What to Expect at CDW’s Executive Summit: Building a Strategic Tech Vision

The event promises to give IT leaders strategies for agility, security, the Internet of Things, and AI data governance.

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Lily is a Senior Editor at BizTech Magazine. She follows tech trends, thought leadership and data analytics.

AI adoption is booming — but success hinges on a clear, defined tech strategy.

According to an IBM report, “executives project their IT budget dedicated to AI spend will increase by 19% over the next year, but spending on AI outside of the IT budget is expected to surge 52%.”

Once the investments are made, IT leaders need to fold artificial intelligence “across supply chains, manufacturing, distribution, finance, and compliance,” the report notes.

But what does an AI-centric enterprise really look like? And what are the keys to building an innovative, efficient and secure digital strategy?

IT experts and decision-makers will gather in Chicago, April 1-3, for the “CDW Executive SummIT: Empowering Your Organization with a Strategic Tech Vision” to discuss this topic. Here’s what you can expect from the event:

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Experts Offer a Roadmap for Innovating With Intention

IT leaders have a core dilemma right now: How can they support fast innovation while mitigating risk? Experts say the answer comes down to being intentional with the most targeted applications of AI that will yield maximum results.

CDW’s Aletha Noonan, senior vice president of commercial sales, and Katie Rice, senior vice president of infrastructure and workplace services for Donnelley Financial Solutions, will lay the groundwork on keeping data secure while pursuing ROI with AI adoption.

CDW security experts Gary McIntyre, managing director of cyber defense, Pete Johnson, head of artificial intelligence, and Rex Washburn, chief architect and head of modern data platforms, will also share new approaches to cyber resilience.

Conor Waddell, senior vice president of integrated technology solutions at CDW, will show how businesses can use AI to achieve the frictionless enterprise that users and employees now expect.

Conference attendees will also learn how to rightsize their investments in infrastructure, security, the Internet of Things, and platform engineering in sessions with Microsoft’s Rishan Barat, general manager of corporate and partner sales; Crowdstrike’s Todd Felker, executive strategist; Nutanix’s Dan Angst, director and segment leader of unified storage, network and security; Cisco’s Dave Abbott, security engineering leader; and CDW’s Jill Klein, head of emerging technology and IoT.

Experts will also cover emerging trends and use cases in agentic AI; platform engineering; and SecOps, IoT and cyber resilience.

19%

The percentage increase that executives project in the next year on AI initiatives

Source: IBM, "Embedding AI In Your Brand’s DNA," Insights Report, 2024

Preparing for What Enterprise AI Looks Like

SummIT attendees will also have a chance to network and learn what it’s like to architect an AI-centric enterprise in the “digital economy” and “Intelligent Age” (also known as the fourth industrial revolution, as described by the World Economic Forum).

Businesses will discover what they need “to fully harness AI”; notably, “computing power, requisite energy sources, and large language models and other machine learning and reasoning tools.”

Experts such as Dell Technologies’ Ryan Shullaw, vice president of Americas presales, NetApp’s Keith Norbie, worldwide partner solutions, and Jamf’s Kat Garbis, solution architect, will also share their lessons learned from incorporating AI into existing IT platforms and how current and emerging technologies should ideally intersect.

Plus, powerful outcomes and anecdotes: Justin Stahl, vice president of IT for the Chicago Bears, will share how the team used AI and predictive analytics to achieve game-winning success. “We now have the ability to tell how open a wide receiver was at one-tenth of a second when the ball was released from the quarterback. That's powerful data in terms of evaluating players, evaluating opponents and scouting,” Stahl tells BizTech magazine.

Then there’s the matter of how a strategic tech vision translates in theory to the workforce; sometimes the shift is disruptive and counter to what employees expect. To this end, experts will share the many ways AI is “fundamentally altering how we communicate,” and why effective change management depends on “addressing the human side of transformation.”

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