Meetings/Events

October 31, 2024 Forum: The Gartner Update and Key “New World” Technologies

• Gartner will again visit us and share what they consider to be the “priorities and key issues” for CEOs and their CIOs for 2025 and beyond. From their surveys and from their recent Symposium, Gartner will share cogent thoughts and ideas for today’s CIOs to aid in meeting the challenges of the “new world” we face. We will together look at the nature of this world we are in today and how it requires us to continuously adapt, change and be flexible. While being “nimble” we need to continually improve our services, operations, and customer service. We will explore how Generative AI can help us do this. Also we will consider how sustainability can make us better citizens and at the same time more competitive.

September 19, 2024 Forum: The Nature of the New World and What Skills Are Needed

• We again kick-off the Forum Year at Erickson. We will ask several of our CIO’s including Erickson and our scholarship recipients and various interns to our member companies to share their perspectives and observations about the new world around us. In a roundtable discussion, we will try to understand how the world around us has changed and continues to change, and what we must do to have the right solutions and skills in place. This Forum will set the stage for the “theme” for the coming Forum Year on how we respond to the strange new world challenges confronting us and continuously improve our operations and supporting processes to match the customer, partner, and employee demands. One question to always start with is “How do we assure the right skills and talent, and provide adaptable and dynamic leadership?”  Is there a new “look” for CIOs in particular and in leadership in general in the “strange new world”? Is “co-leadership” required; and, if so, what does it look like?

Twentieth Anniversary Spring Social

We are looking forward to our upcoming Twentieth Anniversary Spring Social Celebration on Saturday, May 25th at the Annapolis Yacht Club. Our event will be held inside the SkipJack room and begins at 6 p.m. where we will enjoy delicious appetizers and cocktails.

At 7 p.m., we will hear from Jon Forst, our host for the evening, and hear a little about the history of the Annapolis Yacht Club and the Naval Academy. Then Don Taylor will speak and reminisce about the Forum over the last 20 years. Shortly thereafter, we will hand the event over to our speaker and The Wine Coach, Laurie Forster, where she will be guiding us through the different wine pairings as we enjoy a delicious meal together. Laurie is a certified sommelier, TV personality and author of the award-winning book, The Sipping Point: A Crash Course in Wine. She has certifications with the American Sommelier Association, the Wine & Spirits Education Trust and has trained at the Culinary Institute of America.

May 16, 2024 Forum: The Collaboration Required for Transformation

• Location: McCormick’s Hunt Valley Headquarters
  Hosted by Beth Ann Bilheimer, VP of Business SolutionsPlease join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and invited guests for this hybrid Forum. This Forum is hosted by McCormick at its Headquarters in Hunt Valley. Together we will explore how “teaming” is needed for digital transformation. Close coordination and collaboration are essential to this teaming. We will also have the opportunity to tour McCormick’s Headquarters and visit its company store. McCormick’s story is a Baltimore and global one; they are an amazing company. These CIO hosted Forums are always the most popular ones. The McCormick story is one we all should know, and a visit that you should not miss.The McCormick team of Beth Ann Bilheimer, VP IT Business Solutions and Jennifer Barr, VP Enterprise Transformation at McCormick will start the morning with their story of how IT and Business work together on their transformation strategy and its implementation/deployment. A challenge for IT is always to align with and meet business objectives. The ultimate goal is to deliver stakeholder value. McCormick has strived to do this by partnering with their business units and the various global businesses that make them one of the largest flavor and spice companies in the world.McCormick’s strategic partners in this transformation are SAP and Accenture. SAP is McCormick’s ERP system which has been running significant parts of their operations for many years. SAP as a partner, supports McCormick through standard channels as well as through Max Attention services. Jerald Giarratano, VP of Service Delivery at SAP, will cover their current roles. Kevin Laudano, Managing Director at Accenture will help us understand the Systems Integrator (SI) role and how the SI brings best practices, drives the program structure, and collaborates to create a strong, successful working team. Accenture will also cover other cases where the SI role has been critical and successful.To finish the morning, there will be a panel discussion on digital transformation, co-teaming, the collaboration needed, and to respond to any questions that the attendees might have. McCormick, SAP, and Accenture will respond to questions and share their views on the critical success factors to aligning, communicating effectively, and collaborating for shared success.

  Please join our members and their guests at this Full Membership meeting. The meeting starts at 8:00 AM and ends by 1PM. Breakfast and lunch are provided for those attending in person. Pre-registration is required to attend in person or to participate remotely. Meeting logistics including agenda, directions to McCormick’s Headquarters location and parking information are emailed to you after you register. Remote participation instructions will be emailed one week in advance. For registration for this meeting, please reply to this meeting request or contact Kerri directly at kerri.keller@midatlanticcioforum.org or 410-215-4855.

