CIO Leadership Roundtable 2023 | IDC | 8 November 2023 | TBA , Manama, Bahrain

Fragile Markets, Agile Organizations. Recession, interest rate hikes, ongoing-geopolitical tensions, supply chain issues, skills shortages — these trends are underpinning markets in 2023, providing CIOs with a series of challenges to overcome on the road to success.​ However, business demands a growth mindset, and the role of the CIO is proving pivotal in today’s digital-first era. Being equipped with the best tools, armed with the best strategies, and enabled by the right level of support are more critical than ever to being successful — and this is the theme of our exclusive CIO Leadership Roundtable. Skills, aptitude, and attitude are, however, only part the solution. Having a strong IT strategy in place is paramount, which is why this exclusive roundtable will focus on the critical technology issues that need addressing in 2023 and beyond.​ We will discuss the importance of data, AI, and talent programs in supporting a strong digital-first strategy, examine the impact of a cloud-native approach on technical debt, and explain how a focus on digital resilience can help to address cybersecurity, compliance, and supply chain concerns, enabling CIOs to thrive into 2024 and beyond.

• Managing Your Cloud Strategy.
Cloud is now critical to achieving strategic business goals, and it will be the heart of future digital enterprises. However, cloud is a technology that is constantly evolving alongside emerging technologies and trends. The new features and capabilities continuously being added to cloud solutions will help organizations to build momentum on their transformation journeys.

• Taking Partnerships to the Next Level: Achieving ESG Goals.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues are becoming increasingly important to investors, customers, and employees alike. However, achieving ESG goals is a team effort that requires collaboration across different business functions and different industries. This session will discuss the role of leadership in setting a clear ESG vision and engaging all business functions. It will also examine the role of technology in supporting ESG initiatives, highlight the importance of cross-functional collaboration and communication, and present essential guidance on how to integrate ESG considerations (including the use of metrics and data-driven insights) into business strategies.

• Developing Digital Agility and Resilience Through Enterprise Intelligence.
As we head towards a Digital First world, technology has become the primary instrument for success and survival of organizations. Business and technology leaders need to collaborate to build resiliency as they navigate towards the future enterprise. What's become clear in the last year is that intelligence – data driven processes leveraging machine learning with rising degrees of autonomy – is playing a leading role in an organization's transformation to a resilient digital business that's sufficiently agile to navigate the choppy waters of today and tomorrow. But there are other equally important considerations in building a truly digital business: of organization, leadership and the future of work. The speed at which organizations get ROI from their intelligent technology investments is becoming an increasingly important success factor.

• The Increasingly Complex Task of Cloud Security Services
With the rapid rise in cloud technology investments over the pandemic period, organizations are now grappling with the need to secure additional layers of complex cloud platforms. At the same time, they are increasingly on the lookout for secure cloud migration processes. Security service providers should emphasize their cloud security-focused services to address these needs.

• CIO Panel Discussion - The New CIO Mandate in an Increasingly Volatile Business Environment
Future CIOs must go beyond their usual focus on operational efficiency – they need to help businesses cope with macro challenges like geopolitical instabilities, new supply and energy disruptions, and significant economic uncertainties. They must also be critical execution leaders as lines of business and operational teams struggle with micro challenges like changing client expectations and significant price instabilities in raw materials and labor.

• Panel Discussion: Inflation and Currency Fluctuations Alter IT Budget Decisions
IT leaders around the world faced many disruptive challenges in 2022 that have manifested in 2023, from IT supply chain issues to continued difficulties with securing skilled people to support new digital business initiatives. While the top challenges have changed over time, concerns about the rising cost of technology due to inflation and “extra cost bumps” due to currency fluctuations topped the list of organizations across regions in 2022. Today’s CIOs thus need to walk a tightrope to balance business growth with technology efficiency.

• CIO Panel Discussion: FinOps and Cloud Economics Strategies to Minimize the Risks of Cloud
While speed is a cloud benefit which can lower costs for many workloads, speed also creates new risks. However, many technology leaders feel their companies are overspending on cloud resources. To achieve the full benefits of a cloud-centric project prioritization strategy, CIOs must ensure that they can reduce waste of cloud and other IT resources. In the short-term, they must empower existing vendor/product procurement and service management teams to pursue cost optimization strategies more aggressively.

• Panel Discussion: The Path Ahead for the Digital-First Enterprise
The future customer experience will be hyper personal, immersive, intuitive, and prescriptive. Brands will need to learn how to maintain natural, human connections at scale in a digital-first world through consent, trust, and cognitive empathy. Enterprises must learn how to use innovations such as analytics, AI, augmented/virtual reality, and human-machine augmentation, among others, in a customer-centric context to rethink the digital-first experience.