For those of you who don't know, I chair the City CIO Club, a private group for CIOs, CTOs and senior technology leaders working in and around the City of London.
We started it over lockdown to keep on top of what was happening to tech decisions in companies and it has grown into a full programme of dinners, webinars and a community that spans some of the largest technology operations in Europe.
Most CIOs would admit, it's not a pretty job. They get balled at for not driving productivity when Big IT vendors lock organisations into punishing contracts they can't get out of.
The CIO's job is part financial, operational, HR, technology of course - but highly strategic. Companies can live and die by the CIO's decisions.
The club is deliberately cross-industry. Our requisition is that people have not only good credentials, but kind character and the willingness to help others.
We have technology leaders from banking, insurance, asset management, legal and professional services. Also retail, airlines, automotive, telco and engineering.
The most useful conversations happen when people see things from new perspectives.
The club's next dinner is on Wednesday 22 April, where Azeem Akhtar, CTO of BT Global Services, will be speaking on AI return on investment: the gap between what organisations are spending on AI and what they are actually getting back.
The full programme runs from February through to November, with one dinner or breakfast workshop and one webinar each month, each on a single topic, under Chatham House rules. Dinners are held at some of the City's finest private venues. We have a Christmas party and summer drinks event.
Breakfast Workshops and Dinners
- April: AI ROI: Separating Returns from Rhetoric (Azeem Akhtar, CTO, BT Global Services)
- May: Stablecoin Rails: Infrastructure Beneath Digital Finance
- June: Data Sovereignty and GPU Crunch
- July: The Talent Reset: Engineering, AI Skills and the Future of Outsourcing
- September: Regulation, Resilience and the CIO's Seat at the Board Table
- October: The Data Centre Energy Crisis: Power, Risk and Innovation
- November: Annual Dinner (supporting The Brokerage)
Webinars
- March: Low-Hanging Fruit: The Cost Takeout Advantage from Alternatives to Big IT
- April: Technical Debt: The Silent Budget Killer
- May: Cyber Insurance and the CISO Accountability Gap
- June: AI-Driven Cyber Threats and New Defence Architecture
- July: Cloud Cost Reality: FinOps, Repatriation and the Multi-Cloud Mess
- September: Legacy Modernisation: Kill, Keep, or Transform
Plus: Summer Drinks in July
Partners are of course involved, but the rules are strict. There are no sales pitches, no vendor presentations and no sponsored content.
Alongside our events, the club is committed to four areas of social impact: social mobility, AI responsibility, climate and mental health.
Membership includes access to The Requisition, an executive request network that features CXO, NED and advisory roles, along with The Executive Summary research and communities.
If you are a CIO or CTO and this sounds like your kind of room, the full programme is at citycio.co. It is by invitation and application and the calibre and kindness of the people around the table is what makes it work.
If you have any question, please let me know.
Dan