April 18, 2024 Forum: Getting to Know Our Vendor Members and Their Capabilities/Services

• Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and invited guests for this April 25th Forum. We ask that each CIO member make an extra effort to attend in person this special Forum. This meeting is in-person ONLY. We have asked our vendor members to cover topics and services that our CIOs should be aware of and paying attention to in these times.Expect to hear of three megatrends driving the market during a time of increased focus by organizations to leverage digitization to drive business transformation. (1). Cloud modernization continues to drive workloads to the cloud. (2) The AI revolution is sweeping across industries. (3). The escalating threat landscape is increasing the need for more sophisticated cybersecurity protection. There are Challenges with these.We will continue with the impacts/implications of AI. We will learn more about governance in an AI World; AI real world use cases will be shared. We will explore together enterprise observability. We live in a new world in which the Internet is the new enterprise backbone. Digital transformation holds the promise of cost savings, agility, and operational efficiency; but the acceleration of such initiatives has resulted in increased reliance on the cloud and Internet, resulting in visibility gaps for infrastructure and application elements beyond enterprise span of control.Business growth is frequently driven by mergers and acquisitions. We will discuss M&A technical due diligence and post-sale/close Implementations – why financial transactions need technology insights to maximize value and reduce risk. We will walk through the genesis of one vendor’s offering and how it may apply to our organizations. We will consider how we might demystify and operationalize SASE and ponder the “AHA” moment of granular visibility and control of SaaS.

  We will explore together the solutions addressing current industry challenges, and we will (guided by one of our vendor members) examine new, unique approaches to evaluating and selecting Technology in the post-Covid, Cloud -based world. Our vendor members have a lot to share and an interest in helping you and your organization be successful. Please do not miss this Forum!

March 21, 2024 Forum: Cybersecurity — Both Sides Are Getting Better!

• Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and invited guests for this March 21st Forum at Cisco’s Fulton location. We encourage you to invite others from your organizations to this cybersecurity Forum. We are specifically inviting your CISOs and Security Admins to both the morning session and then the Security Networking Group (SNG) that follows lunch. The agenda includes an update on the ever-changing threat landscape and how AI plays on both sides, a ransomware report, and a panel discussion on how growing organizational digital dependency has intensified the cyberthreats and challenges.

  We will start the morning with a Cisco update. Joe Marshall, Senior Security Strategist with Cisco TALOS, and Anand Raghavan, Senior Director, AI at Cisco, will cover the ever-changing threat landscape and the benefits of AI for cyber solutions.

  Stephen Brzozowski, Managing Security Consultant for GuidePoint Security, will use their recent report to guide us on ransomware trends and directions. From GuidePoint Security’s Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) team, Stephen will share insights into the current state and observed trends of ransomware attacks. He will share the perspective of the counterintuitive world of cyber extortion as well as a peek behind the scenes of Ransomware Negotiations.

  We will finish the morning with a panel discussion on how growing digital dependency has brought with it intensified cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. While digital business creates sustainable value for the stakeholders, it brings its own set of cybersecurity challenges. Companies and organizations face two challenges – creating new and transformed business models and ensuring that they can securely operate in this more complex digital environment. In this new world, there seems to be lower barriers to entry for cyberthreat actors and more aggressive attack methods. The risks seem to be higher than ever. We will explore together and try to better understand the role that AI play.

March 21st, 2024 – Security Networking Group

Our Security Networking Group (SNG) meeting will follow lunch and start around 12:30 PM. The meeting will be a hybrid one. The agenda includes a presentation by GuidePoint Security on “AI-Enabled Adversaries and How to Counter Them” and the continuation of a panel discussion from the morning CIO Forum.

Patrick McNeil, Senior Security Architect at GuidePoint Security, will start our SNG meeting. His presentation explores key AI threat categories, design considerations for AI use and development, and the adversarial use of AI tools such as ChatGPT, deepfakes and voice cloning for financial gain, political agendas, and disruption. Highlighting AI’s unique challenges, Patrick will propose strategies including risk management, governance, technical controls, and legislation to combat AI-driven cybersecurity threats.

We will finish our SNG meeting with a continuation of a panel discussion on how growing digital dependency has brought with it intensified cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. While digital business creates sustainable value for the stakeholders, it brings its own set of cybersecurity challenges. Companies and organizations face two challenges – creating new and transformed business models and ensuring that they can securely operate in this more complex digital environment. In this new world, there seems to be lower barriers to entry for cyberthreat actors and more aggressive attack methods. The risks seem to be higher than ever. We will explore together and try to better understand the role that AI plays.

February 15th, 2024: Where Do Data Management and Analytics Fit in Digital and Business Transformation?

• Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and invited guests in-person or remotely at this February 15th Forum. Continuing with the digital transformation theme, this Forum covers how data management and analytics fit into any effective transformation. Together we exchange ideas and best practices for using data analytics to gain insights into our organization’s operations and improve decision-making in support of business transformation. One of our new CIO members will share what her business is doing. And TU will cover some cases that they have jointly worked on with organizations in our area.Every business has data, often plenty of data, but that doesn’t mean that data can help you in your digital transformation. To start our morning, Tim Kulp, Chief Innovation Officer at Mind Over Machines will share stories of how people have put data effectively to work for them along with a few pitfalls to avoid along the way. Data is a business asset; we’ll explore together how to make that asset work for your organization’s digital transformation.
  Next Patricia Pichardo, CIO, TE Automotive will tell their story. Patricia will cover her company, team, and their objectives. And how she is using data in her organization’s digital transformation and to change the business. Our CIO member stories are always interesting and enlightening.Dr Stella Tomasi, from Towson University, will close the morning by discussing how companies are innovatively using data analytics with various case studies from TU’s Data Analytics Competitions. She will discuss how students working with various companies and entities have used different techniques, software and algorithms to find trends to enable businesses to realize cost savings and real revenue opportunities. The cases include Perdue, SC&H, and the Ravens. She will touch on some creative and progressive ways to analyze data.

January 18th, 2024: How are CIOs Faring with Their Digital Transformations?

• Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and invited guests for this hybrid Forum. This Forum is hosted by Susan Miltenberger, CIO at Towson University in its new Science Complex. Together we will explore what digital transformation is, how companies are deploying and leveraging digital, and what progress has been made and lessons learned. We will also have the opportunity to tour the Science Complex. It’s an impressive “learning” center.Dr. Sidd Kaza, Associate Professor for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies at TU will start the morning with a perspective on security and digital transformation. What does he and others at TU view as the essentials of and key success factors for digital transformation. What is the University doing to help with their digital transformation and in preparing graduates for what they might encounter in the business world?Then Nehul Viyas, VP, Data and Analytics Practice and Josh Kuhlman, Principal OCM Practice, both of Avaap will cover “Digital Transformation Tips from the Trenches”. Moving to the cloud offers many benefits, and organizations operating legacy software are looking for an efficient, organized way to make digital transformation a reality. Nehul and Josh will share how organizations across all industries are preparing their organizations for the cloud and adjusting to the cloud upon arrival. They will look through the lens of using data and analytics to better understand organizational readiness and will provide attendees with change management best practices and practical information on preparing for a smooth transition to and operation within this modern technology environment. Their presentation will highlight the Do’s and Don’ts drawn from real-world examples to help you refine your strategy and enable your transformation to be more successful.After a break, Jon Forst, CIO at ARA, will lead a panel discussion on digital transformation. Jon, Helena Gordon, SVP and CIO at Baltimore Life, and Erik Poole, CIO at New Pig, will share their views of digital transformation; what strategies, plans, and deployments that they have underway/implemented; and what the impacts to their organizations have been. In an open discussion with all attending this Forum, we will get a better picture of what our organizations are doing, what was key to laying out their digital strategies, and what results they have seen or are expecting. How is the transformation journey going for our members?

December 8th, 2023 Forum: The Future Economy and CIO

• Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and invited guests for this in-person only Forum. This Forum is hosted by Converge/VSS at The Center Club. It is special in many ways: We have two renowned speakers – Anirban Basu and Martha Heller. It is at a tremendous venue overlooking Baltimore (with great food BTW). It is a celebration of the Twentieth Year for the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum!Anirban Basu will present from 1pm until 2pm. He is covering “Show Me the Money (Supply)”. Soft landing? Something harder? Whither inflation? His presentation will supply in-depth analysis of the major factors shaping economic outcomes, including central bank policymaking, worker attitudes, business confidence, and geopolitics. It will then turn toward a forecast for the year to come, highlighting the major risks that economic stakeholders will likely encounter.Anirban is Chairman & CEO of Sage Policy Group, Inc., a Baltimore-based economic and policy consultancy he founded in 2004. He serves the Chief Economist function for many organizations, including the Maryland Bankers Association and Associated Builders and Contractors. The Baltimore Business Journal named him one of the region’s 20 most powerful business leaders in 2010. In 2022, he entered the Daily Record newspaper’s Circle of Influence. He is the Distinguished Economist in Residence at Goucher College, where he teaches History of Economic Thought. He holds four graduate degrees, including a J.D. and a Ph.D.After a break, Martha Heller will share the “Top Skills for Today’s CIO”. When software and data move directly into the products and services of a business, the CIO role changes. For companies that are driving a digital transformation, where does IT stop and software product engineering start? In this new world of software and data prominence, how can CIOs parlay their technology leadership experience into new positions? What is the future of the chief digital and chief data roles and how do they interact with IT leadership? What are CEOs looking for in their CIOs today?In her session, Martha, CEO of Heller Search, a technology search firm, and author of The CIO Paradox and Be the Business, will lead a dynamic discussion of the changing role of IT leadership in the new “data” economy.We finish the afternoon with a celebration of twenty years of growing together and growing STEM and IT talent and skills in the Mid-Atlantic Region. We have given over $650,000 in scholarships to TU; and the Forum is listed on their “wall” of special donors. Relationships and friendships have been formed. Together we have made a bigger impact in our organizations, communities, and in this region. Who knows what the future holds!

