In-Person

Washington, DC CIO Community

Executive Summit

November 17, 2026 | Convene at 1201 Wilson Blvd

November 17, 2026
Convene at 1201 Wilson Blvd

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Washington, DC'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:

Resilience by Design

Technology at the Business Core

The Strategy to Lead What's Next

Washington, DC 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

Ryan Boulais

Bunge
Global Chief Information Security Officer

Demetris Charalambous

Bank Fund Staff Federal Credit Union
CIO

Massimo Favro

NVR
CISO

Patricia Pichardo

Duracell
Global CIO & SVP IT

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 Washington, DC CIO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, 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.

Agenda

November 17, 2026

8:00am - 8:30am  Registration & Breakfast

8:30am - 9:15am  Gartner Keynote

Redefining Possibility — Harnessing Agentic AI for Organizational Impact

Jasleen Kaur Sindhu headshot

Jasleen Kaur Sindhu

VP Analyst

Gartner

As organizations dive deeper into AI, agentic technologies are already disrupting industries and redefining what’s possible. The challenge now is learning how to harness agentic AI to drive transformation, spark innovation, and achieve measurable ROI. Competing in an AI-driven ecosystem requires more than simply deploying new capabilities, it demands strategic integration and forward-thinking leadership.

Join this keynote session to explore:

  • Strategies for integrating agentic AI into your organizational design
  • How to navigate the buy-versus-build decision
  • What top AI companies are doing differently to achieve success

9:15am - 9:40am  Networking Break

9:40am - 10:25am  Breakout Session

When AI Moves Faster Than Trust — Control, Integrity, and Recovery

Jason Cook headshot

Jason Cook

Field CTO Americas

Rubrik

AI is scaling faster than organizations can control. As systems act autonomously across data and workflows, the real risk is loss of control, integrity, and recoverability. Establishing operational trust ensures systems are governed, impact is contained, and operations are restored when failure occurs.

Join this session to explore how to:

  • Maintain control as AI systems act autonomously
  • Ensure integrity of data and decisions under real-world conditions
  • Recover to a clean, trusted state when AI-driven systems fail

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Defending AI with AI - Optimizing Organizational Design, Agents, and Cost

Kevin Thomas headshot

Kevin Thomas

Chief Security Advisor

Microsoft Corporation

Join this interactive discussion with fellow CIOs and CISOs on the operating implications of agentic security with a particular focus on optimizing organizational design, agents, and cost. What is working, what is not, and what comes next?

9:40am - 10:25am  Executive Boardroom

Digital Trust As Your Competitive Edge

Alex Dhillon headshot

Alex Dhillon

Founder & CEO

Outtake

Your board wants AI. Your business is already running it. AI governance is maturing fast, but the gap is the external perimeter, where agents act, brands live, and AI attacks now scale rapidly. Closing this gap is not just about protecting the business — it is what makes enterprise AI safe to scale.

Join this session to discuss:

  • Navigating governance in the era of context poisoning and external visibility gaps
  • Responding to the rise of fake infrastructure targeting enterprise brands
  • Owning digital trust to position CIOs and CISOs at the center of the AI conversation

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

AI Agent Governance — Securing The New Frontier

Daniel Kroese headshot

Daniel Kroese

Vice President, Global Policy

Palo Alto Networks

AI agents autonomously plan, reason, invoke tools, maintain memory, and execute multi-step tasks with limited human intervention. The actions they take can be consequential, irreversible and fast. This session explores modern AI governance techniques: how people, processes, and technology can work in concert to advance the mission needs of your agentic enterprise without sacrificing security and trust.

Join this session to learn about these three steps:

  • Step 1: Continuous inventory
  • Step 2: Identity-first controls for all agents
  • Step 3: Human-in-the-loop for high-impact agents

11:10am - 11:55am  Breakout Session

Closing the AI Capability Gap — Prioritizing AI Investments That Create Business Value

Anand Kangala headshot

Anand Kangala

CIO

Trex Company

Brett Farmer headshot

Brett Farmer

Director of AI

Trex Company

Organizations aren't short on AI ideas. They're short on practical ways to decide where to start. This executive breakout session introduces the Help Me. AI Adoption Framework, a practical approach for building enterprise AI capabilities and prioritizing investments that create lasting business value. Participants will gain a practical framework they can immediately apply to strengthen AI investment decisions and portfolio planning.

Participants will learn to:

  • Diagnose why AI initiatives struggle to scale and deliver business value
  • Prioritize AI investments using a structured, capability-based approach
  • Build a sequenced AI portfolio that balances near-term value with long-term transformation

11:10am - 11:55am  Executive Boardroom

Integrating Enterprise Agents — A Practical Playbook

Mike Durham headshot

Mike Durham

Sr. Director, Solutions Architects

IBM

AI agent adoption cannot happen in isolation from existing applications, APIs, MCPs, and governance models. To move from experimentation to execution, CIOs and CISOs require a practical playbook to separate the signal from the noise.

