Building Smarter, Bolder IT for What’s Next
With AI expected to add $15 trillion to the global economy by 2030, CIOs are under pressure to deliver real impact - not just experiments. But innovation at scale requires more than new tools. It demands strong leadership, clear priorities, and a business-wide vision for the future.
This summit brings together IT leaders looking to redefine what’s possible. From scaling AI, simplifying infrastructure to unlocking data-driven decisions and leading with empathy, you'll explore how to drive meaningful change across people, platforms, and performance - while keeping your organization resilient, agile, and ready for what’s next.
Join us to connect with true peers and lead with confidence into the future.
Immerse yourself in thought-provoking insights
Exclusively curated from our previous
CIO Physical Summit
Core Themes
Making IT and AI a Winning Team
AI is transforming IT, but true impact depends on clarity, strategy, and relevance. Explore how IT leaders are aligning AI with business goals, using clean data to drive adoption, and avoiding AI sprawl. Learn why an empathy-led, human-centered approach is essential to empower teams, streamline support, and deliver measurable value.
The GenAI Economics Puzzle: Measuring ROI at Scale
GenAI spending is skyrocketing, yet measuring true business impact remains complex. Explore why traditional ROI falls short, uncover real-world strategies for demonstrating value, and learn how organizations are turning GenAI from a black-box expense into a measurable driver of strategic advantage.
Strategic Simplicity: Rethinking Your Infrastructure
Complexity is the enemy of agility. Discover how modern IT leaders are simplifying infrastructure to drive flexibility, improve visibility, and maintain security at scale. From cost-efficient cloud strategies to automation-first operations, learn how to architect leaner and smarter tech environments.
Redefining the CIO Role in an AI-First World
As AI reshapes business models, CIOs are evolving into enterprise AI strategists. Explore how IT leaders are guiding transformation, aligning data foundations, and orchestrating cross-functional efforts to embed AI as a core capability - not a side project - while managing culture change and long-term accountability.
Innovate Boldly, Operate Brilliantly
Innovation and stability don’t have to compete. Discover how CIOs are building agile resource models, strengthening business alignment, and delivering continuous value, without sacrificing operational excellence. Learn how to lead digital growth initiatives that scale fast, stay secure, and drive measurable business outcomes across the enterprise.
You Can’t Automate Leadership
AI can accelerate execution, but it can’t replace judgment, empathy, or vision. In a world of intelligent tools, human-centered leadership remains essential. Explore how CIOs are leading with intention - building trust, navigating ambiguity, and developing the skills that define high-impact leadership.
Speakers
Payal Patel
Ann Dunkin
Eric McNulty
Mary Ann Coburn
Robert Piascik
Ben Murphy
Sharon Milz
David Tepper
MaSonya Scott
Jalen Byford
Patrick Dillon
David Chun
Tim O’Neill
Tomas Kornegay
Josh Reicher
Anusha Anantharaman
Saadia Khilji
Tomas Kornegay
Osman Oksoy
Gerrit Stuchtey
Mike Bresloff
Agenda
1:10 pm - 1:40 pm
Keynote
Harnessing the Power of AI Through Progressive CIO Leadership
Join Rob Piascik, SVP, Chief Information & Technology Officer, New York Power Authority, as he shares insights, strategies, and perspectives on CIO leadership to enable innovation and business transformation through the use of digital capabilities and AI technologies to achieve strategic outcomes.
The insights are based on proven strategies, execution, and experiences in diverse private and public sectors with progressive Fortune 50 companies that seek to lead and differentiate themselves in their industries.
You will learn about critical success elements to achieve strategic and business value realization through applied innovation, forward-looking leadership, integration of AI accelerators, flexible digital architecture, enterprise readiness to scale and support AI technologies while ensuring governance, sustainability and resiliency.
1:45 pm - 2:20 pm
Panel Discussion
Redefining the CIO Role in an AI-First World
As AI matures from experimental to essential, the CIO’s role is rapidly evolving. Beyond infrastructure and integration, today’s IT leaders are increasingly expected to shape enterprise-wide AI strategy, ensure a strong data foundation, foster alignment across business units, and guide the organization through cultural and capability shifts. But what does it really take to become “AI-first”?