November 16th, 2023: Treating Cybersecurity as a Business Issue And The Ever-Evolving Security Challenges

Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and their invited guests either in-person or remotely at this November 16th Forum. We encourage you to invite others from your organizations to this Forum. We are specifically inviting your CISOs and Security Admins to both the morning session and then the SNG that follows lunch. The agenda includes a privacy regulatory and legal update, a preview of the current nature of networking and security, and a panel discussion on Cybersecurity as a business issue.

We will start the morning with Michele Cohen, an attorney at Miles & Stockbridge. 2023 brought increased cyber and privacy legal and regulatory changes to the business community, including new laws and regulations at the federal, state and international level. Michele will provide a high-level presentation of some of these developments. First up will be a brief discussion of the new SEC cybersecurity incident reporting requirements for publicly traded companies. Next, she will review the current state of privacy law in the United States. Will Congress (ever) be able to pass the American Data Privacy Protection Act that would supersede the current multi-state patchwork and create a comprehensive federal privacy structure? Which states now have privacy laws and how will companies be able to manage compliance with each of these? Finally, we will look across the pond and review the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and related U.K.-U.S. Data Bridge which will allow the U.S., EU and U.K. to facilitate the cross-border transfer of data. Michele always brings current and experienced-based knowledge and insight. You will leave with guidance that you can use for your organizations to hopefully stay ahead of what is here and coming next.

Then Nate Smolenski, Head of Cyber Intelligence Strategy at Netskope will share insights on how digital transformation, cloud-first, and mobile-first security strategies are impacting every company across the globe, causing security and technology teams to rethink their legacy security and networking investments. The events of the past 3 years have accelerated this change with remote and hybrid work and in the process, many will opine that we have lost visibility, control, and the ability to provide performant and secure services to our customers and constituents. How do we re-think, re-architect, and re-tool to regain a foothold to enable our businesses? Through Nate’s presentation you will be guided on:

• Identification of trends and impacting headwinds and tailwinds associated with the explosion of cloud, IoT, exponential data growth and AI as components of digital transformation.

• Considerations organizations need to be aware of as it relates to re-architecting existing technology and security environments to take advantage of consolidation opportunities, complexity reduction, and more predictable cost models as more organizations move to the edge.

• How to reimagine security architectures and controls to take advantage of zero trust principles and approaches in practice.

To conclude the morning, we will have a panel discussion on Cybersecurity as a business issue and how we must be approaching for our organizations and management. The areas to be addressed are:

• What are some of the cybersecurity requirements that come with Digital Transformation?

• What is the best approach for making cybersecurity a business issue for your organization?

• When reviewing the cyber predictions and expectations, what should be your priorities?

• Do you have the expertise and partners in place to cover your cybersecurity needs?

November 16th, 2023 SNG Meeting

The SNG met and further discussed items/topics covered in the morning’s CIO Forum, including selected Gartner materials from their October Symposium. The SNG attendees had an open roundtable discussion on prevalent and common cybersecurity topics.

November 15th, 2023 – RISE Campaign Celebration

Don Lee, President of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum, attended the RISE Campaign Celebration where the Forum was recognized for its continued commitment to Towson University for its scholarship program. To date, the Forum has donated over $650,000 in scholarships.

October 26, 2023 Forum: The Gartner Update and The Art of Practical

• We will start the morning with Gartner VP/Executive Partner, Marc Andonian PhD. Marc will cover the key findings from Gartner’s CIO and CEO Surveys and work done through the past year. He will share what Gartner considers to be CIO “priorities and issues.” His thoughts and ideas tend to and can guide us to pragmatic and timely solutions for our businesses and organizations. Marc has visited us now fifteen times to provide Gartner’s and his seasoned advice! He is here again to help us celebrate our twentieth year. Again, we expect lively interaction between our CIO’s and Marc. Outcomes from this Forum year-on-year are always of real benefit and value in our roles and for our organizations and companies. To conclude the morning, Eric Middleton, CEO of 1RIVET, will show us practical use cases of new technologies. He will cover how the current and the new can work together to solve current business problems. He will present some real-world examples of practical and effective business/process transformations, including:
  • Generative AI with CRM/Marketing
  • Machine Learning with RPA in Banking
  • IoT and Digital Twins for Real Estate
  • NLP for setting appointments for the Service Industries

  It should not be “technology for technology’s sake”; there should be a business outcome that fits your objectives and goals.

October 11th, 2023 – 20th Anniversary Golf Outing at Whiskey Creek

September 21, 2023 Forum: People, Transformation, Demand Management

In our 20th Anniversary year, we want to go back to some of the core principles and practices that have made us most successful as a CIO Forum, notably the ability to share challenges that we all face and ways in which we can overcome them. This kickoff Forum is focused specifically on this sharing among our CIO and member community. Because of its nature and to best promote the interchange of ideas, this meeting is in-person ONLY.

