It isn’t often that I get out of the office to expand the mind — like I used to. It’s a healthy exercise, and I strongly advise it.
Today was Day 1 of the 14th Annual Premier CIO Forum. I think I’ve attended more than 10 of them over the years.
Networking with long time friends and colleages is the number one highlight. I caught up with at least 10 people I hadn’t seen in months, and met a couple new acquaintances.
In terms of sessions:
* Opening Keynote: The Data Problem in 1960 and Today, by Jon Bachman, the son of the father of “the database”. Interesting story.
* Game Changing IT Trends: a FiveYear Outlook panel discussion was relatively low on game-changers, but high on discussion – including ways to engage our “youth” in the process.
* The Simple Solution to Your Complex Integration Challenges: Enterprise Service Bus 101 for .net. Wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.
* Social Knowledge: Organizational Currencies in the New Knowledge Economy. Ken Russell, PhD —— I enjoyed this luncheon keynote, and picked up an autographed copy of his short book. Now to read it.
* Business & IT Alignment: Evolving vs. Responding – panel discussion. Good panel, but not quite what I was looking for. I’m not sure what I gleaned from this discussion.
* What If – by Larry Snodgrass – Survivor of USAirways flight #1549 – the Miracle of the Hudson. If nothing else, this was a powerful story, punctuated by 20 or so pictures not shared via the media before. The story had the same happy ending, but we got a much closer look into the experience from a passanger point of view.
Tomorrow is the wrap for this two-day conference, held in King of Prussia. — I didn’t have to fly……….
