Global CIO Summit: Insights From 12 World-Class CIOsGlobal CIO Summit: Insights From 12 World-Class CIOs

On Wednesday, July 29, information's Global CIO will bring to your computer more than a dozen of the world's top CIOs and business technology specialists to discuss and debate the most challenging issues they're facing in a global economy that, while troubled, still requires relentless innovation, business focus, and competitive breakthroughs.

Called "The Global CIO Summit: Driving Business Value And Customer Value In The Global Economy," this daylong online-only virtual event will offer huge insights into how a dozen of the world's top CIOs are outflanking their competitors in these areas:

• Giving their companies the ability to design, source, build, market, sell, and support products around the globe and around the clock.

• Offering their customers an expanding set of options for engaging with those companies on product ideas, self-service approaches, and customized experiences.

• Leading IT teams that must balance the need to control costs with the equally powerful need to continue to find new and better ways to help increase revenue, find new customers, reduce cycle times, and optimize business processes.

As you saw above in the title for the event, we'll focus on three core themes that are inextricably connected in today's environment: business value, customer value, and the global economy. More than even before, business technology is becoming the tool that allows companies to pull those three approaches together by letting customers engage more directly and more intimately with the businesses from which they purchase, no matter where in the world those buyers and sellers happen to be located. Interested? You can register here.

And we've brought together a superb set of CIOs and other thought leaders from around the world to share their ideas for how they're making that happen in their companies: keynoter Ralph Szygenda, corporate CIO at General Motors; Ramon Baez, CIO at Kimberly-Clark; Jody Davids, executive VP of shared services and CIO at Cardinal Health; Christiaan De Backer, CIO at TomTom; Peter Hinssen, author of Business/IT Fusion; Andrew McAfee, associate professor at Harvard Business School; Jai Menon, CIO of Bharti Enterprises; Patty Morrison, former executive VP and CIO at Motorola; Steve Phillips, CIO at Avnet; JP Rangaswami, managing director of strategy and innovation at BT; Toby Redshaw, global CIO at Aviva; and Manjit Singh, CIO at Chiquita Brands. For full speaker information, click here.

Global CIOs: A Site Just For You Visit information's Global CIO -- our new online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy.

And here are the featured sessions from our daylong, online event :

• Ralph Szygenda's keynote discussion of how he and his team at GM have developed and executed the concept of "Precision IT" that's driven by standardization, simplification, and collaboration.

• "CIOs And Productivity: How Social Media Motivates And Inspires Innovation."

• "Should Global CIOs Help Drive The Business, Or Align With The Business?"• "The Global CIO's Strategic Role In The Market And In The Boardroom." Sessions led by our sponsors.

For the full agenda, click here. While it might be appealing to think about just keeping our heads down for a while and focusing on cost-cutting until the economy improves, today's Global CIOs are instead helping transform their organizations into externally focused and global enterprises that enhance business value by first enhancing customer value. Please join us on July 29 and share in the discussion.