Media Centre 

The basis of the event is the annual IT Leadership Strategic Survey of Harvey Nash. In this survey 1345 CIO's throughout Europe have responded and that has led to a very valuable report about how the CIO in Europe in general and in Belgium in particular handles the recession.

The title of the event was “Successful IT Leadership in a recession“. During the event we could proudly present three speakers who know more than anyone where to find opportunity and how to pursue it.

The first speaker was Albert Ellis, CEO of the Harvey Nash Group. He outlined the key trends identified in the IT Leadership report and with that he concluded that Belgian IT Leaders have greater strategic influence than their European counterparts.

One of the key trends was the fact that the modern CIO has to have an innovative leadership style with openness and communication. Another trend is the importance of new media and new technology.

The second speaker could very well go from there: Alfred den Besten from MarketCap International & COMvenience provided a very interesting presentation about the road to High Performance Workplace (HPW).

He reinforced Albert’s point that the modern IT leader is efficient not only because of the technology that they use but because of the way they approach their work. A freer and more collaborative way of working is being driven by younger workers, Generation Y, but is being adopted by workers of all ages and is making companies more efficient.

According to Alfred many trends are influencing the change in work on a global scale but one thing is similar: a world of more flexible working and a greater use of modern technologies is emerging where costs of fixed material like offices and infrastructure are being replaced by mobile workers operating wherever the need requires them.

The final presentation came from Michel Hautfenne, Senior Director of Global IT&T Purchasing at UCB. Michel presented a number of techniques in the field of procurement that can have significant cost savings and forge closer supplier relationships that help firms survive this downturn.

After these three interesting speakers Simon Wassall, European Managing Director at Harvey Nash, was happy to chair a Q&A session. This session turned out to be a lively debate with thorough questions.

After the presentations we were happy to invite the attendants for the social part of the event: enjoy a walking dinner and a fun event and network with colleagues at the very same time!

Please click here for more information about the event, the speakers and the presentations.