At this largest annual gathering of Council members, we will provide an insider’s introduction to the Event, explore the newest, most important resources available to members and Pathways participants, and preview coming attractions. The assembly closes with Member Appreciation Awards before we adjourn to the Event reception.

Serving as the top commander of the United State Marine Corps from 2006-2010, Gen. James Conway was responsible for the organization, policy, plans and programs of the Marines. As commandant, this four-star general developed the next generation of Marine commanders to be agile thinkers, more democratic than authoritarian leaders, and change agents rather than “stabilizers.” A combat veteran of Desert Storm and Desert Shield, he then led the coalition forces across the border in the 2003 Iraq invasion and served as director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, advising the President, Secretary of Defense and National and Homeland Security Councils. Drawing on his four decades of serving with and leading the men and women ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country, this multi-talented, dynamic leader will share his experiences and ideas on how CIOs can guide their organizations through times of crisis, uncertainty and continuous change.

CSO Jason Ruger cheerfully admits that he's one of the most hated executives inside Motorola Mobility, which Google plans to acquire for $12.5 billion. "If you get a call from me, you're probably going to get fired," he explains. The serious nature of security awareness at this mobile device manufacturer stems from the constant cyber-assault on its intellectual property and customer data, and from dealing with hundreds of trade secret leaks each year. In this candid Q&A with CIO's Editor in Chief, Jason will talk about what he calls "The Deathly Hallows" of mobile security mistakes (the ones CIOs most often overlook), as well as the practical steps IT leaders can take to enable widespread use of mobile technologies while keeping their companies, their data and their users safe.

Attendees choose between different topics in these fast-paced, intimate breakouts hosted by our Leadership Event sponsors. Each session will focus on the top strategic challenges and opportunities associated with game-changing technologies, processes and services.

In this expert session, learn how your enterprise organization can leverage telecom expense management (TEM) strategies to achieve significant financial and time savings for your wireless and wireline communications environments. TEM is a service that helps IT organizations understand and manage total telecommunications costs, including telecom supply chains, procurement activities and efficiency improvements in invoice processing. By attending, you’ll qualify for a complimentary TEM assessment of your business. Our Dimension Data expert will explain how the February acquisition of Xigo, a cloud-based TEM service provider, is enabling the delivery of real business value across Xigo’s comprehensive, unified platform.  

Big Data enables new scenarios for gaining competitive advantage, yet Forrester Research reports that most companies use less than 5 percent of the data available to them. With data volumes exploding now, traditional structured data approaches are falling short. So how is this an opportunity? By combining easy accessibility of external data (from social media sites) and unstructured internal data with low-cost, distributed storage and processing – through cloud-based (HADOOP on Azure) or on-premises infrastructure – IT leaders can now solve new business problems. Consider the value of internal data merged with demographic information, customer feedback through social media sites and other external data sets (such as Windows Azure Data Marketplace). These new capabilities can help segment profitable customers, perform behavioral analysis, minimize customer churn and boost customer satisfaction. In this expert session, you’ll learn how familiar tools like Excel and SharePoint along with public and private clouds can play a role in developing “A Data Driven Mindset”.  Come see a Microsoft’s BI and Big Data demo and consider your new options. 

In this concise, practical case study session, two members of our CIO Executive Council will talk about major transformational initiatives in mobility -- covering business goals, technology choices, ROI and lessons learned. They will share their insights into the benefits realized as well as metrics on the investment, implementation time and vendor choices.

Scott Caudill's case delves into delivering Salesforce.com content to iPads and how that is transforming Zimmer's sales and support. Georgia Papathomas' case examines how Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals is using tablets to drive more value from sales calls for both the company and its customers.

Women CIOs will have the opportunity to network and discuss critical leadership issues for executives and senior leaders at this special luncheon (Council Members Only). 

This luncheon is currently sold out. Please contact contact Carrie Mathews at the CIO Executive Council at cmathews@cio.com to be placed on the wait list.

When The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in June 2010, it was a great day at Universal Orlando.   Yet behind the scenes, IT was struggling to update critical systems and infrastructure to keep up with the expected demand.  CIO Bill McCorey signed on in November 2010 to revamp and upgrade IT operations, build out a new e-commerce infrastructure and, ultimately, bolster IT's reputation. Today the IT team has zoomed up from zero to 85% success rate on projects and recently delivered on an "Express Widget" online sales tool that's helped to drive revenue.  In this entertaining and inspiring session, Bill will talk about how he set Universal's 135-person IT team on a more strategic business path and what lies ahead for the IT-driven customer experience. 

With the decline in entry-level IT positions in our organizations and the flagging interest of young people in pursuing IT as a career, today’s companies risk the loss of an entire generation of American IT workers. Many CIOs are interested in attracting the best and brightest young people to their organizations and tapping their talents and fresh perspectives. But how can your company effectively compete for the top talent entering the IT job market today? In this lively exchange, you’ll hear directly from a group of 20-something IT staffers who will candidly share their views on everything from the impact of outsourcing on their career paths to their social media habits and workplace expectations.

