15th Annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium to Challenge IT Executives to "Up Their Digital Game"

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The 15^th annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, a world class one-day conference, will gather more than 800 CIOs and senior business executives to learn, engage, and discuss how to drive digital success. The Symposium will take place on May 23, 2018, from 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the MIT Kresge Auditorium in Cambridge, MA. Registration is still open.

The Symposium will focus on the theme, "Up Your Digital Game from Vision to Execution," and will provide attendees with the tools to effectively build a digital organization that scales and implements new business models by navigating complex ethical and economic issues, developing platforms, managing hybrid IT and business talent, establishing cross-functional partnerships across the organization, and capitalizing on agile and DevOps.

Panel discussions will be led by CIOs and MIT thought leaders, including Andrew McAfee, Erik Brynjolfsson, George Westerman, Jeanne Ross, Joe Peppard, Kristine Dery, Marshall Van Alstyne, Michael Schrage, Nils Fonstad, Paul Michelman, Peter Weill, Simon Johnson, Stephanie Woerner, and Stuart Madnick.

"This year, there is an even greater sense of urgency on putting digital plans into action, as the future belongs to the doers," said Lindsey Anderson, Chair of the 2018 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium. "The Symposium will focus on empowering companies to catch up digitally as well as helping companies that were successful in their first digital transformation to achieve their next."

The Symposium will feature more than a dozen interactive panel discussions with top leaders in their fields of expertise. The full agenda is available at www.mitcio.com/agenda. Highlights include:

• Kickoff Panel: "Creating a Digital Culture" will discuss how CIOs are helping their companies to develop cultures that can compete with ? and surpass ? digital native companies. The panel will be moderated by George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and feature Melissa Swift, Global Leader for Digital Solutions, Korn Ferry Hay Group; Tanguy Caitlin, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Mike Brown, VP, Global IT Organization, Exxon Mobil Corporation; and Andrei Oprisan, VP Technology, Senior Director App Portfolio and Software Development, Director Boston Tech Hub, Liberty Mutual Insurance.

• Panel: "Closing the Gap Between Strategy and Execution" will be moderated by Paul Michelman, Editor in Chief, MIT Sloan Management Review and will feature Michael Macrie, SVP and CIO, Land O' Lakes Inc.; Cathy Forsyth, Managing Partner, Strongbow Consulting Group; Anthony Christie, Chief Operating Officer, Trace3; and Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Fellow, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy. The panel will discuss the means of connecting strategic priorities to the realities of execution as most organizations manage strategy and execution almost entirely separately.

• Fireside Chat: "What is Your Digital Business Model" will feature authors, Peter Weill and Stephanie Woerner. While many company leaders recognize the threat from digital and the potential opportunity, they lack a common language or a compelling framework to help them assess the degree of threat to their business and, more importantly, to give them direction about what they should do. This fireside chat will focus on four distinct business models to help company leaders clarify where they stand in the digital business landscape. The panel will be moderated by Wolfgang Bauriedel, Executive Director, Russell Reynolds Associates.

Other panel sessions driven by key IT leaders, practitioners, and MIT researchers include among others: "The Future of Work in a World of AI, ML and Automation"; "Mapping the Future of the IT Unit"; "Implementing AI"; "Realizing Synergies from Digital Innovations"; "CIO's Role in C-level Cybersecurity Leadership"; and "Building The Intelligent Enterprise using AI, ML, Mobility, and Cloud Services."

The Symposium will also feature this year's finalists for the prestigious MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award and conclude with The Innovation Showcase, which connects CIOs and senior business leaders with ten carefully selected early-stage technology companies that have the potential to impact CIOs' top and bottom lines through innovative technologies.

For more information about the 2018 MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, please visit www.mitcio.com.

About the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium
The MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is the premier global conference for CIOs and digital business executives to become more effective leaders. In one day, CIOs and senior IT executives explore enterprise technology innovations and business practices, and receive actionable information that enables them to meet the challenges of today and the future. The Symposium offers a unique learning environment by bringing together the academic thought leadership of MIT with the in-the-trenches experience of leading, global CIOs and industry experts. The MIT Sloan CIO Symposium is organized and developed by the MIT Sloan Boston Alumni Association, the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE), and the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR). For more information and to register for this year's Symposium, visit www.mitcio.com.

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SOURCE MIT Sloan CIO Symposium