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BLUEPRINT 4D Executive Forum
Monday, May 6 – Tuesday, May 7, 2024
Transforming Challenges into Opportunities for Tomorrow’s Enterprise
The Strategic Fusion of Technology, Talent and Strategy
Getting future ready: what does it take? In this transformative executive gathering, we delve into the dynamic landscape of enterprise evolution. As stewards of Oracle solutions, we explore the strategic fusion of technology, talent and strategy, equipping leaders with the foresight and tools to propel their organizations into a future brimming with possibilities. Join us on a journey, where Oracle expertise converges with visionary leadership and practical “how to” applications, paving the way for sustainable success in an ever-evolving digital era.
Topics will include: practical considerations when developing an AI strategy, evolving performance management, innovating before knowing ROI, reskilling and retooling for automation and improving the employee onboarding experience through digital transformation initiatives.
Open to senior executives by reservation, this two-day program brings Oracle customer leaders together with special guest experts to explore what it means to be “future ready” and learn how other companies are successfully advancing their digital transformation strategies. Join other industry leaders to benchmark digital strategies, learn how companies are future-proofing their organizations, meet with Oracle product executives for updates and Q&A and expand your executive network.
Hosted by Ken Piddington, CIO of US Silica and the Quest Board of Directors. Guest speakers include Isaac Sacolick, digital transformation expert and best-selling author, and George Danner, technology futurist and AI expert. Open to Director, VP and C-level attendees. Space is limited, $295 program fee applies.
What you’ll learn
This year’s program is designed to provide insights for IT and business leaders on how to assess and anticipate the impact of AI, what it will take to successfully manage change and how to develop the internal skills and resources needed for the changes to come.
The two-day agenda includes:
- Special industry guest speakers
- Executive panel discussions
- Hot topic workshop sessions
- Exclusive Q&A break-outs sessions with Oracle product strategy leaders
- Invitation-only executive networking luncheon and evening reception
- Special conference amenities
Who should attend?
Executive level networking, insights and information.
The BLUEPRINT 4D Executive Forum is designed for industry executives to exchange insights and experiences, strategize collectively on hot topics facing their industries and organizations, benchmark on key initiatives like AI or move to cloud and further extend their executive networks.
Open to Director, VP and C-level attendees by advance registration only. Individual BLUEPRINT 4D conference registration required. Additional $295 program fee applies.
Guest Speakers
Isaac Sacolick
Digital transformation expert and best-selling author
Isaac Sacolick is President of StarCIO, a technology leadership company that guides organizations on mentoring digital trailblazers and building digital transformation core competencies. He is the author of Digital Trailblazer and the Amazon bestseller Driving Digital. Sacolick is a recognized keynote speaker and digital transformation influencer, with over 1,000 articles published on his blog Social, Agile, and Transformation, CIO.com, InfoWorld, and other sites. You can find him sharing new insights on the Driving Digital Standup or during his weekly Coffee with Digital Trailblazers.
Isaac has led digital transformation, product development, innovation, agile management, and data science programs in multiple organizations. He has transformed underperforming businesses by delivering new digital products, investing in strategic technologies, enabling agile practices, outsourcing commodity services, and establishing performance metrics.
George Danner
Technology Futurist, Author and AI Consultant
George Danner is an influencer in the field of data science. He is an AI consultant and Author of the Executives How-to Guide to Automation. He has been solving complex business problems with science and math for over 30 years. He is the founder and president of Business Laboratory LLC, an award-winning consultancy that helps mid-size and large organizations improve their performance through problem-solving, optimization, and forecasting.
George is passionate about applying the scientific method and the latest technologies to strategic planning and decision-making. He has worked with clients from various industries, including energy, pharma, retail, and finance, and has published two books on automation and data science for business. He also received the Wolfram Innovator Award, which recognizes his contribution to advancing the usage of Wolfram Alpha, a programming language that uses Mathematica for computational knowledge. George’s mission is to empower businesses and governments with the tools and techniques of data science and to inspire them to embrace the infinite possibilities of automation.
Gary Grieshaber
Group Vice President, Applications Development, Oracle
Gary Grieshaber is a senior executive within Oracle’s Applications Development division. Mr. Grieshaber is presently the Group Vice President of Applications Development. In this role, he is responsible for the worldwide product strategy and customer success for Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and JD Edwards World products. He also has responsibility for the Oracle Cloud ERP Advanced Industries product strategy and development including solutions for the Energy and US Federal industries.
Gary has been with Oracle and JD Edwards since 2001, holding various product strategy, product management and development management positions related to the JD Edwards product line and Oracle applications. He has played a key role in the evolution of the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne product to a full ERP suite, modern technology and cloud ready platform that continues to enjoy one of the top customer satisfaction scores across the Oracle product portfolio.
