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SIM Chapter Leader SummitThe Ritz-Carlton, Denver, CO

April 26-27, 2013

TABLE TOPICS: KEY QUESTIONS

What is your top chapter leader issue?- Developing a pool of leaders and refreshing regularly (gives energy).- Diversity of the leaders - can't all be practitioners, need to be connected.- Membership. Ebbs and flows. Retaining existing members. - Strong programs, venues, speakers.- Attracting Senior CIOs with good reputations to attend. - SIM National to do more marketing to CIOs to get our name out there. - Discounted speakers. - Need to get the word out about who SIM is. - Protect the brand - make sure you get the right participants - people active, engaged, giving back.

CIOs and direct reports. - Local membership drive. Tour of member location and hold membership drive there (Fender Guitar

in Phoenix). - Getting more involved. Most chapters, a few people do most of the work. How do you solve it?- Find work for people. Committees, sub-committees, opening up board meetings to the entire

membership to get the flavor.- Someone to recruit and grow the membership. This person should be fantastic at recruiting. Quid pro

quo yes, you're recruiting for SIM, but also creating your own connections.- Value proposition?

What do you do about students coming to Chapter meetings?- For the most part, SIM doesn't have students at chapter meetings. We need good outreach because

they are the future of IT. - Memphis has done an excellent job at student outreach and students do participate in their chapter.

o First outreach was scholarship. Scholarship recipients are invited to attend. o Mentoring program and mentees are invited to attend. They are not members. o Students are involved in day long strategy series. o Students are involved as interns. o Outreach to girls schools, STEM efforts. o Shadowing - executive member matches them up with someone that they shadow. o Members go to schools to educate students on what an IT professional does. o Have given money to a music school in a depressed area to allow them to use technology to

produce music. o We need their energy and thoughts. Ask them what they want.

- Philadelphia - scholarships and STEM. - NJ - one meeting a year in conjunction with academic institutions, scholarship given.- St. Louis - scholarships given, faculty bring students to meeting. - Alabama - students attend meetings to provide input on what makes business environment attractive

to them. - Colorado - hasn't done much yet, have a lot of students interested in entrepreneurship.

How to engage members to be more active?- Don't have enough volunteers. Not enough leadership coming through the ranks. Not enough

younger generation members.- Trying to do too much. The problem is three-fold.- Options - focusing on select programs, encouraging more networking, engaging folks easier, thereby

increasing attendance. - The biggest question is “How do you motivate people?”

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April 26-27, 2013

- Demographics - how do we get people involved? Virtual? Open environment? Encourage active engagement, move toward the virtual state. Encourage online participation. Encourage communication across the board.

- Boston has tried to focus on current members. Making sure they're engaged and finding value from the chapter.

- Personal phone calls to members who are less active.- Changing days and times and maybe even locations.- Changing the format of the meeting.- Survey the membership to get their opinions.- Meeting on a college campus, no sit down dinner, more networking time (all suggestions that came

out of survey).- Affinity groups - allowing folks with a shared interest to break off into smaller groups.- Buddy system - new members.- Badge labels for new members.- New member reception night (once a night, free admission, once a year for all new members)- Criticism - Boston can seem like an insiders club. It can be intimidating and difficult for new people.- Pitch Night - not a sales thing, but a 10 minute sales presentation from local businesses.- Golf and non-golf related events - or something.- Co-sponsoring and joining up with other local IT groups.- Email lists - value between meetings and face-to-face events.- Fairfield paid a company to do a branding session.- Engagement with the group.- Fairfield has a program called Mentoring Circles (smaller meetings held outside their larger

meetings, sub-groups led by senior people, gets people engaged, helped with retention. They have an entire set of documents and would be happy to circulate that information (Greg Fell).

What is the secret sauce for a successful chapter?- Combination of program and membership - networking time, dinner, program (panel, presentation,

group discussion);- The right people willing to be engaged. - Vendor ratio (Denver at 15%) - have the right vendors there that can have conversations and not in

sell mode. MITs have been a challenge, also in sell mode. Denver has a tight labor market. - Leadership. Need for a strong board.- Strong local brand. - Community involvement through scholarships and other programs. - Engagement - active involvement in events. - Connected - able to recruit. Strong programs. - Good venue for holding programs. - Timing of events. - Good prospect list. - Good services to members. - Mentoring, networking outreach. - Ability to tap into national and the help it provides.- The programs. Actual take-aways.- Have to have enough involvement to allow good networking. - Diversity among membership, boards. - Find right balance in communication methods to appeal to all generations.

