CIOs today are experiencing new levels of complexity in the old-fashioned arts of vendor negotiation and project implementation. The mix of IT personnel, consultants and professional services is constantly shifting as business priorities change, big vendors consolidate and the number of cloud-based offerings multiply. "As CIOs, we have to drive business value, and the whole process of vendor selection and negotiation has become more complex," says CIO Janet Sherlock of Carter's, the $3 billion baby and small children's clothing retailer. In this opening keynote, Janet will share her approach to blending staff resources with outside expertise. She'll also deliver a reality check on some popular vendor sales tactics (like the flawed argument of opex vs. capex spending models).

When CIOs work with outside partners to find or augment technology staff, talent alone doesn't always solve the problem. Contractor tenure limits, cyclical labor needs or workspace limitations can introduce complexities that slow down projects and delay business success. "What many companies today need is talent plus real estate, or talent plus methodologies," says Andrew Speer of Randstad Technologies, a large global provider of technology staff, managed services and recruitment. In this presentation Andrew will talk about how leading enterprises are managing talent shortages in high-growth areas like mobility, cloud and data analytics. He'll also discuss the key trends in outsourced project management, emerging talent development programs and workforce management. 

Cybersecurity worries lead today’s agenda for many boards of directors, particularly since the embarrassing Sony Pictures hack that exposed thousands of confidential documents. CEOs are expecting their CIOs not only to know the right answers about managing cyber risks, but to communicate those answers in clear, non-technical business language. “So if you’re standing next to one of your board members in the elevator, what’s your 30-second pitch on security?” asks CIO Lloyd Boyd, who will moderate this discussion among CSOs and risk management experts. Our panelists will speak frankly about the changes in today’s threat landscape, the evolving role of the CIO and CSO in dealing with cybercrime, and growing concerns about private industry’s responsibilities to national defense in the security management realm.

• Secure DevOps: Combining Speed and Security in Data Management, hosted by Delphix
  
• The Future of Work: Empowerment with Confidence, hosted by Dropbox
• Digital Transformation, hosted by New Relic
  
• Rural Outsourcing Distilled: Case Studies of Low-Cost, Domestic Outsourcing, hosted by Onshore Outsourcing
• Making SDN Real…. Its All About the SDN Apps, hosted by Pluribus Networks
• Strategies for Managing Talent Shortages in High-Growth Areas like Mobility, Cloud and Data Analytics, hosted by Randstad Technologies
• Balancing Act: Innovating with the "Lights On" hosted by Rimini Street
• Business Transformation--Is your Storage Infrastructure Ready, hosted by Tegile

Today, CIOs are spending billions to rearchitect their systems for the cloud. As IT is rebuilt for public, private, or hybrid clouds, data becomes both an opportunity and a risk. This expert session will present key trends in data management for the cloud, with special focus on ways to make data more available and secure for application projects, many of which operate both on-premises and in the cloud. 

In this fast paced session, CIO Publisher Adam Dennison will share some key research findings on emerging technologies and industry trends surrounding the SMAC (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) stack. Then his industry expert panelists will talk about how they see various market dynamics affecting their customers in this new era of IT. What business problems do their products solve? What value do these new market players bring to CIOs?

Addicted to technology, disloyal to their companies and self-centered: Those seem to be the dominant traits that come to mind when Boomers and Gen-Xers consider the younger generation. Yet each generation has had its share of bad press and harsh scrutiny -- and for Millennials, that time is now. For business leaders of all generations, it’s crucial to understand the mindset of today’s younger professionals, not just as job candidates or work colleagues but as consumers and customers, as well. In this panel led by a Millennial journalist, you’ll hear directly from young IT and marketing professionals about why these common perceptions deserve a bit more context, and how writing off this generation could be the biggest competitive mistake your company ever makes.

The drive to engage with customers across every channel and device is shifting into high gear at Chico's FAS, the $2.5 billion nationwide chain of women's clothing stores. In what CIO Eric Singleton calls "The Digital Theatre of Retail," customers move through their shopping experience on various devices without a break in continuity. "The theory of endless engagement driven by consumer desire is really what this model is about," Eric says. In this presentation, he'll talk about the powerful fusion of "community, content and commerce" as well as the overall strategy, technologies and business results behind Chico's unfolding digital strategy.