Executive Summit

Businesses stand to benefit from AI in unprecedented ways, but only if IT leaders overcome transformation challenges. This includes implementing a modern zero trust architecture to protect data and users, embracing AI while managing its risks and handling the technical and financial implications of ever-expanding environments. A risk-based approach to security ensures CIOs deliver a secure, phased transformation.

Join this session to:

• Understand how zero trust and AI together, unlike firewalls, provide the strongest cyber defense by stopping threat actors from lateral movement within networks
• Learn strategies for protecting AI applications developed in data centers and the cloud, while preventing data leaks from public AI applications
• Discover how eliminating costly legacy hardware simplifies environments while cutting network and security costs

As strategic leaders, CIOs are tasked with negotiating contracts that not only meet technological needs but also drive business value. In this critical role, how are you leveraging your negotiation skills to secure favorable terms while maintaining strong vendor relationships and aligning with enterprise goals?

Join this session as Ann Madea, EVP & CIO, Simmons Bank shares tips on:

• Balancing cost savings with quality assurance
• Navigating complex vendor relationships
• Aligning contract terms with strategic business objectives

While board members are generally tuned into the importance of cyber governance, they don’t always understand the true risks of cybersecurity or their own role in its governance. It is the responsibility of the CIO & CISO to contextualize these risks in a way the board understands, and to continuously provide the right level of cyber education.

Join this CIO & CISO duo as they share boardroom strategies for:

• Ensuring the board understands their role and responsibility
• Leaving the technical acronyms at the door and focusing on business impact
• Addressing the strategic opportunity that technology brings to organizations

Details coming soon.

Generative AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to powering business-critical applications. For IT leaders, this shift raises a critical question — how do we ensure these new capabilities remain reliable, transparent and trustworthy in production at scale?

Join this session to discuss:

• The evolving expectations for observability in the GenAI era
• The challenges of monitoring AI-driven applications and ensuring they remain "up"
• Critical visibility into AI behaviors to ensure business outcomes and customer engagement

Details coming soon.

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Artificial intelligence has enormous potential to create tangible business value, but it’s going to take more than enthusiasm to get there.  How are you investing in data, change management and literacy to make AI a critical differentiator?

Join your peers for an interactive discussion on:

• Identifying the most relevant value opportunities
• Creating a strategy that fully and continuously aligns with the business
• Setting realistic goals to build and mature an AI operating model

While you likely have plans to increase your organization's artificial intelligence investments, you may believe the rhetoric surrounding the potential benefits of AI is inflating expectations. How can CIOs mitigate the negative aspects of AI hype and harness its power to create real value?

Join your peers for an interactive discussion on:

• Defining and setting realistic goals for your organization
• Managing the business’s expectations
• Educating leadership on the complexity of AI adoption and governance

CIOs are no longer just technology leaders ― they are business leaders tasked with proving IT’s direct contribution to enterprise growth. Yet too often, IT investments struggle to show measurable outcomes. To succeed, CIOs must modernize their operating models, align IT priorities with business strategy and foster a culture of trust and accountability.

Join your peers to explore:

• Practical ways to align IT strategy with enterprise priorities and outcomes
• Approaches to modernize IT in a way that enables agility and resilience
• Leadership strategies to elevate IT as a business value creator across the enterprise

How do you know that your AI is making a business impact? Success can’t be measured in a single tell-all metric but begins with a series of creative, practical KPIs that show real-world value and cost-savings. To really get value from your AI tools, it needs to be part of something bigger — something connected. AI orchestration is a key enabler for CIOs to deliver on their strategic objectives in a world where AI is increasingly central to business success.

Join this boardroom to discuss what leading companies have learned from executing millions of AI tasks by:

• Tracking performance metrics that assess the real-world value and impact of AI tools and insights on business outcomes
• Orchestrating end-to-end AI workflows that accelerate digital transformation and unlock new insights
• Modernizing infrastructure to maximize ROI and respond quickly to market changes

After a day full of thought-provoking discussions, community members will take the stage to share their perspectives on the true value of artificial intelligence and its impact on the role of the CIO. Come ready to ask challenging questions and maybe even have your mind changed!

Pull up a chair alongside your peers to discuss:

• Realistic expectations for AI business value
• The impact AI will have on the workforce
• The risk versus reward of AI investments

Finish the day sharing lessons learned with your peers over light fare and drinks at this closing reception hosted by your governing body members.