http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/ Welcome to the InformationWeek Conference Blog. Whether you're on site here in lovely Amelia Island, Fla., or anywhere else in the world, we invite you to share your comments in real-time about the content being presented this week, April 10-13. Let your colleagues know your thoughts about The Borderless Enterprise: Global Technology, Customers, and Standards, which is our theme. Do you have information that will expand the knowledge of our audience? Do you disagree with some of the statements being made? Please share them. Along the way, InformationWeek editors and some of our outside contributors will be posting their own insight to ensure that this point of view on globalization is the most complete one available to the greater business technology industry!

Brian Gillooly
Editor-in-Chief, Optimize
Editor-in-Chief, Events, InformationWeek]]> 2005-04-15T14:38:24-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/on_the_road_wit.html Varun Jha, the CIO of Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, India, wins the prize for the longest trip to and from InformationWeek's Spring Conference in Amelia Island, Fla. Over dinner Tuesday night, as he prepared to return home the next day, Jha jotted his itinerary for me on the back of his business card: Amelia Island to Jacksonville to Detroit to Amsterdam to Delhi, where he had an overnight stop, then on to Calcutta and, finally, Jamshedpur. Jha's six-city adverture -- 40 hours one way -- is a testament to what lengths business-technology people will go to meet with their peers. Here's what he had to say.

]]> jfoley 2005-04-15T14:38:24-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/the_blackberry.html If you put 20 executives in a room today, chances are more than half of them will have BlackBerry devices. The InformationWeek Spring Conference in Amelia Island, Fla., attracted a large number of CIOs and other IT executives. But they never really left their offices or stopped working because during breaks and in between sessions, scattered throughout the conference hall, they were vigorously engaged with their small blue handhelds.

]]> emalykin 2005-04-15T12:20:25-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/becoming_a_visi.html Based on the reactions I received to my recent blog titled The Plight Of The 'Invisible' Young IT Worker," it seems that the problem I was originally describing isn't exclusive to recent college grads. Even professionals who've been in the IT arena for 15-plus years are faced with the challenge of getting their feet wet in the business side of things.

]]> emalykin 2005-04-14T15:07:20-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/siebel_and_the.html The ouster (or "resignation by mutual agreement") of Siebel's briefly tenured CEO today puts an exclamation point on one of my key takeaways from this year's InformationWeek Spring Conference: the continuing, astronomical costs of enterprise software deployments and the pain they can cause.

]]> tsmith 2005-04-13T13:37:30-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/so_you_thought.html Only publicly traded companies have to worry about being in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, right? Not necessarily.

]]> 2005-04-12T14:41:47-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/all_jobs_dont_g.html Indian panelists were on the defensive here Tuesday. Several audience members raised questions that revealed their concerns about the number of IT jobs going to India and the effect of that on the U.S. computer industry. Armed with facts, the speakers fielded those queries like Jeter hoovering up a routine grounder off The Bronx turf.

]]> pmcdouga 2005-04-12T13:18:09-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/could_rocketing.html Though the direct impact on the IT industry is not evident, news that the U.S. trade deficit soared to a record high of $61.04 billion in February isn't good for the tech economy. Simply, damage to the overall economy will damper spirits among corporate executives who could rein in spending and hiring, including those involving IT.

]]> Personnel 2005-04-12T13:01:33-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/the_plight_of_t.html At this week’s InformationWeek Spring Conference in Amelia Island, Fla., Ram Charan, an executive consultant and a co-author of Confronting Reality: Master Of The New Model For Success, appealed to executives in the audience with a statement about the young IT generation today. He said: “Give younger people a chance to get outside IT and get their feet wet in the business.”

]]> emalykin 2005-04-12T08:13:25-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/chinese_officia.html Rather than competing for offshore software development work, India and China can help each other's technology industries through cooperation, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said during a visit to Bangalore, India. The PM envisioins an "Asian century" in technology. See the story here.

]]> jfoley 2005-04-12T06:13:29-05:00 http://www.informationweek.com/blog/IWKconferences/archives/2005/04/gm_ups_diageo_c.html Following is more news coverage from InformationWeek's Spring Conference on The Borderless Enterprise.

]]> jfoley 2005-04-12T05:58:44-05:00