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April 26-27, 2013

MEMBERSHIP PANELPat Randall (Facilitator)Susan Caldwell (Memphis) Ed Galloway (RTP) DJ Wardynski (Colorado) Gene Janiszewski (Houston)

Colorado- Membership growth is a combination of all tactics. Denver has been successful.- Membership drive meeting (less formal).- Rockies game - rent a suite - promotional thing - come and meet your peers. Funded by a small

sponsor, but tickets are about $40 more than their regular chapter meeting ticket.- A little bit of an investment, but well worth it.- ALL members are ambassadors.- Those actively participating are most likely to renew.- Goal is participation. It will result in growth.

Houston- Great retention, concentrating on growth too. Goal this year was 150 members. Currently at 125.- Houston has a lot of energy companies.- Promotion to get more than one person per company. Attracting companies by providing discount

(chapter and national).- From a vendor standpoint, 85-15% (bring in 4 CIOs and you can apply as a vendor).- Touching and cold calling for renewals. Reached out to new and renewing members.- Programs, marketing, membership.- Question: any market penetration studies? Houston got a list of over 1500 potential members.

Market SIM as an exclusive organization which helps. Houston has competition with other Texas cities but SHOULD have many members (there is enough potential).

- Any vendor members should be able to provide lists. They have relationships with those people already.

- Members that are in transition do really take advantage of the Yahoo group.- Having a good solid board is key.- All members are invited to board meetings. - Programs, marketing have a big impact. - Headquarters is doing a great job helping with membership and most of the chapters are now having

membership run through YM. - Having social events for women members (SIM Women is partnering with PEM to hold SIM Women

event at their CIO Forums). - SIM has a lot to offer. Safe networking and sharing environment. Utilize recruiters as membership

chairs.

Memphis- Looks at companies and industries in area. Have a top targets list and target those people that they

are lacking (FedEx was missing; now they're members). - They have two membership co-chairs (one CIO is a co-chair. She makes the initial contact, then the

two chairs take the potential member out and give them the spiel).- Have an advisory committee of top CIOs who help with Strategy Series (they promote it among their

people).- Do the same thing with vendors. Panel with advisory.- Tracking participation and following up with those that aren't. - Retention starts the first day they join.

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April 26-27, 2013

- Successful in recruiting women (30%). Programs that appeal to women. Girls outreach, new women members as a result.

- Other organizations competing for SIM membership. SIM is cross-industry, cross-demographic. - Memphis is also considering doing a women's breakfast, lunch or social events. - The most important thing you can do is make new members feel welcome. - Retention is key to growth.- Members moving to other chapters should be welcomed by the new chapter. -

RTP- Relatively new chapter, so their story is a little different.- Holiday party, January kick-off event, and Philanthropy are key to their success (encourage members

to bring bosses, direct reports, etc.).- All their affiliations with local groups help get their name out.- 68 members, up against the 90 from last year. - Ed (President) has been covering membership while they look for a replacement. Eye-opening, but

has received tremendous help from SIM HQ.- 10/10 program. 10% growth, not more than 10% attrition. Need to manage parameters and have

strategic discussions at a board level about why we are not meeting our metrics. - Programs are key. Establish environment where people leave the room with a take away.- Promote the importance of guests at meeting. Take every opportunity to have prospects at your

meeting. Why encourage guests at every one of your meetings?o SIMposium is coming up. Offer two free tickets to SIMposium for chapter membership

"Recruiters of the Year."o Social Media - local branding, getting the name out.o Finally listening to Boston Chapter by recruiting a search professional to fill the membership

chair role.o Target RLF grads (many of them are more senior people to begin with and are already - or

will soon be - qualified members. There are 42,000 RLF graduates that chapters should be contacting. Waiting 2 years after graduation is ideal (they need time to soak it all in and apply what they've learned).

