A regional forum for CIOs that fosters excellence

Forum Members,

This is the September 2024 and start of a new Forum year update. Welcome to another Forum Year! The central theme for this year’s Forums is “A Strange New World”. In our kickoff meeting on September 19th, we will introduce the nature of this new world that we are in and explore together its opportunities and challenges. It’s a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Some are calling it an AI world, so there will also be a focus on AI. Whatever we call it, we need to understand it and face it head-on.

Together through the coming Forum year, we will explore how we are to respond to the challenges that this new world brings and continue to improve our business operations and supporting processes to match the customer, partner, and employee demands of it? Always in the forefront of change is the question – “How do we assure the right skills and talents at the right times, and provide adaptable and dynamic leadership?”

Our Forums will be conversationally focused and more will also be in-person. We want to leverage the knowledge and connection of our membership. We will turn to our CIOs, our vendor members, and to outside experts to confront the challenges ahead. We will search for viable solutions and best practices together.

In 2024, we will:

• Start in September with a Forum at Erickson that sets the stage for understanding the nature of “A Stange New World” and the different dimensions of the skills needed to navigate within the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). We will try to understand the impacts and ramifications of AI. Can AI help with VUCA, or is it part of the problem?
• Continue in October, with Gartner updating us after their Symposium. They will share the Top 10 CEO and CIO priorities and provide their insights in this time and “cycle” that we are going through.
• Checkpoint on Cybersecurity in November; it seems to always be changing on us. In this moment and in this new world, Cybersecurity must be treated as a business priority. Some are saying it needs to be number one! What are the right ways to approach; and what is the role of AI? AI governance could be key to your success.
• Finish 2024 with our annual Anirban Basu “event” and his 2025 economic forecast. Right after the election, this should be a special and insightful one! One that you will not want to miss.

We have added new CIO and vendor members. We will introduce them on September 19th at our Forum and at our Golf Outing on October 1st. To highlight our golf outing and reception, Hayfields has always been an exceptional venue for our event, and with the course renovations it promises to be a truly memorable day that you will not want to miss. But if you do not play golf, we recommend that you still attend the reception at the end of the day. The reception is an outstanding time to interact and reconnect with other Forum members!

For all of you, we want the 2024-2025 Forum Year to be of great value and well worth your time. Your participation in-person is important to effective networking and connection. It best supports the conversational and roundtable approach that we will be using. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend in person.

As always, we want to share real experiences and lessons learned from our members. CIOs and our vendor members will be asked to pick topics and Forums that they might want to present at and/or participate in the roundtables. We will only turn to outside speakers and leading-edge and progressive companies where needed to best cover certain topics and provide guidance to our membership.

If you have questions or comments on any aspect of the Forum at any time, please do not hesitate to contact Kerri or me, or one of our Board members. We listen and want to know your comments and thoughts, especially as we move into the coming Forum year.

Best Regards,

Don, Kerri, and the M-A CIOF Board of Directors