Highlights of the Chicago 2018 CIO & CISO Strategy Meeting

A Huge thank you to everyone who joined us at the CIO & CISO Strategy Meeting in Chicago on Wednesday, August 15 at the JW Marriott, Chicago. We appreciate our facilitators, sponsors and the engaging group of influential industry leaders who made the event a great success. Here are a few conversation highlights from the sessions:

Why the CIO & CISO Need to Work Together

Digitization is increasing the threats of the landscape and creating the need for the CIO and CISO to work together more than ever before to operate in the modern industry and to securely transform their organization into the digital age.

How will you use AI for your Cyber Defense

Providing your customers with personalized product and services to meet their lifestyle needs is an all-time high. How will you create a secure, seamless and enjoyable experience through mobile apps, connected devices, wearables, social media, chatbots to create a superior customer experience and revenue growth?

Digital Transformation

As CIO how will you redefine your role within your organization to drive business value and go beyond in dealing with emergencies and keeping the lights on? How will you enable your employees to give your customers what they want?

Cloud Migration Strategy

Approximately 70% of the participants in this discussion utilized some aspect of the cloud. 12.5% indicated they are 100% in the cloud and the remaining 17.5% were still deciding and somewhat skeptical about the security of the cloud and the ability to respond to the needs of the business. The triggers for the skepticism might be influenced by:

Leaders do not understand the cloud infrastructure
Fear of losing their jobs or relevance in the organization
Control issues and not seeing the physical hardware or managing it
Not understanding the elasticity the cloud solutions provide
Not integrated with the business to understand their need and deliver

Adaptive IT

How does IT become more adaptive? What are the enablers and barriers to becoming an adaptive IT organization, and how to create change to support a more adaptive IT organization? The discussion focused on people, processes, technology, position, and point of view. Almost 100% of the solutions were not technology or process based but based upon investments in the right people interactions through recruiting, training & re-tooling. There are also items that suggest that the environment must be open to engaging more strategically faced IT organization.

Blockchain in Your Business

Beyond the hype, blockchain is the future technology that will change your organization. Understanding “where, why and how” blockchain technology can and should be used across various industries will be discussed to help you in embracing the challenges you are facing as CIO in reviewing and implementing blockchain in your organization.

A keynote by Georgiana Wagemann, Regional Director, Darktrace focused on AI for Cyber Defense and the shift to self-defending networks. It addressed the following:

AI algorithms are critical to detecting never-before-seen threats
Technology driven by AI can continually adapt as networks or businesses change
The necessity of detecting all threats types, including low and slow, and machine speed
100% business coverage, including cloud, IoT, and ICS

Snapshots of Groups Discussions:

Debbie Scott, Vice President, Digital Enterprise Platform, Global Center of Excellence, SAP, Leading Digital Business Group Discussion

Andre Allen, Vice President, General Dynamics Information Technology leading Adaptive IT Group Discussion

Anson Johnson III, Director of Information Technology, USG facilitating CIO Leadership and Influence Group Discussion

Digital Transformation Group Discussion, facilitated by Jim Anfield, Chief Technology Officer, SafeStart Medical

Shaoping Zhou, Vice President of Information Security, Chief Security Officer, Evive Health LLC, Leading AI Cybersecurity Session.

The Modern CIO& CISO Roles Group Discussion facilitated by Ricardo Lafosse, Chief Information Security Officer, Morning Star

One-On-One Meetings with solution providers, SAP, Intel, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, CyrsusOne, MarkLogic, esentire, Mist, Onshore Outsourcing, Janeiro Digital, Alfresco, DarkTrace, and Commvault