It's time to innovate. It's time for IT.
In tougher business times you need three things: Highly skilled people, innovative thinking and the ability to execute quickly. -Barbara Giamanco
Conditions are ripe for innovation and IT is ready to step up. Technology has always been the tool to use during challenging times, enabling organizations to thrive with less and work smarter. And now, more than ever, IT proves its value through innovation. The 27th Annual ICE Conference brings together inspiring speakers, connects IT professionals with innovative solutions and educates everyone from ground troops to Chief Information Officers on how to better serve today's world using IT.
As always, the slate of keynote speakers is impressive, and is backed by dozens of high quality speakers from our own backyard and around the continent, sharing their expertise on the latest topics and trends. Local hero Jonathan Schaeffer kicks off the conference sharing how his own innovations in AI led to a computer winning at checkers. Bell's Justin Webb talks about the next big show- the 2010 Olympics- and how IT is making it work. And the always outspoken tech observer John C. Dvorak tells us his- uncensored- thoughts on the latest and greatest ideas.
The program is supported by a number of opportunities to learn from others as ICE itself innovates with new ideas. We're crowdsourcing topics for our annual panel (email us your ideas- see the Contact Us section). We're hosting a networking lunch that capitalizes on the grand Edmonton tradition of using the grassroots to build on a community. And we've invited the next generation of big thinkers to be a part of the tradition of ICE with our Monday night program, featuring an inspiring keynote presentation on exploting chaos by Jeremy Gutsche of trendhunters.com. The keynote leads into a special event we're calling Start Me Up. We've partnered with the start up community to offer innovators a platform to demonstrate their new ideas and collect feedback, inspiration and support from the wider IT community. Start Me Up (which is an open and free event) provides an excellent forum for innovation to grow.
And like so many organizations, we're recognizing that IT and green go hand in hand. Bill St. Arnaud kicks off Wednesday's program with his thoughts on how IT can tackle challenges around climate change. For our part, we've gone paperless with our programs and will be using technology to fill the gap. Use our fresh new website to learn all you need to know about ICE 2009. While at the conference, upload the presentation you've just heard at the stations in the Bell Cafe.
Bring your own ideas to ICE 2009 and use the conference and its connections as your personal springboard to innovation. We'll see you there.
