2011 InformationWeek 500 Conference Announces Details of 'The Need for Speed'

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- InformationWeek 500 Conference announced the speakers and presenters for its annual executive event, taking place September 11-13, at the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Southern California.  The conference will highlight how leading-edge organizations are delivering technology-based innovations faster than ever before – allowing their enterprises to manage cash more effectively, invest more wisely, delight customers more consistently, and manage risk more profitably.

The conference features a range of keynote, panel, and workshop sessions, including:

• "Developing People and Processes to Work At the Speed of Global Business" Features Sir Ken Robinson PhD, a renowned leader in the development of education and innovation who works with Fortune 500 companies, governments, and agencies worldwide. Sir Ken speaks with extraordinary passion, precision, and wit on how business and society must stimulate more original ideas, creativity, and ultimately innovation in this constantly changing global economy.  His book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (2009) is a New York Times bestseller. Sir Ken's latest book is a 10th anniversary edition of his classic work on creativity and innovation, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative.
• "Keynote Interview with Hewlett-Packard CEO Leo Apotheker"  InformationWeek sits down with the CEO of the biggest company in technology and talks with him about the latest trends and challenges, including cloud computing, Big Data, industry consolidation, and the consumerization of IT.  And we'll learn if HP and its customers are delivering on our conference theme: The Need For Speed.
• "Keynote Interview with FedEx CIO Rob Carter on the New Era of 'Dominant Design'" For CIOs to deliver results faster, they need an IT infrastructure that can adapt as quickly as business needs change. That's what FedEx is building. With cloud computing, virtualization, and technology commoditization, IT architecture has reached a "thrilling stage," says Rob Carter, FedEx's CIO since 2000 and an IT veteran of 30 years. Carter calls it the era of 'dominant design,' where interconnected, industry standard servers, networks, and storage give IT more flexibility than it has ever had to shift workloads with business demand, slashing time to market and cost.
• "Anatomy of a Zero-Day Attack" How do companies respond to a highly sophisticated attack on its IT infrastructure? The IT team at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was forced into action earlier this year when an advanced persistent threat compromised its network, causing the lab to take a series of emergency steps to both recover from the attack and ward off future ones. In this session, PNNL's CIO Jerry Johnson shares an insider's perspective on how the exploit unfolded and lessons learned that can be applied by other organizations.

"If there's one common thread we're hearing in our discussions with CIOs, it's the tremendous pressure they're under to deliver technology projects and programs faster, in order to support and drive business growth," said Rob Preston, VP and editor in chief of InformationWeek.  "A range of technologies and technology approaches feed into this greater 'need for speed,' everything from cloud computing to mobility to social networking to agile software development."  

Additional Conference speakers include:

• Jared Anderson, Senior Manager, Customer Experience Research, Best Buy
• Torsten Buhrke, Director of Corporate Planning, Kia Motors
• Mike Cuddy, VP and CIO, Toromont Industries
• Lars Dalgaard, Founder and CEO, SuccessFactors
• Abha Kumar, Principal, Vanguard Group
• Kent Kushar, VP and CIO, E&J Gallo Winery  
• Jason Maynard, Managing Director, Wells Fargo Securities
• Steve Phillpott, CIO, Amylin Pharmaceuticals
• Bill Schlough, CIO, World Series Champion San Francisco Giants
• Larry Stofko, Senior VP and CIO, St. Joseph Health System
• Robert Urwiler, Executive VP and CIO, Vail Resorts
• Sean Valcamp, Director of Architecture and Security, Avnet

For more information, go to: www.informationweekconference.com.

For more than two decades, the InformationWeek 500 Conference has celebrated the 500 most innovative users of business technology.  Past overall winners include CME Group, National Semiconductor, Con-way, and Principal Financial Group.  

This year's InformationWeek 500 Conference is sponsored by: Cognizant; Dell, Inc.; HCL; IBM; Information Builders; Microsoft; Rimini Street, Inc.; Riverbed; SuccessFactors; Syniverse; VMware; Vidyo;  Workday.

Attendance at the InformationWeek 500 Conference is limited to maintain an intimate setting and foster dialog among executive participants.  General attendee registration can be found online; only qualified registrants will be accepted.  Media credentials are also extended by request; interested media should contact Winnie Ng-Schuchman.

For more information, contact:
Winnie Ng-Schuchman
VP of Marketing
InformationWeek Business Technology Network
631-406-6507
wng@techweb.com

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