Toronto CIO Virtual Executive Summit

As we come upon the mid-point of 2021, what initiatives are you most proud of as a leader? What are your passion projects in your professional and personal lives? Top off your coffee and join this session to casually connect and celebrate the bright spots in a demanding career — and year.

A CIO’s 2021 marching orders come straight from the top: In a Gartner survey, 7 out of 10 boards demanded digital acceleration in a disrupted global climate, while operational excellence through digital business topped the forward-driving agenda. How does your digital strategy measure up to the mission? Join your peers in an interactive session built around modern digital design.

Among the key talking points:

• What it means to be ‘digital-first’ – breaking down roadblocks and navigating roadmaps
• What levers to pull to expand digital business and increase digital maturity
• How CIOs create the ability for remote and hybrid work environments

Studies show that 74% of CEOs believe cloud computing will be the most helpful technology to deliver results over the next 2-3 years. How can businesses digitally transform with cloud, while ensuring they have a secure environment where customers’ data is not compromised?
Join us for an interactive boardroom that explores how businesses can:

• Make the transition to cloud rapidly while keeping experiences frictionless for consumers
• Build secure and open hybrid cloud architecture and distributed cloud environments
• Explore strategic cloud options and execute on them seamlessly

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In a highly disruptive and digital environment, hyper-automation and agility are critical to the transformation and optimization of business operations. To keep pace, organizations are increasingly looking to empower their technology-savvy workforce with low-code automation platforms to modernize legacy systems, improve customer experience and ignite innovation.

Join this boardroom discussion to explore how CIOs are:

• Improving critical business processes with low-code automation platforms
• Leveraging talent across the business to enable scalable enterprise ready innovation
• Managing the pros and cons of democratized technology

With an increase in threat vectors comes the increased need for a sound cybersecurity program. CIOs must take a proactive approach in ensuring cybersecurity risk is considered at every step, even in times of rapid disruption. 

Join this boardroom for a discussion on:

• Managing third parties and holding them to cybersecurity standards
• Quantifying, measuring, and communicating risk across the organization
• Upskilling your cybersecurity teams to stay ahead of emerging threats

CIOs learned a lot about the focus and the resilience of their technology teams throughout the global health crisis. But as the IT function ramped up productivity and delivery, concerns over burnout and work-life balance have bubbled to the surface. As an IT leader, how are you managing your team’s well-being and mental health?

Join this boardroom to discuss:

• CIO best practices to manage employee fatigue and improve work-life balance  
• Balancing IT workforce productivity and employee engagement in hybrid work environments
• Cross-functional initiatives with HR to ensure long-term employee well-being

As the ongoing rush to the cloud continues, many organizations falter because they equate “movement” with “strategy.” Getting the most out of your cloud journey doesn’t automatically follow from a corporate mandate or new vendor contract. Success is the product of clear communication of terms and expectations, alignment with other business processes and functions, and partnerships among multiple internal and external stakeholders.

This session puts strategy in the crosshairs and discusses:

• Creating definitional clarity for your comprehensive approach to cloud to eliminate ambiguity and crystalize the best processes for your organization
• Building adaptability into your strategy so it can be augmented or amplified at any step in the journey to address shifting business needs
• Breaking cloud strategy away from IT and creating cross-functional, business-wide alignment

In the burgeoning age of information gathering and sharing, organizations cannot afford to lose track of unstructured, unsecure content. This peer-driven boardroom will delve into the challenges of managing the explosive growth of information, and what tools can effectively capture and govern the most vital assets in the enterprise. CIOs will discuss:

• Ways to reduce risk and achieve compliance while managing large volumes of information
• Strategic advantages of modernizing infrastructure and cloud for customers, partners and employees
• Approaches to increasing productivity and improving business process

Faced with demands for modernization, cost optimization and digital business transformation, CIOs are looking at how data and analytics programs can support expanding their digital business and increasing their D&A maturity. After a D&A strategy is set, IT leaders must execute and deliver on the intended business outcomes.

Join your peers in discussing:

• Approaches to leveraging technology and resources to support D&A program and improve business outcomes
• Best Practices for building out new business process and executing change management across the enterprise
• Management of cultural shifts in the organization

Leading your organization into the future requires the right technology stack, the right talent and the best data to make decisions. But to get to those outcomes, CIOs must modernize a complex ecosystem of legacy technology, identify capability gaps and overcome funding challenges. There’s no perfect solution, but businesses that win get the most out of their existing tech, talent resources and investments.

In this conversation, CIOs will discuss:

• Striking the optimal balance between legacy systems and smart investments
• Building the right capabilities and effectively utilizing internal talent around data and innovation
• Gaining visibility into the true drivers of value across the business

As organizations have embraced remote work out of necessity during the pandemic, the market for tech talent has shifted dramatically. Employers can compete for tech talent regardless of location while simultaneously creating a culture that is founded on collaboration and communication. This session will address the unique opportunities the work from anywhere movement has provided to enable a productive and purpose-led organization.

Join this session for a discussion on:

• What you can do to maximize the benefits of a distributed workforce
• How you’re thinking about the future of talent and culture
• How an increasingly remote tech talent landscape can provide more equitable access

Don't miss this opportunity to meet with CIO practitioners and industry thought leaders who shared their insights on the agenda. Come with questions and get ready to meet new friends in this casual session designed to foster peer connections and collaboration in the Toronto community. 

Meet virtually for in-depth conversations with your colleagues