In a roundtable format, we will be asking three CIOs to provide ideas and solutions to some of the biggest challenges that we all face including people (how do we attract, develop and retain talent and how does DEI fit into all of your people strategies), digital transformation (with the launch of new digital transformation efforts, what skills are we missing) and demand vs. supply (how to manage the never-ending stream of requests to support our business and its operations). Person-to-person and with everyone’s involvement, our conversation will be one you will not want to miss. Ideally this interactive discussion should enable us to all learn from each other and better prepare the organizations that we serve.

May 18, 2023

Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities: Why They Do What They Do

Location: CRS Headquarters in Baltimore

Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and their invited guests on May 18^th. We will be hosted by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) at their headquarters in Baltimore. Both CRS and Catholic Charities (CC) will be covering their services, their teams, and the systems/technologies used and planned to support them. CIO member hosted events and presentations are always the most popular ones. It is appropriate that we finish this Forum Year listening to their stories and challenges.

Karl Lowe CIO will present CRS, its mission and history, and how technology helps to scale and deepen the impact that CRS makes on the 200M participants in its programs.  He will walk us through the breadth of the work that CRS accomplishes and how CRS is moving to capture impact and not just outcomes.  Karl will also present the current and future operating and business model challenges and what CRS is doing to create a future where all people can live their lives with dignity and in just and peaceful environments.

Next Sue DeSantis, Administrator Community Services Division at CC will discuss how impactful the work of CC has been and continues to be throughout CC’s 80 programs at 200 locations across Baltimore City and the 9 counties they serve.  In 2023, Catholic Charities celebrates its 100-year centennial continuing to strive to find ways to help more, give more, and love more through our six areas of service: Healing Trauma & Addiction, Supporting Children and Families, Aging with Dignity, Welcoming New Neighbors, Achieving Independence, and Empowering Careers.  Additionally, Sue will discuss the Programs within the Community Services Division that provide refuge to people living in poverty, and experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, and disenfranchisement to meet their basic needs, as well as to prepare, educate and empower them to live stable and healthy lives.

Continuing the CC story, Heidi Rash, EHR System Administrator for the Family Service Division of CC of Baltimore will discuss how the Netsmart myEvolv EHR system implementation was a huge success at altering the workflows of staff to improve efficiencies. CC was able to define a vision for the EHR and goals with a key group of stakeholders. These goals defined optimization, improvements, and insights. In the 6-month time frame of May 2022 through October 2022, Heidi and her team successfully created custom forms and reports in Netsmart’s myEvolv to transform staff work. Heidi will also discuss how the Governance and Support Model and successful implementation are leading to the implementation and integration of multiple solutions to empower both staff and clients.

To finish our morning, James Lucado and Alan Mercer both System Architects at CC will cover their digital transformation journey. Technology and business changes have drastically impacted the way CC designs its systems. CC navigated an evolving world of rapid technological change and external influences that altered its business. Reduced costs of high-speed networking and virtualization influenced the CC architecture allowing for more efficient business operations and IT administration through the centralization of systems and outsourcing of server management to IAAS and cloud providers. Through COVID, CC made the transition to remote work quickly and with relative ease due to its Business Continuity Plan. Yet, they are far from done. CC has embarked upon a path of continuous systems review including an Architectural Review Board, Compliance Committee, and partnership with the business units’ leadership and end-users. This path provides a holistic overview of CC’s business, IT systems and the interdependencies of software, systems, networks, and business requirements.

Please join our members and their guests at this Full Membership hybrid meeting. Breakfast is served for those attending in person starting at 8 AM. The hybrid meeting starts at 8:45 AM and ends by noon. Pre-registration is required to attend in person or participate remotely. Remote participation instructions will be emailed one week in advance. For registration for this meeting, please reply to the meeting request send out by Bonnie Lawson or contact her at Bonnie.Lawson@midatlanticcioforum.org or 410-746-3783.

May 13, 2023 Spring Social Event

• Members and Invited Guests only. Cruise the Severn

 

April 20, 2023 Forum: Keeping Up with the Technology that Matters

Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and their invited guests on April 20th. Our April 20th meeting will help us with keeping up with the “technology that matters”. One of the entrepreneurs in TU’s StarTUp will be covering their company and its “startup” challenges. Verizon will join us to update us on 5G. Merkle will review and provide practical use cases for containers and serverless environments. They will share the DevOps and security challenges that come with these deployments. Amazon will give us on ideas to take away on AI and Machine Learning. The goal for the morning is that you all leave with a better understanding of the technologies that matter for you and your organizations.

