2009 CIO SYMPOSIUM

Presenting Sponsors

Supporting Sponsors

2009 Symposium Agenda

8:00-8:30
Check in, Breakfast

8:30-10:30
Plenary Session, Roundtable Discussions

10:45-12:00
Morning Breakouts

12:15-1:30
Luncheon and Keynote Presentation

1:45-3:00
Afternoon Breakouts

3:15-4:00
Afternoon Keynote Presentation

4:00
CIO of the Year Awards and Afternoon Reception

Keynote Presenters

Luncheon Keynote
Difficult Times and Constraints? Perfect...Time to Grow Creativity and Build Strategy

Karen Hough, Founder and CEO of ImprovEdge, will deliver an engaging and high-energy keynote on making the most of stress, constraint and difficulty. Many executives don’t realize that some of the greatest innovations have grown out of extreme resource, time or economic constraints. Hough’s presentation helps executives understand how these constraints affect not only your team, but yourself as a leader, and how to turn this environment to your advantage. IT leadership can effectively navigate and create high-level strategy while remaining flexible, creative and cutting-edge.

Working with the Wharton School of Business, ImprovEdge helps companies across the country and in diverse industries leverage the power of creativity and imagination in developing high performance teams that drive business growth. Ms. Hough is a graduate of Yale University and La Sorbonne, Paris IV. She worked for many years as a senior sales executive in the network engineering industry in New York and Chicago, originating and expanding the sales and management efforts of three separate technology start-ups, launched partner programs and assisted in East Coast and National expansions.

Afternoon Keynote
Dr. Paul Barth, Founder and Managing Partner-NewVantage Partners
"The Chief Intelligence Officer "
The traditional role for the corporate CIO is changing. Today’s businesses are increasingly demanding actionable intelligence for all major functions. In addition to sound technical infrastructure and management information, CIOs must also provide systems and processes that gather data, harvest insights, and deploy intelligence across the enterprise. Barth's talk will describe the drivers for this evolution, present case studies, and suggest critical success factors for the next generation CIO.

A recognized thought-leader and practitioner in leveraging information as a strategic asset, Dr. Barth was founder and CTO of Tessera Enterprise Systems, a nationally-known systems integration firm formed in 1995. He became CTO of iXL Enterprises, a leading international Internet integration firm, following the merger of Tessera/iXL in December 1999. He holds a PhD in computer science from MIT, and a MS from Yale University.

Plenary Session

November, 2009: Stuck in recession or on the road to recovery?
As we prepare our 10th CIO Symposium, we can’t be sure which of the above is true. In fact, even in November we might be a few months into the official “recovery” but not know it until next spring.

One certainty, however, is that this recession has created multiple challenges for leaders of virtually all businesses. While most IT-related coping includes cutting or delaying projects, that strategy has practical limits. No businesses operation can slash personnel or delay projects indefinitely and remain viable forever.

Whether in a downturn or recovery, smart IT executives identify effective actions to keep their organization moving forward. Our plenary session will feature a cross-section of IT executives and practitioners sharing insight into:

effective cost-containment strategies
staff retention
managing ROI on infrastructure investment
intelligent capital options to consider now

Presenting companies: Omnova Solutions, Dell Computers, NASA Glenn, CBIZ, IBM

Our plenary session will be immediately followed by facilitated roundtable discussions among the attendees. We'll capture compelling, effective ideas and tactics to share with all conference attendees.

Breakout Sessions

Social Media: Maximizing Value and Managing Risk
For CIOs and IT professionals, Social Media is not just about Facebook and Twitter, as it includes any online tool that can share information. At the workplace, Social Media presents you with challenges and opportunities. And guess what: it’s your responsibility to direct its usage.

Does your organization separate personal from professional usage? Is your policy crafted with nuances beyond edicts (approve/forbid/monitor?) Do you currently actively help direct your organization to leverage these tools to unleash employee creativity and drive revenue? How do you balance all these with still keeping a close eye on security, privacy and productivity?

How should your company approach social media site to attract new customers, promote your brand and products, educate, engage and service existing customers. What are the risks and rewards, including a discussion of best practices, and “not-so-best” practices?

Learn from our experts who will share first-hand stories that are funny as well as instructive as we learn the peril and the possibilities of using Social Media.

Presenting companies: Aztek, The Cleveland Clinic, Junta42

The Class of 2009: Improved Business Processes
“Continuous improvement” is not just some dreamy vision. For leaders who have graduated to the top of the CIO class, they build it right into their department’s DNA.

As a “challenging” 2009 comes to a close and leading economic indicators emerge for 2010, CIOs must continue to “do more with less” while maximizing the return on existing and new capital investments. Tools include document management, business process automation, content management, energy management and others.

“Here was the challenge, this was our approach, these are the resources we committed,
and . . . here are the results.” Learn from peer CIOs and industry veterans who candidly share their success stories and lessons learned.

Information Security: governance, emerging trends, security and privacy
Put simply, if you don’t protect your organization’s data, you probably can’t protect your job.

Safeguarding your firm’s data requires vigilance, persistence and intelligence. Threats and exposure points seem to pop up everywhere. Incidents can range from the mundane (the theft of a laptop or hacking of email) to the sophisticated (internationally coordinated server intrusions).

While fundamental precautions can provide most of the protection your firm needs, how do you ensure your firm is protected from “end-to-end”? Our panel of security experts and practitioners will share insights into how your company can ensure security today while planning resources and approaches for tomorrow.

Presenting companies: Accuvant, Antares Management Solutions, FBI (Cleveland Office), SecureState

Next Gen Tech Talent: using interns and co-ops
Ever been in one of those meetings? The one dominated by discussion of nagging projects that never get completed? The solution often tossed out involves finding an intern (cheap but incredibly skilled, of course) who will slave away for three months so you can check the project off your list.

However, rarely do intern arrangements work out that way. Deployed properly, an intern and co-op program can be extraordinarily valuable for your organization, not to mention the local IT community. Student staff bring fresh perspective to the workplace, unique skill sets, an inquisitive attitude, as well as economic and staffing benefits.

Managed improperly, this model can frustrate your firm and the student, and be costly in terms of productivity and reputation.

Fortunately, strong local firms and institutions have successfully leveraged this model and will share their expertise. From recruiting, to providing a meaningful experience to profitable management, learn how to deploy a successful internship or co-op program.

Presenting companies: The University of Akron, Progressive Insurance, The Sherwin-Williams Company

The 2009 CIO Symposium Committe

Jim Sage, CIO-The University of Akron
George DuFour, CTO-CBIZ
Leslie Pochaukas, CIO-Electronic Merchant Systems
Tom Furnas, CIO-ideastream
George Mehok, CIO-Revol Wireless
Jim O'Hare, president-BioMedia
John Russell, CTO-PerceptIS
John Schindler, CIO (in transition)