Executive Summit

CIOs live at the intersection of business growth – where the digital customer meets the digital enterprise. To reach external customers in new ways and deliver delightful experiences, companies must develop new and effective digital commerce channels. Efficiencies abound when you apply digital principles to the internal functions of supply chain management, research and development, and manufacturing. The result? Genuine IT innovation – the lifeblood of the digital business. In this session, learn how to use the rapidly shifting digital environment as a fast track to business advantage.

For over a decade this community has grown to become the largest of its kind in North America. It was built on the foundation of one basic truth: collaboration is the key to our mutual success. This session will provide CIOs rapid-fire perspectives as seen through the lens of each of our invited partners. You will very quickly learn how their solutions enable the world’s best organizations to deliver on this year’s conference theme — Leading the Digital Business.

Today, there are more connected customers, automated processes, analytics and digital endeavors than ever. Companies understand that the IT function can fuel the digitalization of the enterprise. But how do you exploit all sources of data and technology while providing new value-producing opportunities? With the digitization of products and services and stiff competition in the marketplace, how can you stay on the cutting edge of strategy and innovation? How do you prioritize your digital investments? Take part in this session and navigate the digital world within your industry.

Product innovation is the lifeblood of all companies. In support of this truth, CIOs have implemented countless systems and metrics intended to track and optimize their products. Indeed, PLM, ALM and ERP systems provide leaders numerous key metrics into the health of the product lineup. The phases from concept to prototype, however, are still mainly managed in Word doc and Excel spreadsheets — arguably where innovation is created and captured. In this session, you and your peers will develop metrics that track this “fuzzy” front end of the product-development process, providing leaders key insights into the health and status of their innovation pipeline.

The challenge of addressing the widening IT skills gap is one of the most pressing, yet nebulous, facing enterprise organizations today. With the range of potentially valuable skill sets as diffuse and varied as tomorrow’s potentially vital technologies, it is a complicated problem that demands a creative response from leadership. Join this engaging discussion to explore the necessity of education (STEM, liberal arts or internships) for underrepresented communities, the power of diversity to refresh and redirect traditional mindsets, and the strategies for organization-wide engagement available to CIOs who are passionate about truly defining – and closing – the skills gap.

The most productive CIO-CISO partnerships are built on trust and flourish when the relationship is embraced throughout the organization. In this session, Aflac’s CIO Julia Davis and CISO Tim Callahan will share how they continue to drive toward the optimal CIO-CISO partnership. Learn about the steps Davis took to hire a global security officer who also would be a true peer. Listen in as Davis and Callahan discuss how they wove together two interdependent roles to achieve the ultimate goal of a strong CIO-CISO partnership and how it benefited Aflac.

The intelligent enterprise is the ultimate data-driven organization. It harnesses traditionally counteractive forces – agility and governance, convenience and security, ease of use and enterprise functionality – to go beyond business intelligence and deliver transformative insights to every user, constituent and partner. Today, every forward leaning company is racing to become an intelligent enterprise. Why? Because organizations that build this intelligent edge over competitors will be the dominant force of tomorrow. Hear from MicroStrategy Founder and CEO, Michael Saylor, and map out how to transform your organization into an intelligent enterprise.

What if, every time you had a business problem, you had a room full of CIOs to bounce ideas off of, get advice from and hone solutions with? Welcome to that moment. Bring your trickiest, most troublesome dilemma to the table and get ready for an organic, revelatory experience. Attendees will have the opportunity to candidly discuss their biggest challenges, exchange ideas and uncover peer-tested answers in this CIO-moderated workshop session. The results promise to be nothing short of powerful.

