At first, I was disappointed that a variety of work projects prevented me from making it to the annual Peer Forum hosted by the CIO Association of Canada. It’s usually one of the highlights of my year, providing me with contacts and stories for many months that follow. It’s one of the only events of its kind designed by its own audience. Plus, this year it was in Vancouver, which is always a great place to visit.
Now that it’s over, though, I feel like I was given a play-by-play commentary on the proceedings by several attendees via social media. Of course, live-tweeting at events isn’t new, but it’s very rare to see a group of CIOs in what looked like a race to out-tweet each other with insights from the keynotes and breakout sessions. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many IT leaders sharing their experience on social media in real-time before. Here’s just a sample of what caught my eye.
There were some overall comments on the business of leadership:
Leadership is less about command and control, and more about adapting and being agile. @scadigan #CIOPF2015
— CIOCAN (@CIO_CAN) April 14, 2015
Predators don't partner with food. Be the predator not food. WORK with leaders in your organization Be their partner #CIOPF2015 #TheWolfCIO
— Mussawar Choudhry (@i_am_MC_Squared) April 15, 2015
https://twitter.com/AlexBuhlerS/status/588104098668380160
Some good advice on stick-handling other members of the C-suite:
#CIOPF2015 Michael Parent said that you must avoid board members going into "screen-saver" mode when the CIO talks to the Board.
— Catherine Boivie (@cboivie) April 15, 2015
No one buys a house because it has cool plumbing. Don’t “sell” IT projects based on how efficient your infrastructure is. #CIOPF2015
— Stephen Lamb (@SEE_EYE_OH) April 14, 2015
And of course, an ongoing look at innovation:
IT can't innovate by itself. It is in conjunction with other business capabilities when results occur #CIOPF2015 pic.twitter.com/WdAkfPUS4g
— Tim Fernihough (@timfernihough) April 15, 2015
There was a lot more, and many of them can be found in the Twitter feed that’s embed on the CIOCAN Web site. Think of it as a scrapbook put together by the association’s members of what sounded like a great conference — and a great way to make the business case for not missing out next year.