Executive Summit

Semi-formal attire.

Join your peers and trusted partners for an opportunity to network and mingle ahead of the gala keynote and dinner.

Few people have impacted the modern world as significantly as Steve Wozniak. As Co-Founder of Apple Computer, Woz remains one of tech's most fabled figures. A witness and contributor to countless industry advancements, he's an unmatched source of insight and experience.

Members of Evanta's Global CIO & CISO communities receive access to:

• Woz, live and unrecorded from the Global keynote stage
• Rare stories, thoughts and opinions on tech's past, present and future
• Inspiring accounts of successful, innovation-led businesses

Women are vastly underrepresented in the technology field, yet their presence is crucial. Every single one of us has the ability to move this dial, to do our part to have impact in driving change. Together we can empower each other, our communities and create a better future for all of us. Join us in this intimate, informal space for women in leadership roles and their allies to freely discuss best practices, key challenges and mission-critical priorities. Come prepared to share ideas and forge new connections that can help empower each other to make an impact in your organizations and communities.

This session is aimed at, but not limited to, women who are leading at their organizations (CIO or equivalent) and those reporting directly to the CIO/equivalent. Priority access will be reserved for these groups.

Phillips 66 is refining more than oil and renewable feedstocks – they’re refining their business with a digital revolution. Under the leadership of Naveen Pandrangi, VP and CIO, they’re harnessing the power of a different pipeline – AI, data science, and even low-orbiting tech – to connect their workforce, streamline operations, and learn valuable lessons from a whole new wellspring of possibilities.

Join Naveen as he discusses:

• Lessons learned on Phillips 66’s digital journey
• Showcases of his team’s achievements along the way
• Phases of GenAI enablement in the near future

As a global leader, the stakes are extraordinary in every conversation. Millions or even billions of dollars are in jeopardy during board meetings, investor calls, media interviews, customer interactions and employee conversations. Internationally acclaimed innovation expert, Val Wright, brings her expertise and toolkit to address uniquely global leadership challenges.

Join this interactive workshop to explore:

• Global team galvanization across country, company, and cultural differences
• Practical exercises for cross-cultural communication
• Powerful responses to navigate resistance and get the YES

As a consumer, you have certain expectations of data protection and use of data for the businesses you shop at and the organizations you engage with. Think of a moment when a business lost your trust and loyalty – perhaps they used data to over-personalize outreach in a way that made you uncomfortable or perhaps they suffered a breach and didn’t do enough to re-assure you that your data wouldn’t be exposed again. Now be honest – do your organization’s customer engagement and data protection policies meet your personal standard?

Join this session to discuss:

• Unifying and activating customer data without eroding customer trust
• Crafting strong customer and stakeholder feedback loops
• Rebuilding trust after an internal or external incident disrupts the customer relationship

Global CIOs can create a seamless user experience and leverage AI for employee and customer outcomes by relying on globally derived and locally delivered insights. In creating more intimate and personalized interactions, AI can improve both client and employee satisfaction – and the bottom line.

Join this session to discuss:

• Simplifying workflows and personalizing intelligence
• Harnessing conversation insights and interactions
• Increasing productivity across sales, marketing and operations

Across regional gatherings, Rimini Street has held boardrooms to discuss how CIOs are balancing an ever-increasing number of service providers and executing a strong vendor and application rationalization strategy. To allocate more funds towards innovation and differentiation initiatives, mission-critical systems need to be optimized, cost effective, and flexible.

Join this session to discuss:

• Incorporating effective contract management
• Strategies to avoid vendor lock-in
• Financially optimizing the vendor portfolio

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

Everything changes and all change produces resistance and risk. How does a leader embed new culture and innovation without setting off risk alarms across the c-suite? Ido Biger of Delek US shares his experience and techniques for AI implementation, cultural shifts, innovation, and more.

Join this session for:

• Empirical data to illustrate results
• Real-world case studies illustrating how leaders can partner and apply cross-industry techniques
• Updating baselines to adapt to changing behaviors in real-time

Generative AI is no longer confined to text – the latest models can now interpret and generate images, audio, and video. And, with trends towards “AI Agents” and multi-agent workflows, the possibilities of what AI can do for enterprises with valuable unstructured data are rapidly progressing.

Join this session with AI thought leader Ben Kus to learn:

• Enterprise use-cases using the latest AI model capabilities
• How AI Agents are poised to transform enterprise workflows
• Advice for enterprises on navigating this disruptive evolution

Major stakeholders are being enticed by the promise of unparalleled productivity and transformative opportunities and are advocating the adoption AI-driven capabilities. CIOs are left to answer whether the value is truly being realized and how value can even be measured on this new frontier.

Join this peer group to address:

• Reimagining and reconfiguring business processes to optimize AI usage
• Minimizing disruption while maximizing measurable results
• Building business cases through cost/value realization

The pressure to measure the impact your IT investments have on the business is relentless. A well-implemented observability practice allows business leaders to adapt to evolving trends and provides the necessary metrics to address questions from the C-suite.

Join this peer roundtable to discuss:

• Using observability as a competitive advantage
• Fitting GenAI and Open Telemetry into your framework
• Measuring customer experience now and in the future

Today’s global CIOs are expected to arm their organizations with the tools they need to capitalize on new opportunities, pivot in response to changing business requirements, and innovate ahead of competitors. But too often organizational inertia stands in the way. Zero trust and AI are two approaches enterprising CIOs can leverage to simplify and transform how their departments enable better business outcomes.