Question: Have any chapters realigned membership best practices? Memphis has a rule: once a member, always a member. As we age and look at what we need to do with membership, things will change.

Other items of note: SIMposium has a reciprocity agreement with WITI. We will have a booth at their conference and vice

versa. 25% of IT professionals are women. 10-11% is executive level. Outreach to universities - Dallas is starting a group for CIOs of universities.

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April 26-27, 2013

TABLE TOPICS: MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Why do we need a Marketing VP?

- Fill the void of following up with visitors- Social media: Communication with prospects- Focus on vendor with marketing experiences – someone who thinks like a salesperson- Attracting new members, once a warm lead hands off to membership- Relationship to press- Needs FOCUS- Marketing is important- Needed for promotion- Someone needs to own things- To get people in chapter to attend meetings (internal)- To get new members (internal)- Consistent message with all communications- Do PR function (get press)- One chapter’s secretary does all their communications- To manage web presence (LinkedIn, Evites, etc.)- Can focus on the messages that SIMI and chapters have (it can be too much)- If marketing is successful, easier to get sponsors- To advertise golf events which are big fundraisers- Marketing services from national organization would help chapters with creating the message in a

way that would be acceptable for press releases.- The Marketing Chair is a very relevant position and the responsibilities are above and beyond one

individual.o Chapter Marketing Chairs do not have the time to develop PR firm relationships AND craft

the message, along with other forms of communication.o National could also develop the needed relationships with PR firms to ensure distribution

with a centralized message.

“What’s in it for me?” Calls

- Attendance o Need to get the word out more effectivelyo Timing is difficulto Wrong medium! (Webinar)o Round-robin the call leadershipo Minimal participation goes back to federated/confederated (not really sure how much

coordination is needed)-

National needs real marketing (example: golf outing best practices)- Need actionable takeaways- Topics should be announced in advance- Discussion of ideas- Maintain focus on marketing

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- No perceived value (not clearly communicated)- Unclear purpose of content topics- Message needs to be succinct and specific- Need to evaluate chapter marketing efforts- Timing of meetings needs to be flexible

How can you leverage CIO Summits to generate revenue and increase membership? SIM as a business.

- Get qualified candidates- Invite to future meetings- Fee for branding- Have a booth at an event- CIO Summits – follow-up, follow-up, follow-up- Fairfield/Westchester gets ~$25k/year from HMG- Dallas-Fort Worth uses HMG- Las Vegas uses EFM- Austin uses EFM/InnoTech- Alabama uses none

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April 26-27, 2013

BREAKOUT SESSION: Members-In-TransitionJeff Skulsky, Facilitator

Comments & Questions- SoCal is newer, but they do have an MIT representative. Will join the monthly call.- Marketing materials for the chapters to brand their own MIT programs is the most valuable benefit

so far.- Kevin Sauer suggests engaging the chapter reps to help get the inactive chapters active. - Minnesota has a program but we don't have a representative.- Important to have executive search professionals within the MIT chapter leadership group.- Add a custom field for search professionals to identify themselves.- Alabama does not have an MIT program but would like Jeff to contact them (Shane Kilgore).- Idea for a future program: SIM members coaching other SIM members (free of charge).- Need more visibility and communication about the program.

BREAKOUT SESSION: Chapter Development/Chapter RelationsAndrew Jackson, Facilitator

Where should we establish chapters? Have to have core group of interested volunteers. Need strong kick-off event/meeting. All of the

conference producers have offered to help (can hold an event in area with several passionate at-large members).

Interest already expressed in: o Mumbai o Sacramentoo San Francisco Bay Areao Richmond o Upstate NYo Louisville o Kansas Cityo At Large Virtual

Ideas for attendees:o Little Rock, Arkansas - EFM just had a 150 person event thereo San Antonioo Des Moineso Boiseo Cincinnati/Daytono Northeast Arkansas (instead of Little Rock)o Grand Rapidso New Orleanso Oklahoma Cityo More international presence -

Germany (APC brings in int'l experts) Mexico City Montreal Vancouver Calgary Taiwan Hong Kong

Target markets o Fortune 500 Headquarters locations

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April 26-27, 2013

o RLF graduate locationso Leverage academic community to grow new chapters

Sister cities to help new chapters get started (i.e. Chapter mentors), Satellite sub-chapters How do we get the chapters that don't participate to attend Summit