Featured Panelists:

• Lindsay Farrell, Systems Analyst/IT Project Lead, Commercial Markets IT, Liberty Mutual
• Ryder Fyrwald, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Humantelligence
• Omar Halabieh, IS Manager, Upstream Power, Direct Energy
• Zuheidi Hoyos, IT Lead, Johnson & Johnson
• Taek Kyun, Business Analyst, HBO
• Sindy Saldaña, Computer Forensic Technician, Service Corporation International
• Robert Villegas, Intern for BI Director, Fordham University

As president and CEO of General Electric's $8.5 billion Home & Business Solutions business -- and CIO of GE's global IT operations -- Begley is uniquely positioned to work both sides of the IT-business challenge. "I wouldn’t trade the CIO role for the world. It’s so relevant, so pertinent," says Begley. "It's really important as a business leader to understand the technology. This makes me a much better CEO." Appointed in 2010 to her first CIO role, Begley's mission was to articulate a more business-focused vision for IT that would resonate across a $147 billion global company like GE. In this closing keynote address, this longtime business leader will share her CEO's viewpoint on managing tremendous complexity and focusing IT on the right strategies for growth.

A review of key threads, ideas and takeaways from Day 1 of the conference, and a preview of today’s themes.

As IT organizations transform to improve their own value delivery to the business, the sourcing strategy, partnerships and management approach to working across organizational boundaries become critical components to success. At Shell, a global group of energy and petrochemical companies with around 93,000 employees, operations in 90+ countries, and 2010 revenue of $368 billion, the “IT Ecosystem” is a case study in how multiple parties can be brought together and engaged to effectively harvest value, in everything from strategic investments to fostering the kind of collaborations that enable breakthrough innovations. In this opening keynote address, EVP and CIO Alan Matula will share his perspectives on how a multi-sourcing IT strategy can effectively drive cost efficiencies and innovations that support Shell’s business strategies worldwide.

What does it take for a CIO and IT vendor to transcend the client-customer relationship and join forces to enable transformation and growth? Why does that happen so rarely? In this highly interactive Town Hall session, we’ll draw on Shell CIO Alan Matula’s opening keynote to extend the conversation about how CIOs can raise the bar for their most strategic vendors and achieve more measurable benefits. A vendor relationship at this level goes beyond effective delivery of systems and services to become a responsive and trusted collaborator in creating value. Expect some provocative discussion as IT leaders and vendor executives weigh in from both sides of the table to tackle this challenging subject together.

The increasing velocity of change is familiar territory for CIO Dave Weick. "The concept of change is the topic I spend most of my time with," says this 15-year veteran of McDonald's top executive suite. "Technology is just a tool to drive change." As an accelerator (not just an enabler) of business success, IT at McDonald's takes a global view of the complex task of serving 68 million customers a day across 33,500 restaurants in more than 100 countries. "Even the little things need to work perfectly," he notes. In this fascinating look inside one of the world's best-known brands, Dave will talk about how he aligns global leadership on IT priorities and uses 'change networks' to forge alliances with stakeholders and key influencers.

In this concise, practical case study session, two members of our CIO Executive Council will talk about major transformational initiatives in cloud computing and business intelligence/big data -- covering business goals, technology choices, ROI and lessons learned. They will share their insights into the benefits realized as well as metrics on the investment, implementation time and vendor choices.

CIO Charles Beard's case covers how SAIC used a hybrid cloud approach to consolidate assets, improve utilization and enhance business continuity. CIO Andrew Lang's case examines the online tool WellPoint developed to provide price and quality comparisons for commonly used healthcare services.

Senior IT leaders who are working their way up to the CIO position (and current CIOs who want to develop further) are invited to this unique interactive “training camp” led by past and current CIO Hall of Famers, Council mentors and Ones to Watch Award judges. The focus will be on personal leadership development as attendees tap the wisdom of some of the profession’s leading lights.

IT leaders from mid-market companies (under $2B in revenue) are invited to participate in this interactive panel/workshop on perfecting IT’s role as the transformation engine for the enterprise. Participants can choose to generate ideas and share experiences in discussion groups on IT organizational structures and agility, stakeholder relationships and ownership, driving innovation beyond ideas, and positioning CIOs as transformation leaders. The focus will be on what works for mid-market companies, with all our inherent strengths and challenges.

CIOs from Fortune 1000 companies (revenue $1.5B and up) are invited to join this track for presentations and discussions geared to the challenges large enterprises face in refining their global structure and processes to get the most value from their far-flung resources.

The job description for today's CIO is a swiftly moving target. You may be leading global change initiatives, managing outsourcers, integrating global supply chains, building out shared services organizations, revamping the customer experience -- or all of the above. That's certainly the case at Owens-Corning, where CIO David Johns is helping to lead a technological and cultural transformation at this $5 billion global manufacturer of building and composite materials. "We're going from a customer services mentality to a 'serving our customer' mentality, which means completely changing the company," says Johns, who was named to the CIO Hall of Fame in 2009. "We're now a global business services organization where IT is one part of that." In this closing keynote, Johns will share his insights about how the CIO role is evolving, why it makes sense to integrate business and IT functions, and how the customer experience will shape the future of our organizations.

Come and mingle with the next generation of up-and-coming IT leaders as well as our newest members of the CIO Hall of Fame and today’s speakers as you enjoy a cocktail and some hors d’oeuvres with your colleagues.