This panel explores the leadership mindset, organizational readiness, and cross-functional coordination needed to embed AI into the fabric of the business - not as a one-off initiative, but as a core capability. We'll discuss how CIOs can balance hype with discipline, champion change, and ensure AI solves real problems rather than just showcasing new tech.
Discussion points:
- What does "AI-first" actually mean - and how do you know if your organization is truly ready?
- How can leaders ensure AI efforts are solving real business problems, not just chasing shiny use cases?
- Are CIOs now being asked to act as de facto Chief AI Officers, and how do they balance that with core IT leadership?
- What role does leadership play in aligning AI efforts with broader transformation goals?
- What are the early indicators that your AI initiatives are gaining real traction, and what are the red flags?
- How can CIOs bring stakeholders and employees along on the AI journey - building literacy, fostering buy-in, and overcoming resistance to change?
- What does leading with empathy truly look like - and how can it build trust and strengthen culture?
2:20 pm - 2:45 pm
Diamond Keynote
CIO DJ: Orchestrating Trusted Apps, Clear Visibility, and Lower Risk
If your IT environment were a party, who would you trust to control the music? Great playlists don’t happen by accident - they’re intentional. In the same way, CIOs need clarity and control over what runs across the enterprise to reduce risk and eliminate surprises. In this session, we’ll explore how Airlock Digital helps CIOs orchestrate a curated playlist of only trusted applications, cutting out shadow IT, reducing operational risk, and delivering a foundational layer of security that other tools depend on. With a mix of practical insights and lighthearted analogies, you’ll learn how to gain visibility into every app, enforce a deny-by-default model that's scalable, and keep your business rockin' 24/7 - without unapproved software ever disrupting the set.
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Roundtable Session
Track 1: Making IT and AI a Winning Team
As AI reshapes the IT landscape, CIOs must lead with clarity - not just vision. From service management to customer support, the most successful AI deployments are rooted in operational relevance, business ROI, and a strong foundation of quality data. This roundtable explores how to scale AI thoughtfully: aligning capabilities with strategic goals, avoiding AI sprawl, and ensuring adoption supports teams instead of overwhelming them.
We'll also explore how a human-centered, empathy-led approach to AI drives lasting value, ensuring technology empowers employees and enhances customer experience. Join fellow leaders to discuss how to turn AI from a proof of concept into a platform for performance - boosting agility, streamlining support, and delivering faster impact to the business.
Discussion Points:
- Driving AI adoption without adding complexity or tech fatigue - is AI often a solution looking for a problem?
- Linking AI use cases to tangible IT and business outcomes
- Building human-centered AI experiences that prioritize empathy and meaningful impact for employees and customers
- Building a culture that’s ready (and excited) for AI
- Distinguishing genuine opportunities from hype-driven trends
Track 2: The GenAI Economics Puzzle: Measuring ROI at Scale
GenAI spending is exploding past $600 billion, yet most CIOs can't answer the question their boards are asking: "What's our return on investment?" Unlike traditional IT deployments with predictable costs and measurable outputs, GenAI's probabilistic nature, token-based pricing, and multi-model architectures create a perfect storm of measurement complexity. When every prompt has a different cost, every model delivers different results, and business impact varies by use case, how do you prove value?
This roundtable brings together IT leaders grappling with the same challenge: transforming GenAI from a black-box expense into transparent business value. We'll explore why traditional ROI frameworks fail with GenAI, share what's actually working (and what isn't) in real organizations, and discuss emerging approaches to financial accountability that satisfy both CFOs and innovation teams.
Join your peers for an honest conversation about navigating the economics of GenAI—where the hype meets the spreadsheet, and where strategic vision meets budget reality.
