Roundtable: CIO Essentials for Innovation and Creativity
When the first CIOs set sail on their executive journeys in the mid-1990s, most of them quickly discovered that innovation and creativity were not wanted on the voyage. That’s understandable, considering that the job of CIO was new and technology was only beginning to show its potential for obtaining competitive advantage.
What’s not so understandable is why it’s taken two decades for innovation and creativity to become essential aspects of the CIO role, which they clearly are today. Of the CIOs surveyed for IDG’s State of the CIO 2018 study, 88% indicated their role is becoming more digital and innovation focussed.
On December 13 in Toronto, The IT Media Group brought together 19 IT executives for one of its signature Master Series Roundtables, this one entitled “CIO Essentials for Innovation and Creativity”. The aim of the highly interactive session was to share knowledge around best practices that inspire change, promote creativity and champion practical innovation.
Moderating the roundtable was Jeff Ishii, Chief Technologist at The IT Media Group. Also at the table were two representatives of session sponsor Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions: Chief Technologist of North American Healthcare, Atif Chaughtai, and Head of Public Sector Canada, Richard Seguin.
Topics discussed included:
- Encouraging, fostering and sustaining an innovation culture
- Technologies for uncovering breakthrough ideas
- Frameworks for creating and measuring the value of innovation
- Tactics for testing smarter, learning faster, and reducing the time and cost of innovation efforts
- Strategies for building and encouraging innovation teams
- Successful initiatives that have been implemented or are in the process of being launched
- Leveraging the CIO position to move forward with innovation
Following the roundtable, Richard commented “I was impressed with the quality of contributions from the executives at the table. I had some excellent conversations with participants and made a number of connections.”
Atif added, “I enjoyed the cross-industry format. Attendees were able to provide multiple viewpoints that, in the end, resulted in a comprehensive discussion of the topics.”
Session Highlights Videos
Rallying organizational support
Encouraging a culture of innovation
Opening the doors to innovation
Collaborating with the business & vendors
Overcoming IT constraints
Post session interviews
Richard Seguin, Head, Public Sector Canada, Red Hat
David Arbuthnot, Director of Innovation Outpost, The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company
Sanjay Pattni, Director, Strategy & Solutions - Personal and Small Business Technology, CIBC
Atif Chaughtai, Chief Technologist, Red Hat
Victor Dudemaine, AVP Enterprise Data, Finance, OPTrust
Please check back for more session highlights and 1:1 interviews.
The IT Media Group’s CIO Master Series is one of the most successful event programs for IT executives in Canada, bringing together scores of senior level peers for thoughtful private discussions around the top issues facing enterprise IT. For a better understanding of these events please visit our Video section.
The IT Media Group is an award-winning producer of events and content for senior IT executives. Based in Toronto, our leadership team includes some of the most experienced and well respected media, technology and business professionals serving the IT executive community in Canada.
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