IW500: Getting Ready For The InformationWeek 500

In a couple of hours, I'll be driving to the InformationWeek 500 Conference, which starts today. It's a two-day annual event where elite CIOs and high-level IT managers gather to learn from each other about how to optimize their careers and departments for successThis year's theme is "Tomorrow's CIO." We're looking at the skills, experience and expertise that the CIO of tomorrow will need to master technology, help run the business and anticipate demands of the global marketplace.

The conference started this morning with a golf tournament. I do not play golf. I do not participate in any athletic competition, because it is too painful for other people to watch. Nonetheless, I have no animosity toward golfers, and I hope everybody in today's golf tournament scores a field goal, or whatever is considered a successful outcome in golf.

This evening, we have the welcome reception, hosted by InformationWeek, SAS and Teradata, along with a Tech Quest sponsored by SAS and Teradata -- seems to be some kind of scavenger hunt. Looking forward to finding out what that's about.

Monday's programming starts with a panel on tomorrow's CIO, looking at the challenges of globalization, with panelists including Manjit Singh, CIO of Chiquita Brands, and Randy Mott, CIO of Hewlett-Packard, moderated by Bob Evans, senior VP and content director for InformationWeek. To whet your appetite, read our recent cover story on the subject, download a free PDF of the article, or buy the report. ($499). Later Monday, we'll have a discussion with Barry Briggs, chief IT architect at Microsoft, sponsored by that company.

The afternoon's events kick off with the Unconference Session, an opportunity for informal peer networking to discuss the top problems of IT. We'll be breaking out into smaller groups, discussing enterprise software; mobile computing; outsourcing; vendor accountability; IT budgets and project prioritization; governance, risk and compliance; cloud computing; information security; and data quality and integration. I'll be facilitating one of those discussions, on enterprise and IT risk management.

Following the Unconference, "Get to the Point," a point-counterpoint style discussion with Toby Redshaw, CIO of Aviva, butting heads with Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle. Alexander Wolfe, editor-in-chief of InformationWeek.com. will keep the two of them from strangling each other.

Finally on Monday, the evening event will be the InformationWeek 500 Gala and Awards, when we'll present honors to the companies which have been the most effective and innovative in implementing IT this year. It's an annual award, and a highlight of the year for the InformationWeek community.

We kick off on Tuesday with another session on Tomorrow's CIO, this time hosted by InformationWeek editor-in-chief and VP Rob Preston, who will talk with Tim Stanley, CIO of Harrah's Entertainment, and his boss, company CEO Gary Loveman. They'll talk about technology-led business innovation, the relationship between the CIO and CEO, and the intersection of customer loyalty and IT.

Next up is a look at software visualization as a tool for getting business and IT aligned. It's hosted and sponsored by Emmet B. Keefe III, CEO and Co-Funder of iRise, with panelists including Alan Buffington, executive vice president of KeyBank, Marvin Balliet, managing director and COO of Merrill Lynch, and Marty Chuck, founder of the CXOs.

Later, we have Startup City, a look at six top startups selected by the InformationWeek community, moderated by InformationWeek editor John Foley. They'll give their pitches to a panel of CIO judges.

And, finally, we close the conference Tuesday with two simultaneous sessions from InformationWeek Analytics: The virtual enterprise, moderated by InformationWeek editor Art Wittman, with InformationWeek editor-at-large Charles Babcock and Joe Hernick; and cloud computing, moderated by InformationWeek editor Chris Murphy, with editor-at-large Mary Hayes and Mike Healey.

This year's event is at the St. Regis Monarch Beach, Calif., which (it says here), is "situated high on a bluff overlooking the majestic Pacific Ocean ... a landmark resort of legendary proportions ... located midway between Los Angeles and San Diego." It has a pool, a golf course -- check out the pictures. Nice, huh? This year, we're sold out, so the company put me at the overflow hotel, the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, which also seems to be on a bluff overlooking the majestic Pacific ocean, and altogether looks like the kind of place where they do not have roaches.

I'll be Twittering from the event. If you're attending and you use Twitter, feel free to do the same; let's use the hashtag #iw500 so we can keep in touch.