive overall business success. As a CIO, CFO and a board member, Janet Zelenka shares her unique perspective on how to successfully demonstrate IT’s value to the board.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Bridging the technical and business language gap to ensure the board understands the significance of IT initiatives
  • Ensuring that IT projects are closely aligned with the overall business strategy and demonstrating how they support key business goals
  • Providing clear evidence of IT projects driving ROI or managing risk

1:35pm - 2:20pm  Executive Boardroom

Elevate AI from Personal to Organizational Productivity

Saket Srivastava headshot

Saket Srivastava

CIO

Asana

Asana’s State of IT research reveals that 77% of IT leaders feel responsible for leading AI transformation within their organization. Saket Srivastava, CIO at Asana, leads this discussion on the ways AI is transforming from a personal tool to an organizational productivity teammate that helps accelerate growth.

Join this peer roundtable to discuss:

  • Building the right foundation for AI implementation
  • Deploying AI tools at scale across teams and workflows
  • Delivering greater ROI at every level

Executive boardrooms are intimate and interactive sessions designed to foster dynamic dialogue around a specific, strategic topic. These private, closed-door discussions encourage attendee participation and are limited to 15 attendees (seating priority is given to CIOs).

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

1:35pm - 2:20pm  Executive Boardroom

Keeping Pace with Cyber Risk

As technology continues to evolve, cyber threats are right there matching that growth stride for stride. How are you developing your cybersecurity strategy to keep up with the risks posed by emerging technologies?

Join this session to discuss:

  • Mitigating risks and improving resiliency
  • Complying with regulatory requirements
  • Developing cybersecurity talent and skills

Executive boardrooms are intimate and interactive sessions designed to foster dynamic dialogue around a specific, strategic topic. These private, closed-door discussions encourage attendee participation and are limited to 15 attendees (seating priority is given to CIOs).

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

2:20pm - 3:00pm  Networking Break

2:25pm - 2:50pm  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Evanta’s Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Breakout Session

Driving Customer Care Through Innovation

Sean McCormack headshot

Sean McCormack

Chief Information Officer

First Student

Everyone wants to have a cool product, but what matters ultimately is end user experience. That’s what First Student had in mind for FirstAlt — an alternative student transportation solution that went from ideation to market in just nine months.

Join this session to learn how the team:

  • Overcame the challenges of launching a startup with an enterprise
  • Engaged partners across the organization
  • Stayed focused on the customer

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Breakout Session

CEO Concerns 2025

Don Scheibenreif headshot

Don Scheibenreif

Vice President - Distinguished Analyst, Customer Experience Research

Gartner

CEOs are enacting new post-crisis strategies to deal with geopolitical risks and talent challenges; leveraging AI and sustainability. Join this session as Don Scheibenreif, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, breaks down Gartner’s annual global CEO survey to shine a light on the agenda shifts that CIOs should anticipate next.

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Executive Boardroom

Delivering an Analytics Strategy that Packs a Punch

Arul Sugunakumar headshot

Arul Sugunakumar

CTO

The Pampered Chef

As CIOs seek to drive business value from data and analytics initiatives, they face both cultural and technical challenges. CIOs must partner with the business in creating a long-term analytics strategy that enables the organization to make data driven decisions.

Join this boardroom to discuss:

  • Evolving data governance efforts to power accuracy in reporting and analytics
  • Overcoming technical obstacles and cost pressure to ensure analytics programs get prioritized
  • Building a business case to create a strategy that has measurable outcomes and results

Executive boardrooms are intimate and interactive sessions designed to foster dynamic dialogue around a specific, strategic topic. These private, closed-door discussions encourage attendee participation and are limited to 15 attendees (seating priority is given to CIOs).

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

3:00pm - 3:45pm  Executive Boardroom

IT Resilience — Maintaining Control Through Disruption

Now more than ever, organizations globally are looking at cyber attacks and business disruptions through a new lens of severity. With the stakes high, CIOs are evaluating how to create a resilient IT strategy in alignment with the broader organization.

Join this session to discuss with your peers:

  • How to respond and adapt quickly to disruptions or unplanned changes
  • Diversification of tooling to reduce risk
  • Tactics for a cyber-resilient future

Executive boardrooms are intimate and interactive sessions designed to foster dynamic dialogue around a specific, strategic topic. These private, closed-door discussions encourage attendee participation and are limited to 15 attendees (seating priority is given to CIOs).

To reserve your seat, please contact: Katherine Williams at Katherine.Williams@evanta.com

3:45pm - 4:10pm  Break

4:10pm - 4:45pm  Keynote

Leading Effective Transformation in an Age of Constant Change

Michael Giresi headshot

Michael Giresi

Chief Digital Officer

Molex

To successfully lead transformation, IT leaders must consider technology, processes, and people. Mike Giresi shares the strategies he’s implementing at Molex to improve customer value, employee experience and business outcomes in an ever-evolving business landscape.

Join this keynote to discuss:

  • The five key elements for transformation
  • Scaling technology effectively
  • Building a clear vision and aligning the organization effectively

4:45pm - 5:00pm  Closing Comments and Prize Drawing

5:00pm - 6:30pm  Governing Body Reception

Governing Body Reception

Governing Body members host this reception for attendees to enjoy an evening of peer networking.

December 4, 2024

We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming in-person gathering


Evanta cares about the health and safety of our community. Please review the following recommendations prior to attending the gathering.

Location


MORE INFORMATION

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile at a reduced conference rate. Reservations should be made online or by calling 1-877-303-0104.

Deadline to book using the discounted room rate of $329 USD (plus tax) is November 11, 2024.

Your Community Partners


Global Thought Leader
Key Partners
Program Partners
HOST PARTNER

Community Program Manager


For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.

Katherine Williams

Senior Community Program Manager

katherine.williams@evanta.com