IDC's Vienna CIO Summit - CIOs from Around Europe Discuss the most Urgent Issues and Strategic Challenges

Publish date: 27-05-2013
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More than 100 Chief Information Officers gathered at the Ritz-Carlton Vienna on April 25 and 26 to debate the hottest current technology and management topics and to learn from each other, IDC analysts, leading ICT vendors, and business gurus about the future of IT and leadership.  The invitation-only Summit, organized by the global market research and advisory firm IDC, brought together CIOs from large companies and government organizations from around Europe, with most attendees from the Central and Eastern European region.

The Summit revolved around one crucial message:  Today's CIOs face tremendous challenges, but also fantastic opportunities, due to the seismic shift taking place in ICT markets.  Frank Gens, Chief Research Officer at IDC, explained this transition in his keynote address:  "The business environment is currently undergoing significant changes as information technology moves to the 3rd Platform, which is characterized by the onset of four dominant elements - cloud computing, mobility, big data analytics, and social applications.  The impact of these truly transformational forces is and will be far-reaching, not only for IT departments, but for businesses overall. CIOs may be in a position to harness these technologies to achieve a competitive advantage for their companies, but they must also be vigilant to the risks and strive to maintain the stability of existing business-critical systems and processes.” 

In addition to the four forces of cloud, mobility, big data analytics, and social networks, key themes at the Summit included IT-business alignment, efforts to ensure an agile IT organization in order to react quickly to business needs, IT cost optimization, modern datacenter strategies, IT security threats, and how to institutionalize innovation in the enterprise.  The Summit concluded with a focus on how the role of the CIO will change.  According to panel moderator David McNally, Executive Advisor at IDC and former CIO of the supermarket powerhouse  Ahold, "Considering the ever-growing reliance of businesses on information technologies and systems, CIOs are increasingly viewed as partners for business innovation and improvement.  Consequently, NextGen CIOs need to evolve and expand their IT systems and technologies-related portfolio management role of today into the business services manager and chief innovation officer roles of tomorrow.  Undoubtedly, it is not an easy journey, and successful transitions will require new skills, personal development, and changes, not only on the CIO/ IT leaders' side.”

The agenda was rounded out by a speech from renowned business guru Jonas Ridderstrale, author of Funky Business - Talent Makes Capital Dance, and Karaoke Capitalism: Management for Mankind, who shared his new research on how the companies that will succeed tomorrow are now implementing processes and mindsets to make innovation an integral part of the way they do things.  Adrian Hayes, a two-time Guinness world-record-breaking polar explorer and adventurer, speaker and business coach, shared exciting stories of his expeditions to the ends of the Earth and inspired the audience to extend their accepted level of personal risk in order to reach a higher level of achievement.

Some feedback from CIO delegates:

"Outstanding event, excellent panels, cross-industry and cross-regional exchange of ideas and experience, top star speakers!”  Bernd Datler, ASFINAG Maut Service, Austria

"A very interesting program was assembled. I liked the variety of presentations and discussions that quite often covered non-technology areas. Many presenters were successful in mobilizing the audience.”   Pal Kerekfy, Deloitte Central Europe

"The Summit was a good opportunity to widen my professional network. Great exchange of ideas. Thanks to the speakers for sharing so much!”  Tina Berezhnaya, Russia Today Television

The Summit was sponsored by HP, VMware, Panasonic, and Kyocera at the Summit level; Dell and Oracle at the Platinum level; and Canon, NetApp, Airwatch, and Checkpoint at the Gold level. Lenovo and Intel were the sponsors of the Gala Dinner.  Austrian Air was the airline sponsor.  Fleishman-Hillard was the communications partner, and numerous country CIO associations and media organizations sponsored the event throughout Europe.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 48 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.


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