05-13-13 | Blog Post
The 2013 Midwest Technology Leaders Symposium starts in a week, so if you haven’t gotten yourself registered yet, you still have a little time to get yourself on the list. This symposium is the chance to hear from some of the most successful CIOs in the Midwest.
Speaker Niel Nickolaisen, the CIO of Western Governers University is going to be detailing some IT best practices that leaders can implement to determine what objectives to focus on, and how to boost their IT performance to give their customers the best possible customer service. This talk is going to be chock-full of case-studies, true to life examples, and executable processes that can help revitalize your IT department.
Adriana Karaboutis, VP and Global CIO for Dell, is also going to be at the symposium. Her talk, The CIO as Innovator: How to Create True Business Value, is going to give some insight into how she translated her position at Dell by focusing on agility and innovation. This should be really informative for any CIOs looking to meet their goals and create value that can be felt by the entire business.
Another CIO you can hear at the conference (and one I’m particularly excited to hear from) is David Behen, CIO of the State of Michigan. Back in February we heard David Behen speak at Eastern Michigan University about some of the IT initiatives currently planned or implemented within the state.
He explained that the state of Michigan is focused on improving four key areas:
Behen was also quoted as saying that “the state of Michigan is the ideal place for data centers.”
He’s right, too. Michigan has one of the lowest incidences of natural disasters in the united states (second only to Alaska). Also, Michigan has milder summers and colder winters than other parts of the country. The ability to cool your data center with less power, coupled with the generally lower cost of electricity means your data center isn’t going to break the bank the way it may in other states.
The symposium will be held at The Inn at St. John’s in Detroit on May 21-22. If you’re going to be there, don’t forget to come say hello to us. We’ll be exhibiting our extensive range of hosting solutions. Whether it’s colo, compliance, or cloud, we’ve got the hosting service you need for your mission critical applications.
Resources and Other Reading:
Midwest Technology Leaders Detroit 2013
Choosing Your Data Center Location: Why Michigan?
Michigan – The Next Cool Thing for Data Centers