Join this session to explore how to:

  • Evaluate where agents add meaningful value versus introducing risk
  • Address practical adoption tradeoffs across real operating environments
  • Gain a concrete framework for evaluating enterprise fit

11:10am - 11:55am  Executive Boardroom

Boardroom Blind Spots — What Leaders Wish Their Boards Knew

Misalignment between boards and technology leaders can leave organizations exposed to unseen risks and missed opportunities. Too often, critical decisions are made without a full understanding of IT and cybersecurity complexities—or the unique perspectives of board members. Bridging this gap requires clear communication, shared priorities, and a tailored approach to stakeholder engagement.

In this session, executives will explore how to:

  • Identify the most common blind spots that hinder effective board oversight
  • Understand and adapt to the personas and priorities of their board members
  • Communicate technology and security issues in ways that drive alignment and action

11:55am - 12:30pm  Lunch Service

12:30pm - 1:05pm  Keynote

Governed Enablement — Translating AI Risk into Board-Level Confidence

Hansang Bae headshot

Hansang Bae

CXO Advisor

Zscaler

AI is now a board-level priority - and a board-level risk - placing CIOs and CISOs in the spotlight to demonstrate active, measurable management of AI exposure. Organizations are translating governance into enforceable controls and transparent reporting, replacing stopgap blocking with runtime guardrails. What are strategies that CIOs and CISOs can take back to their own organizations to establish clear decision rights, provide actionable risk metrics, and foster confidence among executive sponsors and boards, all while enabling safe and scalable AI adoption?

Join this session to learn:

  • Establishing clear decision rights for accountable AI adoption
  • Replacing stopgap blocking with enforceable, runtime guardrails
  • Providing boards with transparent, actionable risk metrics

1:05pm - 1:30pm  Break

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Breakout Session

AI’s Double-Edged Impact — Guard and Gateway

Luke McNamara headshot

Luke McNamara

Deputy Chief Analyst, Mandiant Intelligence

Google Cloud Security

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms enterprise security, CISOs face unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Adversaries are weaponizing AI to scale attacks, increase speed, and enhance sophistication, targeting both traditional systems and emerging enterprise AI deployments. In this evolving battlefield, AI is not only a powerful tool for defenders but also an attractive target for attackers.

Join this session to learn more about:

  • Emerging adversarial AI tactics and their impact on enterprise risk profiles
  • Strategies for protecting AI assets and mitigating new vectors of attack
  • Best practices for leveraging AI defensively without increasing organizational exposure

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Executive Boardroom

AI Readiness— Balancing Innovation and Risk

Pedro Ferreira headshot

Pedro Ferreira

Director of Channel Enablement

Concentric AI

As organizations accelerate AI adoption, leaders across IT and security are being asked to support innovation while maintaining control over sensitive data and operational readiness. Many AI initiatives reveal longstanding challenges around data visibility, governance, risk management, and policy enforcement. Successful scaling of AI requires trust in data, robust controls, and collaborative frameworks that balance innovation, business value, and risk. 

Join this roundtable to discuss: 

  • Defining “AI-ready” organizations and overcoming barriers to secure, scalable AI adoption 

  • Balancing rapid AI innovation with governance, oversight, and risk management 

  • Addressing gaps in data quality, policy, and ownership that impact successful AI implementation 

1:30pm - 2:15pm  Executive Boardroom

Maximizing ROI in Application Research and Selection

Anil Katarki headshot

Anil Katarki

CISO

Virginia Hospital Center

Selecting the right applications is essential for business agility, security, and growth. With countless options available, leaders must ensure technology decisions align with business goals and user needs.

Join this peer-led roundtable to discuss:

  • Creating clear, objective criteria for evaluating application options
  • Building constructive, transparent relationships with vendors and stakeholders
  • Engaging teams to drive consensus throughout the selection process

2:15pm - 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 Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

3:45pm - 4:00pm  Networking Break

4:00pm - 4:35pm  Keynote

Made to Order — Leadership Lessons for a World That Won't Sit Still

Zerrick Pearson headshot

Zerrick Pearson

CIO

Five Guys Enterprises

Every executive is being asked to move faster, embrace new technologies and guide teams through constant change. Yet the fundamentals of leadership remain the same: building trust, creating clarity and helping people adapt without losing what makes the organization successful. Drawing on his experience leading technology and transformation for one of the world's most recognized restaurant brands, Five Guys CIO Zerrick Pearson shares practical lessons for leading through disruption while keeping people at the center.

Join this keynote to learn how to:

  • Build trust and alignment when priorities are constantly evolving
  • Help teams embrace new technologies and ways of working
  • Maintain culture and performance through periods of transformation

4:35pm - 4:45pm  Closing Comments and Prize Drawing

November 17, 2026

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

Gartner cares about the health and safety of our community. If you are feeling unwell, please refrain from attending the conference. At this time, Gartner does not have any health-related requirements in place for attendance. Should this change, we will follow up with updated guidance.

Location

Venue & Accommodation

Convene at 1201 Wilson Blvd
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Community Program Manager

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

Melissa Tarpley

Community Program Manager

469-872-5998

melissa.tarpley@gartner.com