Finding ways to help American businesses innovate and compete is the core mission of the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, which encompasses 12 different agencies responsible for everything from census-taking, economic development and international trade practices to patent protection and weather forecasts. The $2.5 billion spent on IT across those dozen agencies is locally controlled, however, leaving CIO Simon Szykman with the challenging job of convincing a federated organization to get its cyber-security act together. "If you don't have the direct control in your hands, it all comes down to communication, collaboration and relationship building," he says. In this talk, Simon will detail the department-wide progress made in recent years in battling security threats that grow more sophisticated by the day.

An increasingly mobile workforce, a surging influx of consumer devices at work and the rapid rise of collaboration and social media tools are having a huge impact how business is conducted in both the private and public sectors. While these trends present  tremendous challenges for CIOs in data security, customer privacy and legacy integration, there is an undeniably strong tide of user demand to use the devices and tools of their choosing. How do you manage risk while modifying or even giving up traditional IT controls? How do you maintain a good partnership with other business units or departments when you really have to say "No?" In this engaging panel discussion with prominent Washington-area IT leaders and experts, you’ll hear how organizations are turning these tensions into opportunities to leverage the "new normal" of our hyper-connected world.