CIO 100 Leadership Live Chicago: IT Leadership & Innovation
The Leadership Forum for Today’s CIOs - and Tomorrow’s
Time is ticking to register for the Windy City!
ONE COMMUNITY. EVERY STAGE OF THE CIO JOURNEY
Whether you’re already in the CIO role, preparing for it, or leading a critical area of enterprise technology, you’ll join the same community shaping the future of IT leadership across the Midwest.
CIO 100 Leadership Live Chicago is where established leaders share lessons learned, emerging leaders build relationships, and the region’s technology community comes together to work through the issues defining enterprise IT now. As AI adoption accelerates, that includes some of the toughest questions facing technology leaders today: how to innovate responsibly, strengthen governance, build trust, and determine where speed should give way to greater oversight.
Join the Midwest’s technology leadership community, Registration is OPEN for October 13th.
What to Expect:
• Peer-led conversations
• Highly interactive sessions
• Executive roundtables
• Networking with Chicago’s technology leadership community
Why CIO 100 LEADERSHIP LIVE IS DIFFERENT
Most conferences are built around presentations. Leadership Live is built around conversations.
Instead of sitting through slide-heavy sessions, you’ll spend the day engaging with senior technology leaders who are actively leading change inside their organizations today.
Every session is designed for participation. Every moderator is an experienced technology journalist. Every speaker is selected because they’re doing the work, and sharing lessons learned from the front lines.
What Makes CIO 100 Leadership Live Different:
• Editorially curated content
• Conversations instead of presentations
• Practitioners instead of keynote celebrities
• Audience participation built into every session
• Editorial moderation that drives meaningful discussion
• A regional community of technology leaders
Discover actionable leadership insights from influential voices in IT.
Featured Speakers
You will leave CIO 100 Leadership Live Chicago with:
- Practical insights you can bring back to your organization and put into action.
- New perspectives on AI, transformation, leadership, security and the evolving role of the CIO.
- Connections with technology leaders facing similar challenges, priorities and opportunities.
- Ideas, examples and peer experiences to help inform your next decisions.
- A stronger network of CIOs and senior technology leaders from across the Midwest and beyond.
CIO 100 Leadership Live Chicago brings together CIOs and senior technology leaders for candid conversations, practical insights and meaningful peer connections.
Bring your team and join us on October 13, 2026 at Convene, 311 W Monroe, Chicago.
Who Should Attend?
Designed for executives leading enterprise technology strategy, including:
- CIOs, CTOs, CISOs & Senior technology executives driving business transformation and innovation
- Enterprise architecture, infrastructure, data, and platform leaders
- Next-generation CIO candidates and emerging technology executives
Topics on the Agenda Include:
CIO 100 Leadership Live Chicago will explore the technology, leadership, and business priorities shaping enterprise IT today, including:
- Turning agentic AI from vision into measurable outcomes
- Leading enterprise transformation in an AI-driven environment
- Balancing AI innovation with trust, governance, and responsible deployment
- The venture capital perspective on emerging technology and innovation
- Strengthening data governance for an AI-enabled organization
- Building the next generation of AI-ready cloud environments
- Developing the leadership skills needed for the next stage of your career
- CIO 100 Innovation Showcase featuring award-winning initiatives and real-world results
Discover actionable insights from CIO 100 Award winners, Hall of Fame CIOs, and industry leaders navigating enterprise AI, responsible adoption, trust and governance, data modernization, cloud strategy, and organizational transformation.
Boost your career trajectory through elevated programming designed to support rising IT executives, including exclusive Next CIO content for emerging leaders and practical guidance for your IT modernization roadmap.
Unlock the capabilities, strategic vision, and future-ready skills you need to lead with confidence in 2026 and beyond through advanced
IT strategy, emerging technology insights, and proven approaches to enterprise innovation.
Connect with peers and mentors in meaningful ways, building a powerful network that strengthens your leadership journey and expands your community of technology executives.
CIO 100 2027 Nominations Are Now Open
Call for nominations for CIO 100 Awards 2027 Open
The CIO 100 Awards celebrates 100 organizations and the teams within them that are using IT in innovative ways to deliver business value, whether by creating competitive advantage, optimizing business processes, enabling growth or improving relationships with customers.
Call for nominations for CIO 100 Hall of Fame 2027 Open
The CIO Hall of Fame is a prestigious leadership award that recognizes exceptional achievement in information technology management. This honor celebrates current CIOs (or other C-level technology executives) with a proven track record of 10-15 years in the role, leading IT strategy in midsize to large enterprises.
Call for nominations for Next CIO 2027 are open
Next CIO is a year-round leadership initiative designed to identify and celebrate high-potential technology professionals on the path toward senior executive roles such as CIO, CTO, or CDO.