Co-Founder of Haven Cloud, Mahmoud Shalby, will tell the story of his venture. Haven Cloud is the world’s most secure and privacy focused cloud storage platform. Haven lets you store photos, videos, and documents safely while giving you complete control over your digital privacy. This startup’s story is an interesting one in the use of the cloud and its services, in a private and secure way.

Next, Dom Bonaduce of Verizon will give us an update on 5G. He will cover what it is, what it empowers, and the ecosystem supporting it. 5G brings with it much more than high speeds. From security to capacity, the capabilities of the latest generation of network technology will bring with it unparalleled value to those who take advantage of them. The underlying spectrum combined with the enabling infrastructure and device ecosystem help create solutions that didn’t exist before and optimize and improve the performance of those solutions that are yet to leverage it as part of an organization’s digital transformation. In his presentation, Dom will unpack the statements above, tell about some of the pivotal use cases, and discuss ways your organization can tap into this technology today.

Then Blair Wright (CISO Merkle) and Jason Burch (SVP Engineering) will deliver a fresh review of the current Container and Serverless landscape including a re-introduction and overview of the technologies, a review of practical use cases along with high level security considerations for safely adopting and managing these technologies.  Additionally, they will discuss DevOps / DevSecOps concepts and practices for building and deploying container and serverless based platforms with security in mind.

To conclude the morning and our technologies that matter, AI/ML can make your business a disruptive innovator in your industry. But, you might encounter barriers to get started and scale AI/ML. Suresh Patnam Principal GTM Specialist AI & ML, Lawrence Kunnuvilla Principal GTM Specialist AI & ML explains how industries have overcome these barriers by using AWS AI/ML services, fueling business profitability and growth. This session also dives deep into the AI/ML use cases, latest trends in AI/ML including Low code, No code, Generative AI.

Please join our members and their guests at this “Full Membership” hybrid meeting. Breakfast is served for those attending in person starting at 8 AM. The hybrid meeting starts at 8:45 AM and ends by noon. Pre-registration is required to attend in person or participate remotely. Meeting logistics including agenda, meeting announcement and bio’s of the speakers will be emailed to you after you register. Remote participation instructions will be emailed one week in advance. For registration for this meeting, please reply to the meeting request send out by Bonnie Lawson or contact her at Bonnie.Lawson@midatlanticcioforum.org or 410-746-3783.

March 16, 2023 Forum: The Ever Changing Cybersecurity Battlefield 

Date: March 16, 2023 

Location: Cisco’s Fulton Center

Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and their invited guests either in-person or remotely at this March 16th Forum.  We encourage you to invite others responsible for cybersecurity within your organizations to this Forum.  What is new in the cybersecurity world since we last discussed a year ago? Even if we don’t want to know, we need to know. How has the threat landscape changed in the last year and what threats lie ahead. What must we focus on for our organizations? If we have an incident, when do we turn to the FBI for help?

Joe Marshall of Cisco will start the morning. In his talk Joe will cover current cybersecurity threats – malware, actors, methodologies and victimology. He’ll also discuss the future of adversarial tactics and methods, possible exploitations, and what that means for ongoing cyber defense. Companies need to understand these current and future threats and what the implications are for them.

In the event of a cyber incident, it can be difficult to know when to involve law enforcement.  Todd Doss and Ted Theisen of Ankura will discuss the pros and cons of incorporating federal, state, and/or local law enforcement into a cyber incident that you are experiencing.  Todd and Ted bring a multitude of experience from their government service as Special Agents with the FBI as well as numerous years leading cyber investigations in the private sector.  They will address various issues that they have experienced while responding to cyber incidents and what the outcome of law enforcement involvement could bring to your organization.

Finally, Ira Levy and John deCraen of Kroll will address the methodologies and techniques which drive cyber maturity within an organization.  They will discuss the complicated journey through risk maturity beginning with assessment, moving though management strategies and finishing with guidance on how to articulate risk to organizational stakeholders.  Along the way, the following concepts will be explored:

• Board of Directors Cybersecurity and Risk Responsibilities
• Development of a Cyber Security Roadmap and Strategy
• The cyber assessment process and options (which one, when, and why)
• M&A Cyber Due Diligence

Please join our members and their guests at this Full Membership meeting. The meeting starts at 8:00 AM and ends by 1PM. Brunch and lunch are provided for those attending in person. Pre-registration is required to attend in person or to participate remotely. Meeting logistics including agenda, directions to the meeting location and parking information is emailed to you after you register. Remote participation instructions will be Emailed one week in advance. For registration for this meeting, please reply to the meeting request send out by Bonnie Lawson or contact her at Bonnie.Lawson@midatlanticcioforum.org or by calling (410) 746-3783.

An SNG meeting follows immediately after lunch.

 

March 16, 2023 SNG Meeting: I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I CAN do that

Date: March 16, 2023

Location: Cisco’s Fulton Center

This Security Network Group Meeting will start with a half-hour presentation by Secureworks. The title and abstract are below:

Title: I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I CAN do that.

