European CIO 2011

I have just returned from chairing the European CIO Summit in Cannes. Possibly it was the warm weather or even the French cuisine, but I walked away feeling unusually optimistic about the future role of the CIO.

The Summit was realistic in that everyone was aware of the issues we face in the IT industry. However rather than navel gazing on what CIOs are for we focused on the bright spots in terms of how we could both raise and extend the bar in terms of remit.

So whilst the focus was strategic, it was also practical. There were a number of important take aways that I may elaborate on in future posts, but the key one for me was 'to develop your relationship with the CEO', which requires CIOs to focus on their relational capital.

Good work Marcus Evans (the event organiser).