Keynote:

CIOs are at the crossroads of business and technology with decisions made impacting organizational productivity, business capabilities and market competitiveness. With technology rapidly evolving the challenge is to adopt the right infrastructure and tools to enable your organization to react quickly in an ever changing, dynamic environment. Brandon Sweeney, Vice President of the U.S. Mid-Market Business Customer Segment at VMware will share how VMware is helping mid-market companies address today’s challenges with solutions that help IT organizations improve service delivery while simplifying processes and reducing costs.

Strategic IT: What The CEO Needs From You
Robert Slaughter, President & Managing Partner, GEN5

This engaging presentation will provide a clear understanding of what “Strategic IT” is, and will provide enlightening insights drawn directly from SMB executives into what they expect from their IT leaders going forward. Attendees will learn why the role of IT and IT leadership within small and mid-sized companies is changing in significant ways, and specific steps they can take to meet the challenge head on.  

• The key elements that are driving changes in IT and the IT leadership role.
• What CEOs and other executives want and need from IT to succeed.
• What is “Strategic IT”?
• The “Innovation Imperative” – why the “status quo” is a path to irrelevance.
• How to build a culture of innovation excellence.
• How to command relevance and your seat at the C-suite table.
• The ten key action steps you should take right now.

Migration from Hosted to Cloud-Based Approach to Communicating and Collaborating
Hal Greene, VP of IS, Composites One     

• Reasons for moving from hosted (Novell GroupWise) to cloud-based approach (Google Apps)
• Implementation and the challenges encountered
• Financial savings and factors involved
• Functionality, mobility and security considerations

“Cloud Realization: Where Business is Today”

Praveen Moturu, Chief Enterprise Architect, Navistar

• Traditional IT organizations lacking Agile thought leadership
• Time for the CIO to be the Chief Innovation/Intelligence Officer
• Cloud and virtualization are not just an option, they’re a necessity
• Security issues around the cloud: A Program to Follow

Phishing Awareness & Prevention:
Tony Hashem CISSP CIO at Holmes Murphy & Associates

• Today’s Online Criminal Reality
• What is phishing and why must we care
• What we can see about others online that is used for phishing
• Security issues around cyber threats
• Protecting yourself against phishing

Building Real IT Business Partnerships Between the IT and The Business
Joe Topinka, CIO at Red Wings Shoes

• Defining the new role of IT Business Partner and the framework around it
• Overcoming common challenges when implementing  IT Business Partners programs  
• How to legitimize the role of IT Business Partner within company
• Benefits to the collaboration between IT Business Partners and Business Units

The Imminent Convergence of Marketing and IT
Steve Daly, CTO Powerhouse Factories

• The new tug-of-war between CIOs and CMOs over technology
• Why the CMOs are spending more on technology
• How to stay ahead of the recent convergence of marketing and technology
• How CIOs can maintain relevance in a world where CMOs are beginning to encroach on their current responsibilities
• How the convergence is translating into new opportunities

Entitlement Management, the Next Security Wave
Robert Ross, SVP Systems/Recovery, CTO at Data Center Inc

• Defining Entitlement and where to start
• Challenges CIO’s and executives are facing with security and data leakage
• The Benefits of using the entitlement approach
• Why Entitlement Review?                                                                                                                                          
• Entitlement Challenges !
• Approach to Entitlement Reviews
• Project Plan for Entitlement Reviews
• Phase a: Risk Mitigation
• Phase b: Entitlement Optimization
• Phase c: Continuous Improvement
• The Hard Truth

“The Role of IT: “Support is not a strategic value to an organization”
Andrew Maychruk, Chief Integration Officer, Talmer Bank and Trust

• How does IT avoid being viewed strictly as a cost or overhead expense
• Integration within the business is key for all projects
• IT needs to be looked at as a strategic business enabler
• Effectively translating business priorities into technology plans

“The Trilogy of Business Analytics:  Descriptive, Predictive, and Prescriptive”
Joe Rodriguez, Software Practice Leader, FYI Solutions

As revealed in the IBM Institute for Business Value and Said Business School, University of Oxford, three out of five midmarket respondents report that advanced analytics creates a competitive advantage in their industry, representing a 66% increase since 2010. Given the rapid rate and pace of change in business and technology, the demand for advanced analytics will continue to grow.

Whether you are just starting to think about the relevance of business analytics for your company, or you have some of the basics in place, analytics is not just for large businesses anymore . Not only are mid-sized companies building more solutions tailored to their requirements, they are also developing strategies that will enable more timely and effective decision-making. 

FYI Solutions will focus on the trilogy of business analytics:  moving from descriptive analytics, or the “today” view, to predicting future business implications,  and finally, analytics that prescribe the best approach for optimal outcomes.

Practical Applications of Visual Analytics
Jeff Mills, Strategic Sales Consultant, Tableau Software

Visual analytics has long been an appealing but esoteric science which seemed better suited for research than business. But today, visual analytics is spreading beyond the research department to the general business population, helping everyday employees gain insight into data in order to solve unexpected problems and challenges. Visual analytics is changing the way people interact with data and the way business intelligence is defined in organizations. In this presentation, we will share real-world examples of how everyday people can and are using visual analytics to solve some of business and society's most challenging issues. We'll also share his vision for the future of visual analytics and identify what's needed to bring visual analytics to the forefront of mainstream data analysis.