Where do you have expertise and what do you need with regard to playbooks? Speaker ideas/database - sharing across chapters.

o Trying to get SIMposium speakers to offer deal to chapters. Put legend in program to indicate if they are willing to speak at chapters.

o CIO Magazine has a speakers bureau that you can sign up for. o Gather: Speaker contact info, fee/travel, rating, topics, chapters spoken at, credentials (book, etc.),

links to talks, service area Forming alliances/partnerships (Phoenix could give input) Outreach to academics Membership Drives (e.g. Phoenix) Strategic planning Communications/Publications/Social Media Forming Foundations Bylaws Membership/meeting pricing breakdown Member analytics Retention Member engagement Membership criteria for each chapter Marketing Mentoring Program (Fairfield Westchester - Greg) Leveraging vendor contacts Board transition playbook

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April 26-27, 2013

STRATEGY BREAKOUT: COMMUNICATION PLAN

Themes- Communication is one of SIM's biggest challenges- Stand back, determine what our problem is and come up with the solutions.- Quality of information: Lots of emails but too much communication over the same channel.- How efficient are we?- Snail mail might be a good option since no one is really mailing anything anymore.

o If you got something in the mail from SIM, you might actually read it.- Some feel under-communicated to - not in volume, but in actual relevant content.- What can we improve in the way we communicate to be more succinct?

o Website can be confusingo LinkedIn (five pages of SIM LinkedIn groups totaling 650,000 people)o Choose the appropriate medium by each piece of contento Multiple distribution panel (email AND LinkedIn AND Twitter AND Wiki AND the website)

- How do we adapt and leverage as opposed to how do we control and stop? o If an RLF graduate starts their own SIM RLF blog, we can't eradicate it so we should leverage

it.

What can we improve, how can we improve it, and who should improve it?- SIMnet

o Central/local model- Communication to Chapters

o What’s out there?o Chapter Leader LinkedIn group is underutilized

- Knowledge Base/Collaboration:o How can we share information with each other (chapters)?o Speakers Databaseo How do you accomplish this or that?o Meetings in other chapters that people could drop in ono Collaborative workspaces for Chapter Leaders - need more awarenesso More collaboration for members with similar industry-specific experienceo Need formalized on-boarding process

- Communication/Prospects - leverage community.- National/Chapters – we’re all using different tools- Get everyone actually signed up for all the different tools (LinkedIn, email distributions, etc.). The

board should all be tied in. - Analytics - how do we know who is engaging and how? SEO is important. Don't know if prospects are

finding our site.- Email Communication Complexity – members should be able to opt-in or opt-out of different types of

emails (SIMposium, Working Groups, Programs, etc.)o Catalog, index, hashtags, filters, etc.

- National to the end-user (monthly, concise email)- National to the board (someone from national attend a board meeting - even via conference call)- Communication between the local chapters and the members. Many chapters using Constant Contact.- Suggestion: National purchases a subscription to communications tool and chapters take advantage

of it.- Too much information from SIMI to Chapters- Media- Audience

o Need an overall audience strategy

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April 26-27, 2013

o Need to recognize the value of targeting different audienceso Need to segment (not doing this well)o Define channels and messaging

- We are not measuring results of our communicationo Metrics to evaluate success of communicationo Twitter (reads and retweets)o Value!o Emails (opened, click-throughs)

- Lack of strategy is impacting our members and our brand

1:1 Email Voicemail Documents Podcasts Discussions Texting Snail Mail

1:Many Website Portal Bulletins Audio Conference Video Clips Social Media Sites (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) Podcasts Discussions

Many:Many Conferences Video Conferences Live Webinars (Skype, Google+) Meetings Video Television RSS Blogging Apps

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April 26-27, 2013

STRATEGY BREAKOUT: SIMPOSIUM- Change it or leave it?- Moneymaker for SIM ($100,000 on average)- Why don't more SIM members go to SIMposium?- Seattle in 2009 (economy tanked, majority of SIM membership. Less than 400 people showed - lost a

lot of money)- Hoping for 800+ attendees this year in Boston.- Many variables: cities, economies, meeting planners (hard to say why it makes money one year and

not the next)- RLF - most loyal participant of SIMposium (graduation is there and they form a community that goes

every year)- General = outside of SIM- Host chapter usually gets some money.- Challenges

o Competition (free Gartner event, regional eventso Driving attendance

- Reasons to attend: o Contento Networkingo Loyal following (150 or so members that go every year to really just spend time together)o Location

- Reasons not to attend:o COST (travel, hotel, your own time). Registration fee is actually an incentive because it is

relatively low.

