National Party leader John Key will deliver the opening address to the CIO Conference 2008 on September 16 at SkyCity in Auckland.
Key will outline how the National Party plans to better harness the potential of ICT to allow this country’s people and businesses to compete more effectively in our globalised world should his party form the government after the November election.
His presentation of the party’s strategy going into the election is in line with the theme of this year’s two-day conference, “Successful strategies for a complex world”.
A select panel of CIOs, analysts and ICT specialists from New Zealand and overseas will address the business challenges which have taken CIOs from the back room to the board room.
Speakers include Jon Macdonald, Trade Me CEO; Laurence Millar, New Zealand Government CIO; Ron van de Riet, Kiwibank GM IT and business delivery; Darryl Warren, Lion Nathan CIO; Matthew Nasrabadi, head of technology operations, Vodafone Australia; and John Dunn, Hi Fert CIO.
Andre Mendes, Global CIO of The Special Olympics, will talk about strategies where CIOs need to meld the political skills of a senior executive with technical acumen to deploy the latest technology.
Dr Marcus Blosch, managing vice president in the agenda management group of Gartner Research, will deliver the closing keynote on how CIOs should articulate and deliver business value.
This is the ninth annual CIO conference, New Zealand’s premier gathering for ICT executives, and the sessions will address the business challenges that CIOs now face.
ICT is at the epicentre of business, with solutions to most business challenges featuring an ICT component. CIOs must address these as there is now a strong demand for greater operational efficiencies, particularly in the supply chain.
As well, CEOs are seeking ICT as part of the crucial mix for business innovation and to advance business planning. CIOs now recognise they need to contribute to their organisations at all levels. The era of the IT department as “data-processors” is most certainly history.
NetApp, Sun Microsystems and Vector Fibre are the gold sponsors of the CIO Conference 2008. The silver sponsors are Absolute IT, Amtel Communications, Delta Software, Enterprise IT and Excom.
Full details of the programme are available at www.cio.co.nz/conference.