Join this session to learn:

• Challenges and opportunities presented by AI-related technologies, including in attack surface management and data loss prevention
• How AI insights and zero trust architecture provide CIOs with advanced business insights and facilitate data-driven decision making
• How organizations can eliminate cost & complexity, increase business agility, and mitigate business risk with zero trust and AI

As companies race to build new paradigms about what generative AI can do, global IT leaders must define what it should do. Each use case presents ethical dilemmas and compliance concerns: protecting sensitive data across cultures and governments, respecting local and global copyrights, and the question of biased, discriminatory, or just plain wrong AI outputs.

Join this session to learn about:

• Operationalizing and scaling AI with confidence
• Mitigating and managing AI risk at scale
• Navigating new AI regulations

Recovering quickly from IT outages is crucial for business resilience and the bottom line. Recent incidents have further highlighted the need for robust recovery strategies. Global CIOs can leverage best practices and advanced technologies to maintain stability during crises.

Join this session to discuss:

• Implementing capabilities for immediate situational awareness
• Building resilient IT infrastructure to withstand future challenges
• Safeguarding operations through application reliability and early issue detection

“AI PC” is the latest topic taking the industry by storm, but how will IT objectives change when the world is running on them? From adoption and integration to governance and security, the business leader must examine the reality behind the marketing.

Join this session to:

• Define AI PC as it is now and as its ecosystem evolves.
• Discuss effects on cybersecurity priorities, provisioning, and business outcomes
• Explore identifying AI use cases, tracking value and ROI

Charu Jain, head of Alaska’s Guest Digital Experience and Innovation, shares her approach to building an enterprise-wide Innovation Practice. She’ll discuss how Alaska innovates to build deep customer loyalty, advance emerging technologies, drive business growth, and even a sneak peek into your future airport experience.

Join this session to learn:

• How Alaska Airlines continues to be an industry pioneer
• When and how a leader pivots teams for optimal workflow
• Ways that a leader can influence enterprise-wide innovation

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

Modern global leaders must deliver always-on customer experiences at high velocity and low unitary cost. Aspiring to be the first telecom operator with a fully in-house built IT, Vodafone is on a journey to reinvent its IT architecture. In this case study, the Global Digital Engineering Director and CIO UK shares how the firm is moving from legacy technology to event-based architecture built with revealed technology in mind.

Join this session for a case study on:

• Overcoming SaaS challenges in-house
• Maintaining business-IT alignment agility
• Implementing an effective operating model

AI workflows require deep change adoption beyond tech. Are you answering critical employee questions: Why are we doing this? What needs to change? What skills do we need? This session highlights real AI adoption strategy use cases of Fortune 50 and Global 2000 customers across industries.

Join this interactive session to learn more about:

• Systematic AI development managed effectively at scale
• Blending art and science to solve complex AI problems
• Why full-stack is the winning strategy in enterprise

Your teams are under enormous pressure to embrace AI and all the potential it offers for your business, but CIOs must be prepared to address the challenges and substantial risks that come with it. 

This session will arm you with:

• The most common blockers that will impair, undercut or derail AI projects across your organization
• A framework for evaluating the progress your teams are making and measuring the impact that AI programs are delivering
• An ongoing system for managing costs, reporting, security risks and other future obstacles

GenAI is redefining software development and bringing massive productivity gains. The time for CIOs to remove the shackles of their "impossible" legacy is now. Where does AI provide real value? How to scale it to global enterprise? How do CIOs handle the risks?

Join Paulo Rosado, founder and CEO of OutSystems, to discuss:

• The challenges CIOs are facing in an AI-driven world
• How embracing agility can unlock new paths to business value
• Risks and security considerations at a global level

As new generations of employees join our workplaces, expectations and attitudes are shifting on everything from technology assumptions, privacy awareness, innovation, change management, and learning and development. Organizations must adapt to integrate new assets effectively while preserving core enterprise values and enhancing skills.

Join this keynote to discover:

• Fostering a resilient and engaged workforce in today’s rapidly changing environment
• Improving innovative approaches to embedding newcomers into organizational culture
• Updating training and collaboration practices to navigate new communication channels

Join your peers and trusted partners for cocktails and refreshments to cap off the day and gear up for the final summit day on Friday.

While the vast majority of infrastructure has been upgraded and modernized to support the shift to the cloud, global IT teams are still missing an equally seamless access method to deliver cloud-native apps and data to their end users. While traditional browsers have become the de facto access point for the majority of business critical applications, they lack the deep visibility and hyper-granular policy controls enterprises need. This results in IT leaders surrounding their browsers with layers of tech to meet those needs.

Join this keynote session to discover:

• Traditional cloud security methods that undermine your global modernization efforts and end-user experience
• Embracing technological momentum to adapt to a "more-with-less" IT landscape
• How global enterprise CIOs are using this solution to bolster cloud security

Accidental misinformation and deliberate disinformation have been a feature of human society for millennia. Now the combination of AI-generated deepfakes, behavioral science, social media and other trends have taken this issue to a whole other level: mass customized, weaponized disinformation designed to hack our mental models – what Gartner calls malinformation. Every day we read about increasingly sophisticated attacks and issues affecting companies, individuals and governments. This erodes trust, damages brands and reputations, and leads us to make poor decisions on unreliable information.

In this keynote, Gartner Research Fellow Dave Aron will discuss:

• Real world examples of malinformation
• Insights into how malinformation is evolving
• Actions leaders and their businesses can take to survive and thrive in a ‘world without truth’