Discussion Points
- The Measurement Challenge - Why traditional IT metrics don't work for GenAI, and what new frameworks are emerging
- Real-World Experiences - What's working, what's failing, and what surprises leaders are encountering in production
- Financial Accountability - How to build credibility with the C-suite when the numbers are fuzzy
- The Visibility Problem - Getting clear sight into costs and value across a fragmented GenAI landscape
- Making Trade-offs - Balancing innovation speed with financial discipline
- Future-Proofing Investments - Ensuring today's GenAI bets pay off as the technology evolves
Track 3: Strategic Simplicity: Rethinking Your Infrastructure
As IT environments grow more complex, spanning legacy systems, multi-cloud platforms, distributed workforces, and increasingly AI-driven applications, CIOs face mounting pressure to simplify operations without compromising control or agility. Rising costs, evolving security threats, and high user expectations are forcing IT leaders to modernize infrastructure with smarter, more automated, and more centralized approaches.
This roundtable explores how CIOs are reducing complexity while transforming IT environments to be leaner, more scalable, and cloud optimized. From virtual desktop strategies to operational automation and cost visibility, we’ll unpack real-world tactics for delivering flexibility, security, and a better experience for today’s hybrid and remote workforces.
Discussion points:
- Designing modern IT environments that are secure, centralized, and built to scale with the business
- Improving cloud cost efficiency and reducing risk through automation, policy-based controls, and better spend visibility
- Enabling secure scale across distributed teams without added complexity
- Creating unified visibility across infrastructure to improve control, decision-making, and end-user experience
- Managing the rise of AI-driven shadow IT while maintaining compliance and encouraging innovation
- Best practices for measuring success & ROI of operational efficiency initiatives
3:00 pm - 6:30 pm
1:1 Meetings
4:10 pm - 4:40 pm
Masterclass
Empathy-Driven Leadership in the Age of AI: Building Trust and Navigating Change
In an era where artificial intelligence is transforming the workplace, empathy has become a crucial leadership skill. This presentation explores how empathy enhances leadership by addressing human concerns, fostering inclusivity, and ensuring transparent communication. It provides practical strategies for leading with empathy during AI integration, emphasizing the importance of understanding, and addressing workforce anxiety, promoting equity, and building trust. By prioritizing human concerns, leaders can navigate technological changes effectively and achieve sustainable success.
4:45 pm - 5:15 pm
Sponsor Workshop
The Acceleration Effect: Where Service Management, AI, and Teams Ignite Change
In today’s rapidly changing world, thriving organizations don’t just adopt new tools - they harness the power of IT Service Management, AI, and empowered teams. Join this dynamic session to discover how AI-driven automation and cross-functional collaboration break down silos, accelerate innovation, and deliver exceptional service across every department. Learn practical strategies to automate routine work, build agile teams, and create a culture where service management is everyone’s business. Walk away with three proven techniques to scale AI, empower your teams, and lead your enterprise into the future.
6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Networking Reception
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Gala Dinner
8:30 pm - 8:55 pm
Dinner Keynote
Navigating Turbulence: Practical Insights for Leaders
In a world marked by both poly- and perma-crisis as well as rapid changes in technology, stakeholder expectations, geopolitics, and more, leaders are challenged to know how to think as well as what to do. Drawing on almost two decades of field research on crisis and change, Eric McNulty will explore four key ways that future-ready leaders can expand their influence and amplify their impact. You will leave this engaging talk better prepared to meet the inevitable moment when “you’re it” and you must be ready to lead.
8:00 am - 8:40 am
Panel
Innovate Boldly, Operate Brilliantly
IT leaders today are constantly walking a tightrope between innovation and operational resilience. As digital transformation and AI initiatives accelerate, three in four CIOs continue to struggle with the delicate balance - a challenge especially pronounced in sectors like education and manufacturing. Navigating this dual mandate requires careful resource management to avoid stifling innovation or compromising operational stability.
This panel brings together technology leaders who will share strategies for embracing a flexible resource model, strengthening IT-business collaboration, and leading innovation initiatives that deliver tangible business outcomes while maintaining the integrity and reliability of core IT operations. Join us to explore how to drive digital growth without losing control.
