Keynote Presentations

"Reflections on Innovation in the Knowledge Economy"
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Chairman Emeritus, IBM Academy of Technology
Visiting Professor of Engineering Systems, MIT

We can increasingly leverage the Internet and related open standards to look at an organization - an enterprise, an industry eco-system or an economy - as a holistic, integrated system, linking together processes, information and people. This talk will explore the huge challenges we face in order to realize the potential benefits of such business and societal transformations, including the ability to effectively design and use highly complex, human oriented, market-facing systems and applications.

Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger retired from IBM on May 31, 2007 after 37 years with the company. At IBM, he was responsible for identifying emerging technologies and marketplace developments, and organizing appropriate activities in and outside IBM to capitalize on them. He continues to participate in a number of IBM’s technical strategy and innovation initiatives. At MIT, he is involved in multi-disciplinary research and teaching on how IT is helping transform business organizations and the institutions of society.

"From 0 to 60 ..."
Chris Hjelm
Senior VP & CIO, The Kroger Co. &

Taking the venerable Kroger Co. and its industry into the world of eBay and Orbitz takes not just a foot on the pedal, but a top flight pit crew.

Prior to joining Kroger, Mr. Hjelm was CIO of travel distribution services at Cendant. He joined Cendant through its acquisition of Orbitz, which had hired him in July 2003 as its CTO. Prior to Orbitz, he was senior vice president for technology at eBay, and spent 14 years with Federal Express.

"Business Social Software: Enterprise Innovation through Web 2.0 Applications"
Ross Mayfield
Chairman, President & Co-founder of Socialtext

This talk combines two themes: Social networking is not limited to the social scene -- it has business/enterprise value and expectations too; the entrepreneurial landscape for Web 2.0 remains fertile.

Ross Mayfield is Chairman, President & Co-founder of Socialtext, the first wiki company and leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 solutions. He was co-founder and President of RateXchange, a B2B commodity exchange for telecom, served as CEO of a Risk Management startup, VP of Marketing for a Fujitsu spinout, and Marketing Director of one of the largest privately held telecom groups in Eastern Europe.

Program Facilitator & Moderator

Thornton May

Thornton May is one of the premier ‘communicators’ in the IT industry. He combines a scholar's passion for empirical research, an entrepreneur’s capacity for opportunity identification, and a stand-up comic's gift for storytelling to assisting executives figure out what comes after what comes next. Mr. May is responsible for sculpting executive education IT curricula at four major business schools: UCLA, UC-Berkeley, Arizona State, and Ohio State.

CEO Panel Discussion: Innovation and the IT Function

Moderator: Thornton May

The CEO Panel is always a Symposium highlight. This year, CEOs of three of the nation’s major corporations based in our region discuss the role that they expect the CIO and the IT function to play in facilitating innovation within their companies. Is IT merely an enabler or should it be proactive in initiating and encouraging innovation? How does the CEO shape the IT agenda? How does one quantify the value of IT-enabled innovation?

Panelists:

John Hayden, President & CEO -- The Midland Co.
Kevin Kabat, President & CEO -- Fifth Third Bancorp.
Bill Nuti, Chairman & CEO -- The NCR Corp.

Interactive Breakout Sessions

In response to positive feedback from last year’s attendees, we will once again offer a variety of afternoon breakout sessions. Focused on specific IT and Innovation issues, these facilitated discussion sessions allow for the sharing of ideas, experiences, challenges, and successes.

Breakout Sessions 1

• IT Infrastructure Agility through SOA: Amphitheater 1, Facilitator: Robert Johnson, Director of SWG SOA Innovation and Design, IBM
• Innovation in the Mid-sized Company : Mt. Lookout, Facilitator: Mike Webster, NCR; Panel: CIOs of Mid-sized companies, including George Menyert, CIO, Lerner, Sampson and Rothfuss
• Building the IT Pipeline: Mt. Auburn, Facilitator: Vivek Choudhury, Department Head, Information Systems, University of Cincinnati

Breakout Sessions 2

• Entrepreneurship in the Cincinnati Ecosystem: Mt. Lookout, Panel: Mike Venerable, Executive-in-Residence, CincyTech; Mark Richey, Draper Triangle Ventures; Jeff Ficke, Fifth Third Bank
• Innovative Technologies: Amphitheater 1, Facilitator: Ross Mayfield, President and Co-Founder, Socialtext
• Managing the IT Workforce in a Web 2.0 World: Mt. Auburn, Facilitator: Michiel Boreel, Global CTO, Sogeti