Given the digital nature of business today, Chief Information Officers are playing an increasing role in business strategy for their companies. "IT can become a tremendous force for improving the strategic work of the company as a whole,” says Peter High, president of Metis Strategy and author of "World Class IT Strategy." From interacting with external customers, partners and suppliers to streamlining the management of internal operations, IT leaders are often front-and-center in bringing life to the strategic initiatives expected to drive future success for their organizations. In this opening keynote, Peter will talk about the specific skills and capabilities CIOs must foster in order to move up to the role of Chief Strategy Officer.

Doing business globally is a challenge for CIOs, even without the additional tumult of war, disease and poverty. For World Bank Group CIO Stephanie von Friedeburg, enabling World Bank staff to address the world's most complex development problems means providing transformative IT solutions to more than 16,000 employees in 220 country offices, often located in the most difficult areas of the world. From moving the organization to the cloud to increasing bandwidth in Afghanistan, Stephanie will talk about developing an IT strategy that allows World Bank staff the ability to access information anytime, anywhere as they work to fulfill the mission of eliminating extreme poverty in our world.

CIOs are fascinated with emerging technologies but don't have the time to sort through a haystack of startups to find that one golden needle. Startup founders are eager to sign up big-name customers but are clueless about how to talk to CIOs. Former CIO-turned-consultant Karla Viglasky understands the frustration from both sides. "I love helping CIOs connect to the startup community," she says. "It's a different culture, but the advantages to your business can be great." In this talk, Karla will share her expert advice and practical suggestions on vetting enterprise startups and making your IT organization more successful at working with these fledgling companies.

• Enabling IT to Enable the Modern Enterprise, hosted by Appian
• Mind the GAAP: Creating a Global Standard for IT Financial Management, hosted by Apptio
• How Does Your Data Center Solution Stack Up?, hosted by CoreSite
  
• Secure DevOps: Combining Speed and Security in Data Management, hosted by Delphix
• Empowerment with Confidence, hosted by Dropbox
• Embedded Reporting and Analytics, hosted by OpenText
• The SDDC and SDN: How to Define and Deploy in Your Existing Network, hosted by Pluribus Networks
• New Trends in Enterprise Mobility: Transforming How Businesses Connect with Employees, Customers and Partners, hosted by Randstad Technologies 

As the newly minted Chief Information Security Officer of Stryker Corp., Alissa Johnson walked into the unexpected at her first board of directors meeting for the $10 billion surgical products maker. "What surprised me was their hunger for infosecurity info," said the former deputy CIO of the White House. "They have a huge appetite for it." In this candid Q&A about her move from federal government service to private enterprise, Alissa will talk about why CIOs and CISOs must change the cybersecurity conversation to emphasize prevention and preparedness, with particular attention to insider threats, shadow IT and the lessons private industry can learn from the public sector.

In this fast paced session, CIO's Publisher Adam Dennison will share some key research findings on emerging technologies and industry trends surrounding the SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) stack. Then his industry expert panelists will talk about how they see various market dynamics affecting their customers in this new era of IT. What business problems do their products solve? What value do these new market players bring to CIOs?

"Collaboration" is one of those feel-good words that's easy to say but hard to actually do. So how did 17 different, mission-specific agencies within the USDA voluntarily get their act together to deliver unprecedented levels of collaboration, change management and digital leadership? This "rebel alliance" chartered a CIO Council with board-of-directors-like powers to govern IT issues and make architectural decisions together. "It takes a lot of work and you have some hard discussions," says Chad Sheridan, CIO of the USDA's Risk Management Agency. "But with buy-in from high-level IT leaders, you really can drive change." In this presentation, Chad will talk about what the group has accomplished and how CIOs in both public and private industries can replicate its success.

"Senior Executive & Mission Impossible Leader" is how David Bray's LinkedIn profile describes his different roles, including his most recent assignment as CIO for the Federal Communication Commission. When he joined the FCC in August 2013, his mission was to turn a risk-averse organization into one fostering "positive change agents" open to new ideas and bold experiments that lead to transformative results. In this workshop session, David will share his experience on leading change, providing specific examples of how IT leaders can encourage and champion positive change agents. Then we'll crowdsource these topics with the audience to creatively brainstorm more ideas for fostering, recognizing and rewarding change.