- Conflicted as a local vendor. Two different sales approaches.- Where do we advertise SIMposium?

o Purchase external CIO lists in the local area. o Minimal print advertisements.

- Ideas:o Network with your peers!o Senior IT execs get in front and talk about their processes and new ideaso Fees are high enough where you could have relatively low attendance and still profito Half day sessions featuring new, cutting-edge technology (everyone signs a non-disclosure

which makes it more exciting)o Local vs. national - messaging needs to be different just the same for members/non-

memberso Make it just a little bit more expensive than member registration and give free membership

for a year.o Opportunity for vendors (sponsors) to pay for members to go? We'll allow you to invite 3 of

your prospects to SIMposium at half the cost (would have to be CIO or VP level).o Chapters could pay for 5 of the highest state IT executives to go.o "Unconference" - breakouts in small rooms, pick a leader and everyone just talks about it

openly.o Meeting planning contracts should include some sort of a guarantee of a minimum number

of attendees.o Tactics to attract more people

- Weak areas:o Chapters trying to succeed and grow, and this is something we're doing for the good of SIM

National.

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o Promoting ourselves and promoting SIM all year. o Is there enough vested interest in this?o As a chapter, do we really get any tools to help promote this national event? o National Committee meets once a month and each chapter can put 1-2 people on it. Get

updates, content, can input.o There is a need for best practices on how to promote SIMposium better (awareness of

videos, website content)- Points of pain

o Revenue generating activityo Attendance doesn't payo Need sponsorso Change in meeting planners has been a struggleo Need consistent performance

- Ideaso Perhaps we should pick the top SIMposiums and just replicate.o Pick location with easy travelo Maybe 3 regionals instead of 1 annual

- Questionso What is the goal? Is it money or branding?o Does this need to be a premier conference?o Bring in all new tech vendors? Become "edgy"o The "Ted" of leadership. "Wired" mag kind of thingo We get about 200 people who go every year, so if we split to 3 regional, we would lose many

of them.o Consider the idea of "unconference" (no set agenda)o "World cafe" concept.

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April 26-27, 2013

STRATEGY BREAKOUT: Brand Architecture (1st session)Nashville, SoCal, Wisconsin, NY, Central FL, Austin, Seattle, NJ, Denver, DFW

SIM in the Industry Competitors: Profit Org/Research: CIO Executive Council, Gartner, Forrester, IDC, Evanta, HMG, Media &

Forums: CIO Today, CIO Insight, Profl Serv/Vendor: Consulting, Offshore vendors, Technology vendors, Added by group: university research programs

Competes for engagement, collaboration, media and forums, educational programs, intellectual capital, printed and electronic materials, research and community development

Branding Architecture overall brand identity success dependent on: real-time communications, quality brand, consistent messaging, precise PR,

identity and corporate image in the industry the brand is the intersection of programs, chapters and the members

Brand Identity perceptions If the members don't experience the national programs, the brand is diluted. Members perception of the brand is very different from the national's intended brand currently Name - need consistency in naming for chapters (ex. SC SIM vs. SIM Austin) and programs (SIM APC,

SIM RLF) Society is dated. Community is current. Tagline - need to revisit the tagline, make it more current SIM: Leadership, Technology and People RLF and APC have not been SIM branded - RLF and APC only ask the chapter members to join, don't

provide info/resources to the chapter (one sided) SIM Connect - not laid out well, too much info, most don't read We need a mobile strategy Need to define who we are - members we want Want brand to have some clout Communication playbook needed Once the brand is developed, need marketing/PR campaigns to convey the brand Need to differentiate ourselves from competitors We are about community, we are not a creator of thought leadership at the chapter level, access to

people with knowledge chapters may be so diverse that it is hard to create a consistent brand - there was pushback to this

notion, there should be a meaningful, consistent thread to tie us all together

STRATEGY BREAKOUT: Brand Architecture (2nd Session)Houston, Chicago, Memphis, Dallas, C. Florida, St. Louis, Ohio, Atlanta, Seattle, NY, Philadelphia, Fairfield Westchester

