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Thornton
May, the ‘Robin Williams of IT’ to stir up
PORTSMOUTH,
N.H., Sept. 28, 2004 ¾
Thornton
May, a world renowned IT futurist and one of the
“liveliest speakers on the face of the earth” will
lead a free wheeling discussion geared for CIOs at Future
Forward 2004 October 15. Called
a “genius” by Toyota’s CIO, “an intellectual speed
merchant” by Fast
Company and a “daring intellectual in a business
filled with fakes” by Seth Godin, the Future Forward
moderator will challenge CIOs to aggressively take their
game to the next level. Maryfran Johnson, Editor-in-Chief
of Computerworld, calls May the “Robin Williams
of IT” and “one of the liveliest speakers on the face
of the earth.”
“If
IT execs wait to be safe, it’s too late. Lemmings die
for a reason,” May said in describing the thrust of his
Future Forward panel. “Why is it so hard for good
technology ideas and products to get traction in world
class organizations? CIOs must lead not wait, they have to
become more entrepreneurial and they have no choice but to
take their game to a global level,” May said. Joining
May on the Future Forward panel are Paul Bergamo, CTO of
Liberty Mutual Group; Bob Brennan, CEO of Connected Corp.;
Dave Ellard, CIO of EMC; Kevin Laracey, CEO of edocs; and
John McEleney, CEO of SolidWorks Corp. McEleney
is a great example of a technology leader who has pushed
the envelope to keep his company ahead of the IT curve.
The 3D mechanical design software company is number one in
a highly competitive market and is owned by Dassault Systèmes
of Paris, France, a nearly $1 billion product lifecycle
management powerhouse. McEleney will talk about the things
his team has done to innovate IT best practices. An
IT futurist, Thornton May is a faculty member at UCLA’s
Graduate School of Management. He teaches Strategic IT at
the Haas School of Business at UC-Berkeley and lectures at
Carnegie-Mellon University. May is also the “Non-Toxic
Behaviors” coach at Lawson Software and recently worked
with Al and Heidi Toffler to help them better understand
today’s technology leaders. Future
Forward is a prestigious annual event held in Portsmouth,
N.H., that brings together New England's technology
visionaries, CEOs, CIOs, entrepreneurs, inventors and
investors. It provides attendees with a first look at
important new technologies being developed around New
England, and explores the way large organizations deploy
new technologies to create competitive advantage. To
learn more about Future Forward, go to
www.futureforward.com. #
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