INTRODUCTION TO THE CIO SYMPOSIUM

This year ICIS is proud to announce the launch of a CIO symposium. The goal of the symposium is to facilitate a productive dialogue between the academic and CIO communities thus narrowing the gap between research and practice. Some might say that ICIS has pursued this goal for many years.

So, what is new with the CIO symposium at ICIS 2008?

This CIO symposium is new in three ways:

• First, it takes place during the ICIS Conference. This prestigious location of the CIO symposium sends a clear and unambiguous signal about the importance of dialogue between the CIO and academic communities.
• Second, the format and content of the symposium were developed over 6 months and involved a dialogue between leading academics and CIOs from around the world. As such, the dialogue has already started and the program agenda reflects it. Rather than have a two-sided monologue - researchers talking to practitioners about their research or practitioners talking to researchers about their issues and practices - we’ve taken the first step for meaningful exchange and engaged both communities in the design of the curriculum.
• Third, the core theme of the symposium expresses this common agenda. After hours of talk we agreed on a central theme – we are in a transformation period characterized by a high level of uncertainty and ambiguity. The global context within which this transformation is taking place requires that we understand the strategic trends and focus on executing strategy and change to ensure we don’t lag behind. In this highly risky landscape IT is a central enabler of transformation and CIOs are key players. The dialogue we would like to have in this CIO symposium is a first step for the two communities to engage in deep debate and clarify strategic issues that face CIOs around the world.

Symposium Co-Chairs
Lynda Applegate, Pr. Harvard University and Patrick Besson, Pr. ESCP-EAP and Melbourne Business School (visiting)

CIGREF President's commitment

Download the CIGREF President's commitment (2004)

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