Southern California CDAO Executive Summit

Traditional gatekeeping of information is rapidly becoming an obsolete and counterproductive strategy that undermines organizational agility and collective intelligence. Despite significant technological advancements, most organizations still treat data as a privileged resource, creating significant barriers that limit innovation, restrict strategic insights, and perpetuate hierarchical knowledge structures. To address these challenges, forward-thinking leaders must develop comprehensive strategies that democratize data access that balance accessibility with security and compliance. How can data leaders transform data gatekeeping from a fortress to a flexible, empowering ecosystem?

Join this roundtable discussion as peers discuss:

• Overcome challenges existing data access paradigms strategically
• Empowering teams through transparent, inclusive data practices
• Designing adaptive governance models balancing accessibility and security

In today's data-driven world, organizations must maximize the potential of their data — from building predictive analytics and ML models that power deeper insights into customer behavior, to building GenAI applications. Replicating data across all sources fuels innovation and drives better business outcomes, while modernizing data movement ensures secure and reliable access to centralized data.

Join this boardroom to delve into this core topic and learn how technology leaders are modernizing their data platforms and automating processes to get the most value from their data.

During this boardroom, you will discuss:

• Establishing a framework to manage structured and unstructured data
• Improving data readiness for predictive analytics, GenAI applications and ML models
• Building an approach to data management that gives rise to reliable, accessible data

In today’s fast-moving tech and security landscapes, disruption is inevitable—but it doesn’t have to derail your team’s performance. In this high-energy, 30-minute keynote, Dr. Vijay Pendakur will explore why disruption often leads teams to get stuck and how this stagnation threatens business success. Vijay will share his Alchemy of Talent model and explain how leaders can increase productivity and efficiency on their teams, even when it feels like we’re working in an endless earthquake!

Attendees will learn:

• Why disruption can lead to stuck teams and how to avoid it
• The critical impact of stuck teams on business performance and results
• How to make your teams more resilient, adaptable, and willing to learn from failure

This keynote offers actionable strategies and real-world insights to help teams navigate change, unlock innovation, and perform at their best when it matters most.

Winning in today’s market means turning data into your biggest advantage. Despite its potential, organizations often struggle with fragmented data systems, poor data quality, and rapidly shifting technologies that make execution challenging. To address these hurdles, data leaders must prioritize clear governance frameworks, adopt scalable technologies, and cultivate a culture that values data literacy and collaboration. By doing so, organizations can unlock the true value of their data, leading to improved performance and a competitive edge in the market.

Join this fireside chat as peers discuss how to:

• Prioritize aligning data strategy with business goals
• Address data silos and quality issues head-on
• Empower teams to make smarter, data-driven decisions

Organizations face exponential growth in data volume and complexity, with data in diverse locations, formats, and quality levels. Its value depends on usability, requiring real-time decisions and insights. To scale accurate, performant generative AI, organizations must unify data access, management, and preparation of high-quality unstructured and structured data.  

Join this session to explore how to: 

• Face the challenges presented by unstructured data in your AI initiatives 
• Deliver superior AI accuracy and performance with your data to unlock ROI 
• Build on your hybrid and open data foundation to get to the next stage of AI

AI's transformative power demands a strategic, not reactive, framework. Data leaders are wrestling with a complex triad — integrating legacy systems, navigating ethical minefields and proving ROI. In order to deploy successfully, leaders must design a framework that ensures scalable and impactful AI product development.

Join Shub Agarwal, AI product leader and author of Successful AI Product Creation, as he shares a battle-tested framework for:

• Aligning AI with business strategy to drive measurable ROI
• Scaling AI from research to production for real-world impact
• The future of AI products, reshaping user experiences while ensuring responsibility