Abstract: The AI Winter is over. We have entered the era of generally available Artificial Intelligence (AI). We’ll survey recent examples of how threat actors leveraged AI tools to help achieve their objectives. And we’ll look back to prior technology advances and review threat-actor adoption to help us anticipate how Security and Technology leaders must rise to defend our organizations in the Age of AI.

Following the presentation, there will be a Roundtable discussion about anything covered in the CIO meeting that occurred in the morning regarding “The Ever-Changing Cybersecurity Landscape”. Speakers from the morning plan to remain to join in the discussion. Plan to drill down on any area that caught your attention from the presentations given through the morning.

Please join this Security Network Group (SNG) meeting. CIO’s are welcome to attend with their CISO’s, Security Admins, and security team members. The SNG meeting starts after lunch at about 12:30pm and ends by 2pm. Pre-registration is required to attend in person or to participate remotely. Meeting logistics including agenda, directions to the meeting location and parking information is emailed to you after you register. Remote participation instructions will be Emailed one week in advance. For registration for this meeting, please reply to the meeting request send out by Bonnie Lawson or contact her at Bonnie.Lawson@midatlanticcioforum.org or 410-746-3783.

February 16, 2023 Forum:   The New Norm of Business and The Future of Work 

Please join members of the Mid-Atlantic CIO Forum and their invited guests on February 16th. Is the future about change, communication, connection, and collaboration? Is there a “new norm” post pandemic? Business operations and its processes must evolve and change to face today’s challenges. They must adapt. Changes to the business structure itself and the company culture are needed now and into the future. Technology and business transformation both play  important roles. Collaboration, for example, must be synchronous and real-time, and asynchronous to assure crispness and reliability. It must be totally independent of where you physically are working. Microsoft will provide its views of where the technology fits and what digital strategies are needed. They will provide “real world” examples. We will finish the morning with what TU’s technology team is planning and doing to support the University’s aggressive plans for the future.

To start the morning, David Heringhaus, Principal Consultant, and Noelle Akins, Senior Consultant, in Change Management at Avaap, will cover “Conducting Business in the ‘New Norm’: How Organizations Continue to Adapt During COVID and Managing Through the Evolution and Change”. The force of the pandemic brought significant change to work habits, regulations, supply chains, and business models. Many organizations now find their existing structure and ways of operating inadequate for today’s environment. This presentation explores the way work has changed post-pandemic and how the roles of change management and organization design have impacted digital transformation and models for faster decision-making. You will leave understanding the connection between culture, change, and organization design, demonstrated through real world examples, making these components a natural way of working. 

Our second presenter will be Tracy Woods of Microsoft. At Microsoft, she leads the Azure Cloud business for US Education (East Region). The pandemic has had a significant impact on business operations, and expectations of employees and customers. Businesses that survived the pandemic now need to be intentional about their digital strategy and how it can enable new business models. In Tracy’s presentation, you will see how to leverage modern technology and data to securely enable and optimize business operations, support workforce engagement and collaboration and achieve customer satisfaction. She’ll explore real world examples of businesses using technology and tools, Data and AI and mixed reality to thrive in the new normal. You will leave with a better understanding of how you can use technology and data to transform your business. 

To finish the morning, Susan Miltenberger, AVP/CIO for TU’s Office of Technology Services, will cover the strategies and technologies in place and planned for the University to support its ambitious goals and objectives. The challenges at the University are just as challenging, if not more so, than what CIOs face in any other company or organization. You will want to hear her story!

Please join our members and their guests at this Full Membership hybrid meeting. Breakfast is served for those attending in person starting at 8 AM. The hybrid meeting starts at 8:45 AM and ends by noon. Pre-registration is required to attend in person or participate remotely. Remote participation instructions will be emailed one week in advance. For registration for this meeting, please reply to the meeting request send out by Bonnie Lawson or contact her at Bonnie.Lawson@midatlanticcioforum.org or 410-746-3783.

 

January 19, 2023 Forum: Talent Management and Beyond

• We are in a very “Talent Competitive” Market. It is difficult to find, recruit, motivate, train, and retain the talent and skills needed for our teams and businesses/organizations. Employee demands and expectations are higher than ever. IT Talent acquisition and retention is one of the top 5 issues for CIOs. We should still recruit and search for the rights people for key positions. BUT should this issue and challenge be simultaneously addressed by building a talent pipeline within our company/organization? Should we partner with universities and others to build a zero to hero apprentice program? In this Forum we will cover how to build and maintain such an apprentice program. Lessons learned by those who have done this, will be shared. You will learn how to start the program, some of the pitfalls to watch for, and how you as CIOs can start your own apprentice program. Again, to supplement not replace your more traditional talent acquisition and retention programs.

