
Indianapolis CIO Community
Executive Summit
October 28, 2025 | Sheraton Indianapolis City Centre
October 28, 2025
Sheraton Indianapolis City Centre
Collaborate with your peers
Get together with Indianapolis's top CIOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.
Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CIOs today:
Navigating Risks and Opportunities in AI and Cyber
Aligning IT and Security for Business Impact
Leading with Purpose for Resilient and Empowered Organizations
Indianapolis CIO Governing Body
The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CIOs, For CIOs®.
Governing Body Co-Chairs

Brett Flora
Elwood Staffing
CTO

Leon Ravenna
Openlane
CISO

Nirav Shah
Midcontinent Independent System Operator Inc
Chief Digital & Information Officer

Dustin Wilcox
S&P Global
CISO

Terri Zimmerman
Cummins
Global Product Cybersecurity Regulatory Affairs Director
What to Expect
Agenda
Keynote Sessions
The New Face of Change — Cultivating A Core-Competency Across Leaders
Transformative technology and security leaders are agents for change. However, managing change using traditional methods can still be challenging and may not yield the transformative results we desire. In this session, we will reexamine our approach to change, embrace owning our roles in leading change, and strengthen the link between strategy and transformation. With this enhanced approach, today’s CIOs & CISOs can get in front of change, resulting in decreased change resistance and sustained performance.
Join Kevin Smith, Gartner Analyst, to learn:
- Strategies to decrease change resistance
- Methods to link strategy with transformation
- Techniques to sustain performance during change
You Speak, They Swarm — The Power of Story in Reaching Your Audience
Speakers want action, not just applause. But busy executives don’t have time to learn complex communication models or esoteric storytelling processes — they need a simple, effective speaking framework that can help them not only connect with any audience but also elicit real change. Enter the "Swarm Effect."
Join this session with Arthur Zards — a thought leader, TEDster and provocateur — to:
- Hone your skills in executive influence
- Adopt a more authentic and engaging approach to speaking
- Take your next presentation from “understandable” to “compelling"
Executive Boardroom Sessions
The Impact of Geopolitical Shifts
IT and Security Leaders must play a pivotal role in assessing corporate risk and taking action as necessary. The current state of geopolitical uncertainty leaves many variables for enterprise risk, including vendor reliability, supply chain consistency, and cyber threats.
Join this roundtable session to discuss:
- Understanding the latest geopolitical tensions and regulations affecting the threat landscape
- Evaluating operations in high-risk geographies to strategize resiliency
- Planning disaster recovery in the event of a geopolitical disruption
Future-Proofing IAM — Strategies for Enhanced Security
As organizations advance their security strategies, they face increasing complexities in ensuring proper authorization for accessing systems and application resources. Security leaders must implement the right tools and processes to guarantee that the appropriate individuals have access. Identity-first strategies are focused equally on security and business enablement.
Join this boardroom to discuss:
- Ensuring consistent access policies
- Balancing innovation with security to protect organizational assets
- Evolving strategies to address the growing sophistication of cyber threats
From Static Data to Intelligent Automation
Agentic AI is revolutionizing data strategy, empowering leaders to automate decision making and optimize operations with minimal human intervention. However, success depends on more than just adoption — it requires strategic implementation, governance and risk mitigation to drive real business impact. The question isn’t if, but how you will harness agentic AI to gain a competitive edge.
Join this roundtable discussion as peers explore how to:
- Unlock autonomous AI for smarter, faster data-driven decisions
- Mitigate risks by mastering AI governance and bias control
- Drive real business impact with scalable agentic AI strategies
Apply to Participate
Apply to participate in the Indianapolis CIO Community Executive Summit.
Gartner facilitates exclusive, C-level communities by personally qualifying and understanding the priorities, challenges and interests of each member.
Our selective approach maintains the high quality of the network and ensures top-level discussions with peers from the world’s leading organizations.
Each application will be reviewed, and once your participation is confirmed, you will have access to year-round community programs.
Location
Venue & Accommodation
Sheraton Indianapolis City CentreCommunity Program Manager
For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.