- 17 September 2026
- 9:00am - 6:00pm
- Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
2026 CIO CONFERENCE AGENDA
09.00
Conference Chairperson’s Welcome Remarks
09.15
Panel Discussion: From IT Steward to Business Owner: Redefining the CIO’s Role in 2027
CIOs in Asia today are no longer judged solely on system uptime or cost savings—they are expected to co-own digital products, influence revenue streams, and drive mission-critical outcomes. This session explores how top-performing CIOs are stepping beyond traditional IT boundaries to lead cross-functional business initiatives, manage digital P&Ls, and build careers anchored in enterprise impact rather than internal IT metrics.
- Redefining success metrics – from IT KPIs to business outcomes
- CIOs as digital product owners
- Framing and testing organisational models to fit the business model
- Skills and mindset shift for the expanded role
- Career pathways – stepping out of an established comfort zone
Moderator:
Panelists:
10.15
Fireside Chat: Navigating Data Sovereignty amid Geopolitical Volatility
Data sovereignty is a board-level mandate. As nations in Asia tighten data laws and global tech alliances fracture, CIOs must navigate a patchwork of regulations without sacrificing regional scale. This session examines how forward-thinking leaders are transforming sovereignty from a constraint into a competitive advantage—building trusted, compliant, and collaborative data ecosystems that span borders.
- Navigating Southeast Asia’s evolving data protection laws
- Reassessing vendor dependencies (US vs. China vs. local)
- Building sovereign cloud partnerships
- Automating compliance without killing agility
Interviewer:
11.45
Panel Discussion: Strategic Tech Rationalisation and Future-Ready Tech Stack Optimisation for 2027
In a landscape of tighter IT budgets, increasing tech sprawl, and rapid emerging technology disruption, CIOs must go beyond modernisation—they must rationalise and optimise IT portfolios with precision and strategic intent. This session explores how top Asian enterprises are auditing, consolidating, and evolving their technology stacks to drive business growth, reduce cost, and prepare for future innovations like AI, quantum computing, and automation.
- Auditing and rationalising application and vendor portfolios to remove redundancy while maintaining operational stability
- Balancing CapEx and OpEx decisions amid economic volatility and inflation pressures
- Uncovering inefficiencies and simplify complex, multi-vendor tech stacks with AI-driven automation and analytics
- Integrating legacy systems with emerging technologies for a scalable, resilient, and future-ready IT ecosystem
- Securing board and organisational buy-in for tough tech sunsetting decisions while safeguarding innovation budgets
Moderator:
Panelist:
Senior representative, SAP
14.10
Keynote: Driving Sustainable Enterprise Transformation
In today’s landscape of fragmented regulations, legacy system constraints, escalating cyber risks, and shifting geopolitics, transformation is no longer a one-off initiative—it is the core operating model. This session shares bold and sustainable transformation strategy that is deeply rooted in technology as the engine of customer value, regulatory trust, and growth.
- Transformation as strategy in motion
- Overcoming barriers to transformation in a global institution
- Balancing standardisation with local agility through hybrid approach
- Unlocking innovation by harnessing data and AI
- The blueprint for sustainable transformation at scale
14.35
Panel Discussion: Embedding AI-Driven Continuous Improvement in Business Operations
How can organisations move past initial AI adoption to establish AI-powered continuous improvement cycles that iteratively enhance processes, customer experience, and operational efficiency? We will examine best practices for creating sustainable AI value through feedback loops and overcoming organisational inertia, thereby delivering ongoing, measurable business impact beyond pilots and experiments.
- Designing AI feedback loops for continuous process improvement
- Overcoming organisational barriers to AI-driven change
- Integrating AI into business processes beyond pilots
- Measuring business impact and ROI of ongoing AI initiatives
- Leveraging AI for agile customer experience and operational efficiency
Moderator:
Panelists:
C-ENGAGE CONVENTION PLENARY
The CFO & CIO Alliance
15.40
Conference Chairperson’s Welcome Remarks
16:10
C-Suite Keynote: The Operational Shift Driven by People, C-Suite Collaboration & AI
AI is no longer an experiment—it is now a driver of enterprise value. The challenge ahead is not technology itself but scaling its impact across the business. To succeed, AI must be directly tied to measurable outcomes: growth, efficiency, risk reduction, and customer experience. Organisations must move beyond isolated pilots toward a structured AI portfolio approach. This requires clear prioritization, strong governance, and deep integration into core business domains. At the same time, AI success depends heavily on people. By 2027, AI will be embedded in every role, demanding an AI-enabled workforce. This means new role structures, robust upskilling programs, and leadership prepared to manage hybrid human–AI teams. Adoption, not experimentation, will become the ultimate success factor.
- The new mandate for AI
- How AI is reshaping the business operating model
- AI as a critical enabler for the collaboration between CIO and CFO
- Creating a strong partner ecosystem to scale AI
- Proven use cases of AI’s tangible impact
16:35
C-Suite Fireside Chat: Monetising and Commercialising the Promises of AI
As companies move toward 2027, AI is shifting from being a technical experiment to a core C-suite priority. C-suites will need to approach AI investments with greater strategic alignment and coordination, ensuring that every initiative is guided by accountability, robust governance, and measurable business impact.
- Overcoming data fragmentation in AI projects
- Effective partnership models for scaling AI beyond pilots
- Governance frameworks in ASEAN: Balancing innovation with regulatory compliance
- Talent strategies to bridge the AI-fluency gap within the enterprise
- Best practice in structuring AI vendor contracts
Interviewer:
17:00
C-Suite Closing Panel Discussion: Resilient Leadership amid Turbulent Times
High-performance leadership isn’t defined by speed alone — it is anchored in resilience. True organisational resilience is cultivated through C-Suite’s intentional decisions and choices that shape the enterprise’s culture, strategy, and adaptability. Resilience must be integrated into the way organisations operate, allocate resources, and evolve — not just how they react when disruption strikes.
- The C-Suite in 2027 – what’s next?
- Driving growth, collaboration, and investment through digital innovation and intelligent systems
- Leading with agility to navigate uncertainty, disruption and change
- The new equation of people management
Moderator:
Panelists:
17:35