Brand architecture is a framework and creates and emotional reaction Vision - most respected could have a negative perceptive to groups we want to partner with bc they also

want to be respected Society is outdated Brand needs to be forward looking. What does it mean today, what are our aspirational goals What do we want to be known for?

o Communityo networkingo collaboratingo connectingo educationo developmento knowledge sharing

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April 26-27, 2013

o benchmarkingo funo thought leadership o representatives/voice of IT leadershipo innovationo creativityo leadership developmento tomorrow's insights today

Emotions conveyed in logo and brand: o rapid forward motiono integration with all aspects of the businesso people coming togethero don't want to set a boundary by having technology in our logoo leadership is the focus, not what we are leading, needs to be equally attracting to non-technology

CIOso Need to adapt to younger generations.

Perceptions: what is it? It’s a small local chapter. For better or worse, we've siloed the chapters. Want people to seek us out.

CXO groups are also competitorso Competing for timeo Competitive analysis needs to be done.

Vendors are not re-upping year over year for SIMposium, golf tournaments - so we are not delivering the value they anticipated. The local CIO forums are very successful in retaining vendors

If you could change one thing what would it be?o value proposition of national (only talking about benefits of local chapter)o access to national database o better at fostering a sense of community nationallyo clarity of systemso changing perceptiono awareness of brando how can we translate this easily

Mandatory branding guidelines/session to all chapter leaders Worried about how we go to market with the brand (not creating a new logo, etc.)

o national advertising and PR campaign to convey the brando the organization better be able to deliver on the brand - it’s a big black mark on SIM if we can'to we may lose some people when we roll out a new brand because they don't agree with the new

brand, they liked the "old" SIM

Volunteers to help on brand architecture (from both sessions): Jeff Skulsky, Lowell Millard, JP Batra, Erin Griffin, Shane Kilgore, Dave Berndt, Terry Janis, Steve Brilling, Susan Goss, RJ Juliano, Mark Griesbaum, Mike Schaffner, Tom McCurley

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April 26-27, 2013

MEMBERSHIP TYPES DISCUSSIONPat Randall, Facilitator

Honorary memberships Some chapters have members for life Emeritus - currently retired, considering creating an Emeritus-Fellow for past presidents, significant

achievements, etc. Students/Future leaders Portland gives numerous scholarships, would like a way to keep them engaged AITP is an organization that engages students, lower level IT professionals There was a discussion on how do we keep RLF graduates engaged

o Want them to be involved because they are identified as future leaderso Don't want to dilute the brand (safe place for CIOs)o Discussion as to whether they should be grandfathered in for life or not o If quotas are set for membership type, set give back requirement so that those not participating

don't take a place that someone else could useMIT Re-classification every year to make sure they still qualify (employed, not vendor) Denver allows MITs to continue - they still provide value

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April 26-27, 2013

CORE OFFERING IDEAS by CONSTITUENCY

Across all Groups

Crowdsourcing solutions – get topics/requests from membership,then find “experts” within SIM who can discuss, advise or offer pre-constructed frameworks or solutions (in writing or via webcast)

Coaching/Mentoring/Networking Ideaso Have an event where large cap CIOs can network with and

mentor small cap CIOs

o Connect new CIOs (and/or small cap CIOs) with experienced (and/or large cap) ones

o Career advisory sessions to help Senior IT execs (serial CIO’s?) figure out their ”next career” – whether CEO, consultant, STEM teacher, Non-profit CIO etc.

