Inside 18th Annual CDOIQ Symposium 2024 — Top Takeaways

More than 1,000 CDOs and data executives among 2,200+ attendees participated July 16-18 in the 18th annual International CDOIQ (Chief Data Officer & Information Quality) Symposium, the longest running data leadership conference.

A third of the participants gathered in Boston/Cambridge while the majority live-streamed virtually from 61 countries. The data leaders represented government, financial services, healthcare, education, retail, manufacturing, information technology, professional services, and other industries.

Over the three days, 120+ sessions explored delivering mature data and analytics capabilities for ROI, including local organizational issues to global challenges, through case studies from industry, academic, financial, government and healthcare leaders.

More than 100 prominent speakers presented on a wide range of topics covering seven tracks:

• Public Sector

• Executive Decisions: CDO Strategy Phases

• Navigating Career Paths and Mastering Skills for Chief Data Officers

• Actionable Insights: Translating Data to Actionable Insight for the Enterprise

• Innovative Research and Startups: Knowledge Fit for Use

• Global Issues in Data Management and Data Sharing

• Leadership in Actions

The keynote sessions on cutting-edge technology to groundbreaking research inspired, challenged, and empowered data leaders to push the boundaries of knowledge and drive positive change.

According to Dr. Richard Wang, Executive Director of the Annual CDOIQ Symposium and Founding Director of Institute for CDO&IQ, the CDOIQ Program’s purpose is to “advance the knowledge and accelerate the adoption of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) role in all industries and geographical countries.”

From his perspective, Symposium panelist Todd James, Kroger subsidiary 84.51 Chief Data & Technology Officer, says, “CDOIQ offers a unique opportunity to connect with thought leaders and practitioners focused on advancing the application of data and analytics for the benefit of their organizations and society as a whole.” 

James presented “Fifteen Years since its Creation: What Comes Next for the CDO/CDAO Role in an AI Future?” to more than 250 attendees on July 17 along with panelists Ronke Ekwensi, T-Mobile VP, Data & AI Education; Amy Lenander, Capital One Chief Data Officer; Usama Fayyad, Northeastern University Institute for Experiential AI Executive Director; and moderator Randy Bean, Data & AI Leadership Exchange Founder.

Impressed with that session, participant Cindy Tu, Discover Financial Services Director, IT & Data Audit, shares on LinkedIn that Lenander’s comments on the importance of aligning data strategy with business strategy really resonated with the audience, and Ekwensi's example of AI hallucinations and the importance of having humans in the loop was spot on. She also appreciates Fayyad's suggested reality check that data/AI tools can truly deliver.

Speaker Valerie Logan, The Data Lodge CEO & Founder, outlines her three overall takeaways from the Symposium:

1. Culture: Beyond the classic discussions of cultural obstacles and challenges (often cited as top roadblocks in related CDAO surveys), we're hearing a refinement of what the cultural challenges really are – How to foster better collaboration? How to share a common language? How to engage senior leaders in meaningful ways?

2. CDAOs emerging from many backgrounds: Increasingly, executives who have been successful in areas of business leadership are being moved into CDAO roles —- not always from a classic data and analytics career path or background. This brings heightened alignment with business value and priorities, yet also creates the need to support these executives with the development and community to support them being successful.

3. GenAI: From hype to hope, we're seeing a clear shift to more grounded discussions of real impact, and “who's really doing this in scalable ways.”

Logan and colleague Veronica Vilski, The Data Lodge Content & Engagement Director, presented “Data Literacy: The Key to Cracking the Data Culture Code” to a record crowd July 18. Reflecting on that session, Symposium moderator Salema Rice, CDO Today CEO, says on LinkedIn that Logan and Vilski “nailed data literacy myths,” clarifying that “data literacy is about rewiring culture.”

Both Tu and Rice cite the “Governance for the Age of AI” session by Karthik Ravindran, Microsoft Purview General Manager, Data Governance, as a Symposium highlight. Calling it a “game-changer,” Rice says, “Microsoft Purview Data Governance 2.0 in-house went from a Center of Excellence to a Center of Enablement, focused on business outcomes.”

Sharing his takeaway from the event, Doug Llewellyn, CEO of Data Society Group, says, “Data leaders and organizations are emphasizing the people aspect of data and AI. From government entities investing in reskilling and upskilling hundreds of thousands of people, to thought leaders stressing the importance of people to AI, it is clear where the value is — our people.”

As a CDOIQ participant, Nachiket Mehta, Wayfair Head, Data and Analytics Engineering, Global Operations, summarizes his key highlights:

• Sessions across private and public sectors highlighted that, while technology is a key enabler, the human element — skills, culture, and leadership — remains pivotal for successful digital transformation. It's 80% people and culture, 20% technology.

• AI and GenAI are the hot topics in almost all discussions. However, strong data foundations are the non-negotiable must-haves before any AI innovations.

CDO Magazine was birthed out of the 2018 CDOIQ Symposium at MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Its “vision and mission is to be the premier global digital publication giving voice to global executives in strategic data, analytics, AI, and security roles,” says Steve Wanamaker, CDO Magazine Founder & Publisher.

For more CDO events, CDO Magazine is hosting seven in-person Summits this fall. Click on the links below to register:

• October 1-3:  North America Data, AI and Security Week Cincinnati:

  • October 1: CDO Magazine Summit for Data & Analytics – one of the largest in-person gatherings of CDOs and senior data, analytics, AI leaders in North America. 

  • October 2:  AI Boardroom Event 

  • October 3:  CDO Magazine CyberSecurity Summit

• October 23: CDO Magazine Summit Toronto

• November 7:  Columbus AI, Data & Security – Tech Summit

• November 22:  CDO Magazine Leadership Summit New York City (watch for registration link here)

December 12:  CDO Magazine Leadership Summit Southern California (watch for registration link here)

Todd James, Valerie Logan, Nachiket Mehta and Salema Rice are members of CDO Magazine’s Global Editorial Board.