Discussion points:
- How can CIOs lead innovation without disrupting core operations?
- What are the best ways to bridge IT and business for true collaboration?
- How can IT teams adopt agile resource models to adapt to shifting priorities?
- Which metrics best capture both innovation impact and operational health?
- How do you move fast and stay secure - or is something always sacrificed?
- What does it take to shift from a project mindset to a product-centric model that delivers continuous value?
8:40 am - 9:10 am
Keynote
Don't Forget the Organization - Change Management in Global IT Projects
For CIOs leading global transformation initiatives, effective change management is a strategic imperative. This session addresses the complexities of driving change across multinational organizations, where cultural diversity, operational variance, and stakeholder alignment pose significant challenges. Gerrit Stuchtey will present actionable frameworks and leadership strategies that enable CIOs to steer global rollouts with clarity and impact. Drawing from real-life project examples, he will highlight how change management can accelerate adoption, reduce risk, and ensure business continuity. Attendees will leave with insights to strengthen their change leadership and enhance the value of global technology deployments.
9:20 am - 12:10 pm
1:1 Meetings
9:20 am - 10:20 am
Roundtable Session
Track 1: Making IT and AI a Winning Team
As AI reshapes the IT landscape, CIOs must lead with clarity - not just vision. From service management to customer support, the most successful AI deployments are rooted in operational relevance, business ROI, and a strong foundation of quality data. This roundtable explores how to scale AI thoughtfully: aligning capabilities with strategic goals, avoiding AI sprawl, and ensuring adoption supports teams instead of overwhelming them.
We'll also explore how a human-centered, empathy-led approach to AI drives lasting value, ensuring technology empowers employees and enhances customer experience. Join fellow leaders to discuss how to turn AI from a proof of concept into a platform for performance - boosting agility, streamlining support, and delivering faster impact to the business.
Discussion Points:
- Driving AI adoption without adding complexity or tech fatigue - is AI often a solution looking for a problem?
- Linking AI use cases to tangible IT and business outcomes
- Building human-centered AI experiences that prioritize empathy and meaningful impact for employees and customers
- Building a culture that’s ready (and excited) for AI
- Distinguishing genuine opportunities from hype-driven trends
Track 2: The GenAI Economics Puzzle: Measuring ROI at Scale
GenAI spending is exploding past $600 billion, yet most CIOs can't answer the question their boards are asking: "What's our return on investment?" Unlike traditional IT deployments with predictable costs and measurable outputs, GenAI's probabilistic nature, token-based pricing, and multi-model architectures create a perfect storm of measurement complexity. When every prompt has a different cost, every model delivers different results, and business impact varies by use case, how do you prove value?
This roundtable brings together IT leaders grappling with the same challenge: transforming GenAI from a black-box expense into transparent business value. We'll explore why traditional ROI frameworks fail with GenAI, share what's actually working (and what isn't) in real organizations, and discuss emerging approaches to financial accountability that satisfy both CFOs and innovation teams.
Join your peers for an honest conversation about navigating the economics of GenAI—where the hype meets the spreadsheet, and where strategic vision meets budget reality.
Discussion Points
- The Measurement Challenge - Why traditional IT metrics don't work for GenAI, and what new frameworks are emerging
- Real-World Experiences - What's working, what's failing, and what surprises leaders are encountering in production
- Financial Accountability - How to build credibility with the C-suite when the numbers are fuzzy
- The Visibility Problem - Getting clear sight into costs and value across a fragmented GenAI landscape
- Making Trade-offs - Balancing innovation speed with financial discipline
- Future-Proofing Investments - Ensuring today's GenAI bets pay off as the technology evolves
Track 3: Strategic Simplicity: Rethinking Your Infrastructure
As IT environments grow more complex, spanning legacy systems, multi-cloud platforms, distributed workforces, and increasingly AI-driven applications, CIOs face mounting pressure to simplify operations without compromising control or agility. Rising costs, evolving security threats, and high user expectations are forcing IT leaders to modernize infrastructure with smarter, more automated, and more centralized approaches.
