Acceleration Economy’s Digital CIO Summit event is taking place April 4-6. Aaron Back hosts Bob Evans to discuss his perspective on the upcoming event, the office of the CIO, and the importance of customer stories.
Highlights
00:50 — A key element of the CIO Summit is the CIO. However, it’s not necessarily just the person who holds the CIO title within an organization. Rather, it’s that the office of the CIO reflects those that support the role and have a huge impact on the success of CIOs today.
01:19 — Aaron asks Bob to share his view of the CIO role today versus years ago, considering the massive evolution across core areas of technology, such as cloud, AI and hyperautomation, cybersecurity, and data. He also inquires about Bob’s take on the current economic pressures.
01:46 — “We hear a lot of organizations saying that, as they’ve moved more in the direction of becoming a digital business, they’ve had to break down a lot of siloes around processes and how things work — I think the same thing is happening across the C-suite,” Bob shares. In past years, there would have been “severe fragmentation” but there’s “just no room for that anymore” because each member of the C-suite has to be able to actively understand, communicate, and engage with what’s going on across the company.
02:27 — Bob uses the Venn diagram as an example of how the CIO role exists today, rather than being a series of silos as it was in the past. The CIO has to understand what all the other roles are responsible for and what they’re doing. Bob suggests that, in some ways, the CIO has to become the “Chief Acceleration Officer” today.
03:03 — At the Digital CIO Summit, many of the speakers come from supporting roles representing the office of the CIO. The event will also have customer companies represented, as well as IT leaders to weigh in on many topics that are covered by Acceleration Economy.
03:40 — Bob shares his view on the importance of customers telling their digital transformation stories. He states that if he were in a role such as CIO, he’d want to hear what’s going on in different areas from a peer rather than from a big tech company.
04:48 — Speakers include Dan Drawbaugh of The Steadman Philippon Research Institute, Rob Carter of FedEx, Lev Gonick of Arizona State University, and Suvajit Basu of GOYA Foods.
05:36 — CIOs “are going to tell us and share with the audience some incredible war stories and breakthrough stories and models of where things are going to be headed in the future,” Bob suggests.
To hear more data modernization, AI/hyperautomation, cybersecurity, and growth strategies from CIO practitioners, tune into Acceleration Economy’s Digital CIO Summit, which takes place April 4-6. Register for the free event here.
