Innovation Thought Leaders Focus on IT Value Creation at Cutter Summit 2007

Innovation has become the new business obsession. Delegates to Cutter Consortium's 11th annual Summit conference will discuss and debate the ways in which they can use innovation to provide real economic value to their organizations with an impressive group of IT luminaries — including Cutter Fellow and Harvard Business School Professor Rob Austin, Cutter Senior Consultant and Web 2.0 guru Stowe Boyd, Cutter Fellow and risk management expert Bob Charette, Cutter Senior Consultant and leadership expert Paul Robertson, Cutter Fellow and DTE Energy CIO Lynne Ellyn, and Cutter Fellow Tom DeMarco — at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, MA, USA, 30 April - 2 May, 2007.

Keynote and panel discussion topics include creating and nurturing innovation through creative leadership, exploiting Web 2.0 in the enterprise, leveraging enterprise architectures, employing risk entrepreneurship and how IT must — and can — innovate while facing nearly insurmountable constraints.

The Cutter Consortium Summit has become known as the most stimulating IT conference of the year, valued by its attendees for the direct access it provides to the top thinkers in IT.

The informal setting of this intimate gathering provides both attendees and speakers alike an opportunity to candidly discuss the challenges they face — from technical concerns and strategies they're considering, to trends they're seeing in their own organization. The format encourages personal interaction and debate and provides an atmosphere that facilitates knowledge sharing and learning — providing attendees with real-world advice they can put into action right away in their own organizations.

Summit 2007 also features roundtable discussions with Cutter's experts on a variety of topics. In addition, Summit delegates can also benefit from in-depth, pre-conference workshops, led by Cutter's world-class experts in the fields of agile project management, enterprise architecture, innovation and leadership.

Details on the keynote addresses are below. For further information, visit the Summit 2007 Web site (http://www.cutter.com/summit/2007.html).

Learning from Expert Innovators Around the World
Cutter Fellow and Harvard Business School Professor Rob Austin will describe the emerging results from a global, multi-year study aimed at uncovering the management principles, processes, and practices that expert innovators seem to share. These findings suggest deep insights as well as practical advice for managers and IT professionals.

Web 2.0: Consumers, Commerce, and Now, the Enterprise Cutter
Senior Consultant and Web 2.0 guru Stowe Boyd explores what the Web 2.0 phenomenon will mean for business IT, how it will reflect back on Web 2.0, and the future marketplace for enterprise applications and architecture. Be prepared: 2007 could be a turning point, moving Web 2.0 beyond the world of consumers into the world of business, and into the deep DNA of the enterprise.

Innovation and Risk Entrepreneurship: Learning to Profit
from Risk Cutter Consortium Fellow and risk management expert Bob Charette explains the philosophy of risk entrepreneurship. He'll demonstrate how, by applying skills in risk entrepreneurship, your organization will be able to understand what truly drives its customers' needs, and position itself to innovatively meet these needs before any of your competitors can.

Case Study: Managing IT Priorities at Volkswagen of America
We'll delve into a Harvard Business School case describing Volkswagen of America's efforts to develop a process for setting IT funding priorities that align with business strategy and the company's overall priorities. The case deals with Enterprise Architecture and issues of innovation, demonstrating the details and difficulties of setting priorities for use of a scarce organizational resource.

Pursuing Perfection: The Art and Paradox of Leadership
In his thought provoking and unusual presentation, Paul Robertson, Cutter Senior Consultant, Visiting Professor in Music and Medicine at a leading UK medical university, and authority on music and the brain, calls upon contemporary science and music to help senior business executives discover new cognitive and emotional markers that can make the difference between leadership success and failure.

Is Innovation a Relevant Concept for IT?
Lynne Ellyn, CIO of DTE Energy will divulge why she believes innovation is not only relevant, but required, for IT. You'll learn to think about innovation as a mind set, and understand why the most important thing a CIO can do is support novel approaches, be receptive to new ideas, encourage experimentation, and have good judgment — that is, set the tone for innovation.

Themes and Implications
Cutter Fellow and conference moderator Tom DeMarco will pull together the Trends and Implications revealed throughout the Summit in his closing keynote.

For more information on Summit 2007, visit http://www.cutter.com/summit/2007.html To register for a press pass, contact Kim Leonard (+1 781 641 5111) or e-mail her at press@cutter.com