This roundtable explores how CIOs are reducing complexity while transforming IT environments to be leaner, more scalable, and cloud optimized. From virtual desktop strategies to operational automation and cost visibility, we’ll unpack real-world tactics for delivering flexibility, security, and a better experience for today’s hybrid and remote workforces.
Discussion points:
- Designing modern IT environments that are secure, centralized, and built to scale with the business
- Improving cloud cost efficiency and reducing risk through automation, policy-based controls, and better spend visibility
- Enabling secure scale across distributed teams without added complexity
- Creating unified visibility across infrastructure to improve control, decision-making, and end-user experience
- Managing the rise of AI-driven shadow IT while maintaining compliance and encouraging innovation
- Best practices for measuring success & ROI of operational efficiency initiatives
10:30 am - 11:00 am
Future Focus Speakers
You Can’t Automate Leadership: Building People-First IT Teams
As automation transforms how work gets done, one truth remains: great leadership isn’t programmable. Today’s CIOs aren’t just driving digital transformation - they’re building the teams and cultures that make it possible. As technology evolves, empathy, trust, and vision remain deeply human - and essential.
This session explores what it means to lead with intention amid rapid change and uncertainty. How do IT leaders stay ahead without losing the essence of meaningful leadership? How do you inspire trust, build resilience, and sustain a culture of innovation?
Join this conversation to discover how CIOs are reimagining IT structures, developing cross-functional talent, and leading with emotional intelligence to build high-performing teams that innovate, adapt, and align with business strategy.
Discussion points:
- Leading with empathy in an AI-driven world
- Fostering a culture of innovation and business alignment
- Reimagining IT organizational structure for collaboration and agility
- The expanding role of IT leadership
- Developing and upskilling talent for cross-functional impact
- Measuring success in a human-centered, AI-first environment
11:05 am - 11:35 am
Sponsor Workshop
Show Your Work - Auditable AI That Follows Your Procedures
AI shouldn’t just give answers - it must show its work. In regulated industries, compliance depends on traceability: from regulations to policies and procedures to code; from project plans to implementation to testing. In this interactive session, we’ll show how to make AI auditable by forcing it through checklists, reason cards, and verification workflows. You’ll see live examples: a credit-card complaint that triggers Reg Z, a Pull Request (PR) review agent tagging regulatory requirements in Jira, and a “citation verifier” that prevents hallucinated sources. See how you can create governance models that make AI transparent and controllable.
12:35 pm - 1:00 pm
Closing Keynote
Immutable Leadership
CIOs and other technology leaders live in a world of constant change. However, some things don't change. One of those is good leadership. In this session we'll discuss the fundamentals of good leadership that won't change as fast as the next hype cycle.
1:05 pm - 2:10 pm
1:1 Meetings
2:15 pm - 2:30 pm
Beyond the Challenges
Join us for an engaging and interactive session where we'll extract the most impactful takeaways from the summit's roundtable discussions. Led by our summit host, Tim Cassidy, our roundtable moderators will share their most eye-opening observations, game-changing insights, and unexpected discoveries.
We’ll explore the following:
- Key Challenges: Uncover the most pressing challenges identified during the roundtables and potential solutions.
- Emerging Trends: Discuss the latest trends and innovations shaping the IT landscape.
- Actionable Strategies: Gain practical insights and actionable strategies to overcome obstacles and drive success.
The Starling - Atlanta, GA
A unique stay minutes from downtown. In the heart of Midtown Atlanta, we are next to Colony Square with several restaurants, shops, and featured events.
Why attend?
Connect with like-minded senior leaders for a curated agenda, focused on tackling your current business critical challenges and driving industry forward.
Be a part of exclusive shared learning, horizon scanning and actionable insights enabling organizations to deliver transformative strategies.
Build meaningful relationships with solution providers matched to your business priorities to help accelerate your projects and deliver your objectives.