Robbin Velayedam
Senior Director, HCM Product Strategy, Oracle
Robbin has spent the majority of his professional career designing, developing, and championing HR, Talent Management, CRM, and Workforce applications to customers of all sizes and industries. He began his journey with PeopleSoft in 1998 and has been involved with Oracle PeopleSoft applications either as a customer or in Product Management. He has worked in a variety of functional areas with product development such as Approvals, Analytics, Self Service, Mobile/Fluid, and Shared Components.
As a Director of Product Management and Strategy, he currently serves as a conduit between customers and the development organization to ensure user expectations are met with new functionality. Robbin’s partnership with the PeopleSoft user community has been a part of his team’s overall responsibility of maintaining strong engagement with all PeopleSoft customers. Over the years, Robbin has been a frequent speaker at user conferences and hosts webinars focused on helping customers maximize their current investment in PeopleSoft.
Ken Piddington
Vice President & CIO, US Silica and member of the Quest Board of Directors
Chair, Executive Programming Committee
As a transformational, business Technology Executive, Ken creates a strategic vision, positions to scale, and drives initiatives that enable high business growth. A strategist who builds deep trust within IT organizations, fostering collaborative environment focused on innovation and continuous improvement.
Ken is a change agent and CEO partner experienced in all business cycles, including high growth, business transformation, and M&A integration, with an entrepreneurial spirit. He leverages emerging technology across multi-industry verticals and consulting to accelerate profits.
As an award-winning thought leader, respected for game changing contributions and passion for talent development and customer satisfaction, Ken was the obvious choice to help Quest build this year’s Executive Forum program and serve as host to this high-powered program.
Session Highlights
Day 1 Program Highlights: Monday, May 6
Opening Session: Why Digital Trailblazers are the Secret to Successful Digital Transformations
Special guest speaker Isaac Sacolick, a 20+ year veteran CIO/CTO and now President of digital transformation leadership company StarCIO, will share leadership stories and learnings from his newest book, Digital Trailblazer. Your business needs more transformation leaders – what Isaac calls Digital Trailblazers—who can lead teams, evolve agile collaboration methods, develop data capabilities as competitive differentiators, and deliver business outcomes. This keynote highlights who are Digital Trailblazers, how to empower them, and what practices they will need to drive business outcomes from transformation initiatives. Isaac will cover many transformation topics, including creating vision statements, evolving AI-enabled employee experiences, establishing a data-driven organization, and developing a lifelong learning culture.
Executive Forum Roundtable Workshop
Attendees will break into smaller groups for a facilitated roundtable/workshop experience designed to complement and extend the themes discussed in Isaac Sacolick’s keynote presentation.
Topics for the workshop include:
- Evolving Performance Management: explore how performance management practices can be adapted to support agile methodologies and foster collaboration across multidisciplinary teams.
- Developing an AI Strategy: delve into practical considerations such as defining AI goals, selecting appropriate tools, and managing data to achieve AI outcomes while mitigating risks.
- Innovating Before Knowing ROI: explore strategies for encouraging innovation within organizations, even before fully vetted business cases are established.
- Reskilling and Retooling for Automation: address the practical aspects of reskilling and retooling the workforce to encourage automation and build an AI-enabled organization.
- Improving Employee Onboarding Experience: explore strategies and best practices for enhancing the onboarding experience through digital transformation initiatives.
Executive Panel Discussion on Leading Transformation
Cap off the day with a dynamic panel session featuring industry executives at the forefront of digital transformation. In this enlightening discussion, executives will share real-world insights, strategies and experiences related to the key themes explored throughout the day.
This concluding session will pull together the visionary concepts discussed throughout the day. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to connect theoretical frameworks with real-world applications, discovering how industry leaders are successfully navigating the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation. The discussion promises to inspire, inform and leave attendees equipped with actionable insights to steer their organizations confidently into the digital future with Don’t miss this chance to glean wisdom from those actively shaping the digital landscape.
Executive Cocktail Hour & Networking
Join special guest speakers, the Quest Board of Directors and your fellow Executive Forum participants for drinks and appetizers in an informal networking reception.
Day 2 Program Highlights: Tuesday, May 7
Executive Networking Luncheon & Discussion
Host: Ken Piddington
Special Guest: George Danner
Join this intimate networking luncheon with other Executive Forum attendees. The event kicks off with an informal conversation with George Danner, noted technology futurist, best-selling author and BLUEPRINT 4D Opening Keynote guest speaker, and includes ample time for discussion with your tablemates and other participants.
