CIO Conference, 22,23rd October - Agility and the role of the Chief Information Officer in the enterprise

Add a Comment

Comment by Bridgetti Lim Banda [CIO FORUM] on October 16, 2009 at 17:08

Researchers, Chief Information Officers (CIOs), information technology (IT) professionals and academics from the four universities in the Western Cape will be attending a conference aimed at developing capacity in technology leadership. The Conference on CIO Research in Africa being held at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Cape Town on the 22nd and 23rd of October 2009 is aimed at sharing information on research on the role of the Chief Information Officer, technology leadership and related topics.

Technology has been a driving force in the past century and will continue to shape our society in the 21st century. As with the broader continent of Africa, the Western Cape region is striving to develop its capacity to innovate and to compete in an increasingly technology driven economy. Research undertaken by universities in the region forms an important part of this process of creating innovation and the conference seeks to highlight the need for building capacity in both the public and private sector.

The initiative is being organized by the academic CIO Forum formed in 2008 to increase collaboration and networking between academia and commerce. Academics from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Stellenbosch University (SUN) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) have participated in the forum. At the beginning of 2009, the forum and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) started an initiative to promote research into the role of the CIO to encourage CIO qualification programs.

Prof Pete Janse van Vuuren of Gartner sees the role of the CIO and that of technology leadership evolving. Notably the trend towards “a split in the CIO role in which he or she will be responsible for business processing improvements, while the CTO will actually take care of technology,” says van Vuuren. The role of CIOs in business and in the delivery of government services are some of the issues which will be discussed at the conference.

The theme of the conference “Creating Agility: the CIO Conundrum” is aimed at addressing how organizations can leverage human, organizational and information capital to become responsive to changes in the business environment and the complexity of technology. Researchers and speakers will cover a range of topics including: agility in government and the enterprise, strategy and governance, change, enterprise architecture, mobility and social media, software as a service, knowledge management and organizational innovation. Researchers include not only academics but CIOs and IT professionals doing research with universities in the Western Cape as well as with the Meraka Institute of the CSIR.

A highlight of the conference is a gala dinner and CIO award ceremony honouring contributors to research and CIO leadership on the 22nd at the De Oude Welgemoed. Dr Mosibudi Mangena, the former Minister of Science and Technology will be speaking on “Technology Leadership under former President Thabo Mbeki” and will be leading a panel discussion on technology leadership. The main sponsors of the event include the Simeka Business Group, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.