o Speakers bureau of CIOs (original said “CIOs for hire”)

o Executive coaching/mentoring of new IT Directors/CIOs

o Offer services of Emeritus Members (?is this a membership type?does it mean “retired?”) as consultants to less experienced IT executive members

o Match mentors with protégés and/or peers by industry and/or region

o Connect CIOs to Entrepreneurs – both to help the start-up gain access to CIOs AND to give SIM members access to leading-edge technology early in the cycle

o “Ratings” of vendors and/or products; similar to Angie’s Listor Trip Advisor

Book Related Ideaso Promote books by SIM authors

o Secure discounts on books (by both SIM authors and others)Some examples of SIM-member-authored books include:World Class IT by Peter High (published 2009)The Quantum Age of IT by Charles Araujo (published 2012)

o Have local booksellers at SIM events with an assortment of RLF books and SIM-authored books for sale

Video Ideas

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April 26-27, 2013

o Create video on Outreach done by various chapters – to be used in membership recruiting

o Showcase a “CIO Member” personal story in print and/or YouTubevideo for chapter membership recruiting (The Nashville Technology Council has one of these – I can get it for you if you want.)

o Create videos of SIMposium (and regional conference?) speakers for two uses: give a copy to speaker as a “thank you” and archivefor future viewing by SIM members (to learn and/or to select speakers)

Special Interest Group Ideaso Provide virtual forums/webcasts around an industry or

special interest group (Healthcare, Enterprise Architecture, etc.)moderated by National, offered once a quarter

o STEM in a box – how to/playbooks on how to set up careershadowing, how to do workshops for College Counselors etc.

o SIMI to produce whitepapers on trending or critical topics (e.g., STEM Skills Shortage, Cloud, BYOD)

o Innovation Series: regular webinar featuring a start-up sharingtheir innovation/product/service; gives early access to CIOs andgood visibility to start-up

o Create a SIM (national) STEM Outreach Program

o Facilitate/support Special Interest Groups (SIM Women, EA, maybealso Info Security?)

Training/Education Ideas

o Variations on RLF for other-than-large-corporate constituency Financially accessible (i.e. $2-3K instead of $7-9K) Less travel (Blended learning, some in person, some online) Focused on management development as well as

leadership development (i.e. more operational in nature sincemany small IT org managers/directors may not have had formal training on basic management skills such as delegating, requiring accountability, coaching for improved performance.)

Versions of RLF focused on vendors or academics – theyneed leadership skills too, but the variety of skills needed may look different in their industries

o Post-RLF leadership development offerings

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April 26-27, 2013

Some way for RLF’ers to have a SIMI-sponsored ”community” if they are not allowed to join the localSIM Chapter (National RLF LinkedIn Group? Moderatedby RLF facilitators?)

Post-RLF experience – 3 to 5 years after RLF, what shouldthe “next step” in leadership development look like?

o SIM University (attendees don’t have to be SIM members – revenue generator) Classes/webinars to teach how to Integrate Quality (ISO), Six Sigma, Lean

etc. with IT Classes on IT Standards (ITIL, ISO), Best Practices

(Maybe teaching these classes would be a good “next career” for retired IT executives or consultant SIM members?)

Professional Development ProgramDifferent from RLF – focused on interpersonal skills likeconflict resolution, influencing, communications and/or onbusiness skills – industry, reading financial forms (P&L statement etc.)

Include on-demand videos and other online/downloadablematerials as part of SIM University

Have a roadmap of which topics - so people at variouslevels of organizations (large or small) will know what is appropriate for them, what pre-reqs are expected

Small Corporate IT Organizations

RLF “lite” focused on small IT organizations (small might mean <$500MM or <$1B AND <100 people or <20 people)

Peer to peer roundtables with large cap CIOs (at SIM events or even SIM Chapter meetings – bring in large cap CIOs toChapter with small cap CIOs)

Discounted version of APC ($5-$10K buy-in vs $30K for current APC)and with a focus on topics more relevant to small companiesand IT organizations

Academics

Research and Class Relatedo Provide IT practitioner (including CIOs) and/or vendor speakers for college and

university classeso Database of IT practitioners willing to talk to academics, to let them create Case

Studies, Role Plays and do information gathering via interviewso Connect academics to practitioners for Research

o Create a grant (annual?) of $10K for which SIM member universities can compete --- topic must contribute to “filling the IT pipeline” (recruiting, retaining IT students and employees) or to “advancing the technology

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profession” (new career paths? New ways of applying technology to business? New ways of teaching technology?)

o Access to a database of SIM members information (e.g. who is a SIM member working at Dell?) combined with SIM agreeing to survey members and share raw data from those surveys

