I attended this even last month and the insights of the speakers provided some solace and assurance that the IT industry faces similar challenges across sectors. There were many subjects discussed, and a great Q&A session, but my 3 take away thoughts were;The 3rd Platform [Wiki]
Being a Gartner advocate I have always referred to these as the Nexus of Change, and the focus of many of the events I attend appear to be based around Mobile, Cloud, Big Data and Social. The clear theme at this event was there is a challenge faced, but not by using these services, but by the implementation of these new technologies without considering the migration and transformation of the business critical services each business relies on. In essence, it is easy to add new services, but this does not reduce your cost base.
Shadow IT [Wiki]
A take away for me because this is an everyday accordance in my organisation. The good news for me is that the true cost of this "amateur IT" is becoming apparent to CEO's, and the trend is beginning to regress. CEO's want to see real benefit to cost, and the only chance of this is ensuring the IT professionals are empowered.
IT Spending and Skills
The central message was clear, the guy who spends wisest, spends last. This message really brought the other topics together. It is already very easy to procure 3rd platform services and the need for IT experience and knowledge is paramount if you are to control costs.
I attend many events like this and it was refreshing to attend one with real CIOs and real issues. Security and data ownership was also on the agenda, and all in all this was a very good event with excellent speakers.
Speakers
Mr Brett Winn CIO Medibank,
Mr Steve Coles CIO Allianz Insurance,
Emilie Ditton, Head of Vertical Markets, IDC Asia Pacific
Host
The event was at the SCG. This was a nice touch