Natural disasters strike every year, but Farmers Insurance keeps finding more sophisticated ways to respond, allowing it to deliver superior customer service and expedite its claim processes. Through a Shark Tank-style innovation lab, Farmers engineered and deployed drones that can map what condition a roof is in, down to the centimeter. Join Ron Guerrier as he explains how with the use of technology Farmers was able to assist their customers through a very active and turbulent 2017. From Irma in Florida to Harvey in Texas, to wildfires in California, Farmers did a thing or two because they have digitized a thing or two. Listen in as Guerrier shares Farmers two-year journey using drones, virtual reality and other devices to enhance the customer experience.

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.

 Session details pending. 

Information systems security is intended to protect assets that matter – data, applications, devices and users. But current cybersecurity approaches often focus on networks and perimeters that are permeable, and detecting cyberattacks by analyzing network traffic is like finding a needle in a haystack. Cloud migration has made things more complex – but also opened opportunities for more advanced protection. In this one on one interview, John Summers will discuss how to take security to the next level by securing key assets, including cloud-based assets, and the business-critical transactions between them.

The new generation of data and analytics infuses traditional data warehouses and reporting environments with significantly enhanced capabilities and meaningful efficiencies. As machine learning and artificial intelligence mature, CIOs must determine how to integrate these advancements to get the best out of their big data. But the first step for many is to hurdle cultural barriers and learn to communicate creatively across the business. Take a seat at the table to learn how CIOs can achieve this and leverage their data and analytics to propel the business.

Instead of the IT status quo, CIOs are now driving business change by embracing the digital forces of analytics, IoT, automation and Agile to create differentiation and new channels of business growth. In adopting the digital forces, CIOs must take partnerships and responsibility to the next level. How do you work with the CFO to achieve the maximum business benefit per dollar spent or align with the CMO to enable digital customer interfaces? How do you augment your portfolio to include operations or separate business units? Join this peer-to-peer dialogue to explore executive partnership and the expanding CIO role.

Digital transformation is not just a buzzword, but an outline of business and operational plans to integrate and prioritize the latest digital technologies available. Unfortunately, security is often a second priority, or not even in the scope of the transformation project. Worse, many organizations have not identified a plan for how they will migrate their most critical SAP and Oracle applications in a secure way, putting their assets at risk. Join this session to discuss how to make security an enabler instead of a roadblock and key action items that can be implemented immediately to ensure security and compliance of your business-critical applications.

How prepared is your organization for a major cyberattack? Immerse yourself in a breach simulation through Booz Allen’s interactive BREACHED! Wargame and experience a major cyberattack without risking a thing. Explore the pitfalls and power plays of a major cyberattack scenario, with none of the danger. Working with facilitators, you’ll manage a fictional company and coordinate your team’s response efforts. Learn firsthand what makes for an effective cyber risk management approach, what assumptions should drive response plans and how to prioritize threats and risks.

As a CIO, you are likely inundated with phone calls and emails about new products or solutions on the market every single day. Collaboration between peers is the anecdote to the volume of information in order to answer difficult questions: What is the next cutting-edge tool I can’t miss? What partners positively enable business execution? Join this practitioner-only boardroom session to share your views and opinions, hear candid advice from others, and benefit from real-world experiences on vetting tools, technologies, and supplier partners.

You are invited to an exclusive gala honoring the recipients of the 2018 Breakaway Leadership Award. The awards program will celebrate high performing leaders who are revolutionizing their company’s competitive position in the new global economy through visionary leadership and organizational transformation. Award winners will be determined by the combined votes of an elite judges panel and the CIO Executive Summit community, who for the first time will have the opportunity to vote via the Evanta Connect mobile app. Spouses and significant others are encouraged to join.

After four years of research and interviews with everyone from Silicon Valley executives to Navy SEALs, Steven Kotler has uncovered the newest revolution in peak performance. While previous research showed practice and grit were the keys to breakthrough performance, Kotler’s work reveals the ultimate shortcut used by titans of their respective fields: harnessing alternate states of consciousness to solve critical challenges and outperform the competition. In this talk, he shares his groundbreaking findings, providing a provocative examination of the ultimate in human performance and a how-to guide for radically upgrading your life.