Speakers
Kirk Laughlin - Contributing Editor, InformationWeek
Kirk Laughlin is an award-winning writer, moderator and subject expert in information technology and business strategies. He has served in a variety of editorial leadership roles during his 18-year career in journalism. Prior to working with TechWeb's InformationWeek, he was Editorial Director at Ziff Davis Media/Enterprise Events which included developing programming content for leading Ziff brands - EWeek and CIO Insight. At Ziff Davis, Laughlin built content programs in the areas of CIO strategies, Web 2.0, enterprise mobility, financial industry solutions, storage, security, unified communications, risk management, IT governance, virtualization and business intelligence. He has worked with many leading technology suppliers in developing strategic content solutions for a variety of media platforms. Prior to joining Ziff Davis, Laughlin served as Editor-in-Chief of several media organizations including America's Network Magazine, a weekly business magazine; Telecom Planet, a website devoted to networking and wireless issues; and Applied Mobility. He has also directed the launch of several tech industry custom publications. He has won three awards for editorial excellence from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and two awards from the Western Publications Association.
Steve Kovsky - Contributing Editor, InformationWeek
Award-winning journalist and author Steve Kovsky has covered information technology for more than 20 years in print, radio, television and online. In addition to his current role as Contributing Editor for InformationWeek and other leading technology publications, Steve serves as the resident tech expert for San Diego 6 TV, and CBS/Infinity Broadcasting radio affiliate KFWB (“News 980”) in Los Angeles. He is also a Senior Consulting Analyst for the market research firm, Saugatuck Technology. Steve is a prolific writer whose body of work has been widely read by both IT professionals and consumers. As a technology writer and editorial manager, Steve has specialized in areas such as data security, data center virtualization and consolidation strategies, IP-based networking and telecommunications, disaster recovery and business continuity, cloud and SaaS applications and services, as well as wireless communications, mobile devices and consumer electronics.
Brian Gillooly - Editor-in-Chief, InformationWeek
Brian Gillooly has spent the past 20 years establishing a trusted and significant presence in the business technology community. One of the most recognized personalities in IT media, Brian has built valuable relationships with the most influential practitioners in the technology industry and counts among his closest contacts CIOs from Fortune 50 companies to small businesses. As the editor-in-chief of Optimize and editor-in-chief of InformationWeek’s events business, Brian had the opportunity to not only engage the people who help shape the direction of business technology – notables like Jack Welch, C.K. Prahalad, Ralph Szygenda, and Michael Dell – but also to share trusted opinions and ideas through his CIO Nation blog, presentations at numerous live events, sage words from his weekly columns, and one-on-one meetings. In his career in event content-generation, moderating, and presenting, Brian has developed a unique rapport with his audiences by eschewing the staid, lecture-style presentation and establishing a comfortable, often fun (but always informative) approach. As VP of member services New Paradigm, the Toronto-based think tank founded by renowned strategist Don Tapscott, Brian has helped Fortune 500 companies navigate the challenges of the Enterprise 2.0 era. As president of Force 5 Market Intelligence, Brian continues the same dialogue with the industry by participating in live events, researching market trends, and chronicling important developments for clients in the business technology community.
George Watt - Vice President of Cloud Computing, CA Technologies
For nearly 25 years, George has been helping customers simplify and automate their complex IT infrastructures. Prior to his current role, George founded CA Technologies Engineering Services team, which is responsible for protecting the company's intellectual property, managing the consolidated source code repository, and providing automation and development tools. In this role George led the development of CA Technologies own private cloud and enjoys sharing his lessons learned with customers who are now venturing on a similar journey. Formerly a CA customer, George joined the company in 1988, beginning as a Systems Engineer and later transitioning into many roles over the course of two decades, including leading R&D field teams in Canada and other technical SWAT Teams. In these roles George delivered several innovations such as a lightweight event management agent and a knowledgebase for a neural network-based predictive performance management solution. Many of George's innovations are now available to CA Technologies customers as product components or features.
Andi Mann - Vice President of Virtualization Product Marketing, CA Technologies
Andi Mann has over 20 years of IT experience across four continents, and a deep knowledge of enterprise software on mainframe, midrange, server and desktop systems. He has worked within the IT departments of global corporations, with enterprise software vendors, and as a leading industry analyst who literally wrote the definition of virtualization. Andi has been published in the New York Times, USA Today, CIO, Network World, TechTarget, and more, and has presented around the world on virtualization, cloud computing, automation, and IT management.