Allow academic SIM members to identify one or two top seniors (undergrad) who are CompSci or MIS majors to attend a SIM monthly meeting or event (SIMposium, Regional conference) – SIMI to payfor student’s attendance

Provide a searchable database of IT internships at SIM member companies

Pay-per-click ads for Tech Academic Programs on simnet.org

SIMI to host affinity group session for Academics to share curriculumideas across the country

Provide a CIO Advisory Board with IT execs from all geographic areasto give input to colleges/universities on what skills, knowledge and competencies corporate America expects in CS/MIS Bachelor degree holders

Monthly Thought Leadership Series – webinar with a book author or academic researcher on top issues facing members

Vendors/Consultants

Vendor pays SIMI to gather opinions on products, issues; participants get copy of results

SIMI negotiates discounts on products/services of member vendors and consultants (would this be related to the Procurement special interest group? Should we change the name of Procurement to Sourcing?)

Vendors offer free education on their products (this would have to be executive education or part of the discount when client is buying product)

SIMI promotes products to SIM chapter members (in exchange for sponsorship or donations?) (My personal opinion: we don’t want to go here; we want to be vendor and product neutral.)

SIMI facilitates a quarterly consultants roundtable to promote cross-learning

SIMI creates a national database of SIM member consultants and their expertise to help members connect with SIM member consultants across chapters/regions

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April 26-27, 2013

“SIMdex” --- host a Comdex-like big-hall conference with many vendors who have future technology offerings; vendors pay for space; SIM members benefit from learning about new technology

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April 26-27, 2013

REGIONAL LEADERSHIP FORUM

The following notes were compiled by Steve Brilling and Cliff Higbee as a result of 4 breakout session with all of the attending Chapter Leaders at Chapter Leader Summit.

Overall, there was a lot of support for RLF, based on very positive comments from former RLF participants. The following were comments made to help further promote/enhance the program:

In every session, multiple people commented that the name, Regional Leadership Forum, sold the program short. In fact one person felt it made it more difficult for him to sell it to his senior management—didn’t feel like it had the proper gravitas. We did not spend any time trying to invent a new name. The biggest hang-up was “regional.” Some brought up the counter-argument that we have considerable brand equity in RLF and were concerned that we would lose ground if we renamed it. One possible solution is to keep the initials and rather than definite them (ex. IBM), create a tag line with it like "The Art of Leadership."

We could increase participation if we could claim certification and/or continuing education credits. The continuing education comment went beyond RLF as a good idea to incorporate in more of our programming.

Some chapters would like to have something they could use to demonstrate how RLF is a superior alternative to competitive alternatives. I could envision a matrix of key leadership program approaches and mark where RLF is positioned relative to the competition. Adding a commonly asked Q/A was also desired.

They would also like a packet of marketing materials to help them sell the program. We need to look at our current marketing materials and see if it is useful to a chapter leader who does not know much about the program and its competitors.

There was a strong feeling that overall SIM needs to create a life cycle view of its various offerings to better create a context of where RLF and other programs fit in. This includes the RLF graduate programs and the APC.

With SIMI’s launch of a branding exercise, RLF should be consistent with the overall direction. There was some feeling that RLF was something separate and not an integral part of SIM.

Some people did not feel we made our videos visible enough. We should get them out on U-Tube and more visible in the SIM net pages.

There was discussion about the desirability of a hybrid model for RLF—i.e., some in-person, some virtual. I know many universities are currently wrestling with this question and deciding to go this direction. The biggest concern is how to keep the “magic in the room” alive. They recommended that we try a pilot of the virtual idea.

One person brought up the idea of national RLF industry vertical so sharing could also go on along industry lines—another form of reconnect. In his case, he was the only medical

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April 26-27, 2013

provider in his group while our NW group has a strong concentration in this space. The concept is to provide an after RLF experience within industry types.

SIM Membership - There was a lot of discussion about SIM Membership for RLF participants. This did not come up in our breakout sessions, but was a point of discussion throughout many of the other topics. Some felt it was time to open membership up to all RLF graduates after the year provided with RLF participation. There was not a consensus on the topic and there need to be a strategic discussion on this topic.

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