A regional forum for CIOs that fosters excellence

June 2025 Forum Update

This month ends our 21st Forum Year. It was a great year:

• Our membership is up – more CIO, Vendor, and SNG members than in our history.
• Attendance is up, averaging 52, with our December Forum having 71 attending.
• We continued our scholarship program by awarding $30,000 this year. We expect to hit the $750,000 donation level by the end of 2026! This is quite an accomplishment; all members should take pride in this.
• Meeting reviews show that there was value to each Forum. We had several members note that the energy and level of information sharing was taken to a new level this year, and that we finished the year on a high note at Catholic Charities – definitely one of those days that we learned a lot!

We enter our 2025-2026 year with optimism and expectations that our 22nd year with your support will be the best ever:

• Our Board has several new members and returning/remaining members that are very committed to the Forum and its success. They are setting up a business model to take the Forum forward with a five-year plan and new ideas for increasing the benefits for our members.
• We have a strong 2025-2026 Program with cogent CIO topics and a focus on CIO leadership for Business Impacts now. We will be sharing “best practices” and cases of real ROI using AI and other emerging technologies.
• We will bring in Gartner, AWS, Salesforce, Andersen, and other key players today, and turn to our own Members for key insights for setting business strategies and directions.
• We will again hold several special events, including a September golf outing, our Spring Social with a Preakness theme, and the December Forum at The Center Club sponsored by Converge and featuring Anirban Basu for his economic insights on 2026 and beyond.
• We will encourage open discussions on people and leadership through the year. People and leadership that “leads” to innovation, transformational strategies, and “modernizing” teams and skills.

There are exciting and innovative changes for the year ahead:

• Expanding our CIO membership to bring fresh perspectives.
• Challenging ourselves as CIOs with new ideas and solutions.
• Reinforcing in-person attendance as a key driver of our success.
• Enhancing leadership development and fostering meaningful conversations among members.

The conversations start with you. Conversations and networking at our meetings and events are important, but ongoing interaction is encouraged. If you have a question or issue that you want to ask input on from other members, please do so. We will be setting up more ways to make this convenient for you to do. And if you ever have questions or ideas for the Board, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Welcome to the 2025-2026 Forum Year!
Don, Kerri, and the M-A CIOF Board of Directors