22nd annual CIO&Leader Conference sets new benchmark

The 22^nd annual CIO&Leader Conference, the flagship event of the premier CIO community platform, CIO&Leader, from 9.9 Group, was successfully held virtually on 3^rd and 4^th September 2021. The theme for this year’s conference was CIO Gurukul, which stressed on the importance of learning.

As many as 118 CIOs participated in the conference as Gurus to share their insights and learning with more than 2,400 people registering for the event.  They did that over 39 sessions – keynote, sponsored and editorial – across various formats, such as Masterclasses, Fireside Chats, Roundtables, Panel Discussions, and Case Study Workshops.

The event began with participating CIOs and delegates being welcomed by Vikas Gupta, Publisher of CIO&Leader and Director & Co-Founder, 9.9 Group.

The opening keynote themed Rise over Obstacles was delivered by Life Coach Gaur Gopal Das of ISKCON. He also participated in a fireside chat with Rajendran N, CEO, IFTAS; Rajesh Uppal, CIO, Maruti Suzuki India; and Vikram K, Senior Director, HPE India, who deliberated on Leadership in the Era of Hybrid Work Culture. Harish Manwani, Senior Operating Partner, The Blackstone Group & Former Global COO, Unilever, spoke on Leading in Turbulent Times, in the second keynote delivered on the first day.  

The opening keynote on the second day was given by Prakash Iyer, Former Managing Director, Kimberly-Clark Lever, who spoke on The Leaders’ Mindset. Sjoerd Marijne, Chief Coach of Indian Women's National Hockey Team which reached the quarterfinals of Tokyo Olympics 2020, delivered a keynote address on How to Build a World Class Team.          

The sponsored sessions on the first day included:

• Visual Data Mining & Machine Learning, Case Study Workshop sponsored by SAS
• An Integrated Security Strategy to Support Business Transformation, Case Study Workshop sponsored by Fortinet
• Technology & Financial Services – A Love/Hate Relationship, Fireside Chat sponsored by Fortinet
• Lessons from Digital Transformation, Fireside Chat sponsored by Tata Communications
• The Post COVID CISO, Fireside Chat sponsored by Fortinet
• Adopt a Holistic Approach to Cyber Security, Masterclass sponsored by Sophos
• Simplify Compliance & Reduce Risk, Masterclass sponsored by Microsoft
• Proactive Threat Hunting to Combat Ransomware, Panel Discussion sponsored by Microsoft
• Accelerate Business Agility & Growth with the Right Hybrid Cloud, Panel Discussion sponsored by IBM
• Cloudizing your IT with Everything as a Service, Panel Discussion sponsored by HPE
• Build IT Agility: Accelerate Infrastructure Transformation, Roundtable sponsored by Tata Communications
• Modernized Data Management for Banking & Financial Industry, Roundtable sponsored by HPE
• Accelerating Digital Transformation with IoT Analytics, Roundtable sponsored by SAS
• Finding Your Path to Modernization, Roundtable sponsored by VMware
• A Core Foundation of Modern Data Strategy: Logical Data Fabric, Talk delivered by Denodo
• Create More Value from Apps & Data – Anywhere, Talk delivered by IBM
• Building an End-to-End Integrated Security Approach, Talk delivered by Microsoft

The sponsored sessions on the second day included:

• Unified Cloud Experience for Smart Business Transformation, Case Study Workshop sponsored by Tata Communications
• AI-powered Service Operation: Your Powerful Ally, Case Study Workshop, sponsored by ServiceNow
• Formulating a Business Optimized Threat Protection Strategy, Case Study Workshop sponsored by Kaspersky
• Build Your Digital Workspace, Masterclass sponsored by Wysetek
• Modernizing IT from Edge to Cloud, Masterclass sponsored by HPE
• AI-powered Service Operation, Panel Discussion sponsored by ServiceNow
• Network & Security: Get the Strategy Right, Panel Discussion sponsored by Tata Communications
• Unlock the Potential of Business Outcome, Panel Discussion sponsored by Aruba
• Exceptional Customer Service Experience, Panel Discussion sponsored by NICE
• Virtual Cloud Network for Intrinsic Security - Spotlight, Roundtable sponsored by VMware
• How Enterprises Can Unleash The Power of Data With The Modern Database Platform, Roundtable sponsored by Mongo DB
• Exploring the Future of Work with Sixth Sense Networks, Roundtable sponsored by Aruba

Editorial sessions included a presentation by Editorial Director Shyamanuja Das on Career & Succession Planning in Enterprise IT, based on a research conducted by CIO&Leader, on 3^rd September 2021. A roundtable on the same topic was conducted on the second day of the event, which saw participation of leading CIOs. Invited speakers, veteran ex CXOs and consultants, Vijay Sampath and Akash Jain spoke on Introducing Thick Data Thinking.

Like in last few years, the final part of the program agenda was CIO&Leader Samman, a unique honor CIO&Leader is conferring on veteran CIOs since last three years. Fourteen CIOs, chosen by a jury panel of four former CIOs, received the 3^rd CIO&Leader Samman.

The formal end of the event was thanking the CIO gurus for their selfless participation in the program and announcement of Guru Dakshina, as is customary at the end of the education at a Gurukul. Group Editor R Giridhar announced Guru Dakshina.

Director of Sales & Community Engagement, Mahantesh G, thanked the sponsors of making the program a success.

Exciting prizes like Maruti Baleno car, Sony BRAVIA TV, Bose EarPods and Amazon vouchers were announced for delegates based on their levels of participation.

The entire program was supported by Hewlett Packard Enterprise as the lead sponsor together with Aruba & Inflow, powered by Tata Communications and co-powered by AMD & VMware. The associate partners included Kaspersky, Microsoft, IBM, Mongo DB, NICE, SAS, Sophos, Denodo, Fortinet, ServiceNow and Wysetek.