December 15, 2022 Forum: Understanding the Economy and Cryptocurrency/Blockchain

• Anirban Basu will again visit with us to provide his insight on the economy and where things are headed in 2023. Will 2023 be a return to normalcy, or will it represent a continuation of the life-altering circumstances that characterized 2020 and 2021?  Anirban’s presentation will provide in-depth analysis of the economy’s shifts during the pandemic, including supplying industry and household level detail.  It will then turn toward a forecast for the year to come. Anirban Basu is Chairman & CEO of Sage Policy Group, Inc., an economic and policy consulting firm in Baltimore.  In 2014, Maryland governor Larry Hogan appointed him Chair of the Maryland Economic Development Commission.  Anirban also serves as the chief economist to Associated Builders and Contractors and as chief economic adviser to the Construction Financial Management Association.  In 2007 and then again in 2016, he was selected by the Daily Record newspaper as one of Maryland’s 50 most influential people. The Baltimore Business Journal named him one of the region’s 20 most powerful business leaders in 2010.  He holds four graduate degrees, including a JD and a PhD.

• Also in this Forum, Jim Lee a futurist and some of our CIOs will cover tokenization of brands and culture – with the rapid adoption of cryptocurrency, tokens and NFT, there is a move to leverage tokens to unite around a brand or culture.   Some companies are using NFT as business rewards.    In the past, we have talked about cryptocurrency, now let’s dig into seeing how companies are leveraging this technology to drive efficiency, brand adoption and revenue. How do CIOs manage these tokens, crypto coins for the business? What benefits can this technology bring to our businesses? Jim and our CIOs will share real use cases of blockchain and of other aspects of blockchain/cryptocurrency.

November 17, 2022 Forum: The “Holistic” Cybersecurity Strategy and How to Implement

• Do you know the tools and partners to use for the best security architecture and strategy in these times and today’s world?  Who has the best, must review/consider/use solutions and services out there?  What security cloud services have proven themselves?  Is identity management key to acceptably locking your company assets down in this current and future “workplace” and with today’s “workforce” anywhere and everywhere?  Your security strategy has to be “holistic”.  It is only as good as your “weakest link”.  Senior management must support a holistic and complete approach to protecting your company assets.

• Please join us for a Security Networking Group (SNG) meeting on November 17th at Towson University. The SNG will follow a CIO meeting in the morning on “The Holistic Cybersecurity Strategy and How to Implement”. You can attend the morning meeting if you would like. But in any event please join us for lunch if your schedule allows and the SNG meeting starting at 12:30pm.

October 27, 2022 Forum: Knowing What is Next and What Leadership Requires Today

• The pandemic created a forced experiment for companies to accelerate their plans to enable their people to work remotely.  And this experiment has reset non-essential employees’ expectations moving forward. According to a FlexJobs’research study, 58% of respondents want to be full-time remote employees, while 39% desire a hybrid work environment, resulting in 97% of employees desiring some form of remote work. That same survey also found that 58% of respondents would ‘absolutely’ look for a new job if they cannot continue remote work. Most leaders with whom we speak express concerns that their culture isn’t as healthy or high-performing as they would like it to be, and leaders with a remote workforce express they have even larger challenges cultivating a vibrant culture virtually.  In this session, Erin Moran, Executive Director of the Dr. Nancy Grasmick Leadership Institute will share best practices and practical tools for creating a vibrant culture, whether in-person, hybrid, or fully remote.

• Marc Andonian of Gartner will again visit with us and will share what Gartner considers to be the “priorities and key issues” for CIOs for the coming year. From their surveys and from their recent Symposium, Marc will share cogent thoughts and ideas for today’s CIOs to aid in developing pragmatic solutions for our businesses. Marc always provides great insight and guidance.

October 11, 2022
Annual Golf Outing (Re-scheduled)

 

September 15, 2022
Workforce Expectations, the Right Environment and Enablement

 

May 19, 2022
The Perdue Story and Challenges They Face

 

May 7, 2022
Spring Social Event – Gramercy Mansion Carriage House

 

April 21, 2022
Drilling Down on Technologies of Interest and Company Responsibilities

 

March 17, 2022

Security Networking Group (SNG) meeting

 

March 17, 2022

Threat Management, Risk Management, and How They Come Together for Companies and Organizations

 

February 17, 2022

What Companies Really Need from Their CIO’s, And New Processes and Ways of Working

 

January 20, 2022

Getting To Nimble, Remaining Nimble, and Building a Resilient Organization

 

December 16, 2021

The Economist and Futurist Views of What’s Ahead!  Hosted By VSS/CONVERGE at The Center Club

 

November 18, 2021

Demystifying “Zero Trust” and Individual Privacy Protection Today and The Changing Regulation Landscape

 

October 28, 2021

Gartner Update and Cisco’s Insights on Digital Disruption and the New Value Proposition

 

September 16, 2021

The Future of Work & DEI-hosted by Erickson Senior Living

 

September 15, 2021

Fall Social Event – Hayfields Golf Outing