Executive Q&A: Breakout-sessions with the Oracle Product Strategy Teams
Tech and business leaders will benefit from this exclusive opportunity to sit down with the Oracle product strategy executives developing the products used by your company and employees every day. Get strategic updates, talk about the future needs of companies like yours, hear how other companies are leveraging their Oracle investments and learn about things to consider as you build your technology roadmap. Attend one or more sessions to ask questions, get answers and leave better prepared to lead your company into the future.
JD Edwards: Gary Grieshaber & Paul Houtkooper
PeopleSoft: Robbin Velayedam
Cloud ERP: Gary Grieshaber
Move to Cloud: OCI Product Management team & Oracle Consulting Move-to-Cloud team
Agenda at-a-Glance
Monday, May 6, 2024
All times listed in Central Time
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
JD Edwards
PeopleSoft
Move to Cloud
Cloud ERP
Cloud HCM
All times listed in Central Time
Executive Forum Amenities
Participants will enjoy the following:
- Comfortable executive forum meeting rooms with easy access to the full conference education areas
- Reserved seating for BLUEPRINT 4D Opening Keynote
- Meeting concierge & scheduler service for 1:1 Oracle executive meetings
- Upgraded luncheon and reception menus
- Preferred consideration for partner-hosted small group executive lunch and dinner invitations
- Executive gift basket ($150 value)
Contact us
Registration
Presenters
Exhibitors & Sponsors
Special thanks for the support from our sponsors:
Exclusive Executive Forum Sessions
Monday, May 8: Opening Session
IT Satisfaction: a Critical Metric and Tool for Technology Leaders
Presented by: Bryan Tutor, CIO and Executive Counselor at Info-Tech Research Group
Customer satisfaction is a key driver for any organization and IT is no exception. Monitoring and measuring Business Satisfaction with IT is a key metric for all IT organizations, especially as technology leaders are being asked to do more and contribute to business transformation.
In this session, Executive Forum attendees will learn about and discuss how to measure IT stakeholder satisfaction, demonstrate the business impact of IT constraints, deepen stakeholder relations and prioritize areas of improvement. InfoTech Research Group (ITRG) will share benchmarks and best practices, based on thousands of datapoints collected from IT leaders across industries, providing Executive Forum participants with insights and practical, how-to guidance for application within their own organizations.
Attendees will also receive complimentary post-event access to ITRG’s CIO Business Vision diagnostic tool to help assess and improve these areas within their businesses.
Monday, May 8: Afternoon session
Q&A with the Oracle Executive Teams
JD Edwards session:
Gary Grieshaber, Group Vice President, Applications Development at Oracle
Paul Houtkooper, Vice President, Product Development at Oracle
PeopleSoft Session:
Paco Aubrejuan, Senior Vice President, Oracle Applications Development at Oracle
Rebekah Jackson, Vice President, PeopleSoft Strategy & Product Management at Oracle
Executive Forum participants will benefit from this exclusive opportunity to sit down with the Oracle executives developing the products used by your company and employees every day in product-specific break-out sessions for JD Edwards and PeopleSoft.
Bring your questions and enjoy informal conversation with the JD Edwards and PeopleSoft executive teams. Talk about the future needs of companies like yours, hear how other companies are leveraging their Oracle investments and learn about things to consider as your build your technology roadmap.
Ask questions, get answers and leave better prepared to lead your company into the future.
Tuesday, May 9: Morning Session
IT Organizations on the Offensive: Anticipating Opportunity
Presented by: Dan Roberts, CEO of Ouellette & Associates and host of the popular TechWhisperers podcast
Today’s modern-day IT organization needs to be on the offensive — moving up the Maturity Curve so we can position our companies to fight off disruption while driving transformation and disruption ourselves. Beyond being a strategic partner to the business is the IT organization, whose culture of innovation and business acumen enable it to look around the corner and see business opportunities and risks. You’re not just attending business meetings; you’re calling them to discuss new ways to drive revenue, facilitated by data and technology. It is as an anticipator that one becomes a true business leader.
In this session, attendees will learn key insights about the skill sets that define each level on the IT Maturity Curve, where many organizations get stuck on the Curve, and what you must do to advance your leadership and organization along the IT Maturity Curve.
Tuesday, May 9: Afternoon session
Executive Forum Q&A: What does it mean to move to the cloud?
Presented by: Joey Van Ness, Senior Client Partner at Oracle Consulting
Moving to the cloud is more than just a software upgrade, it’s an organization-wide shift in mindset, culture, and ways of working. Are you cloud-ready? And, what exactly does that mean? Learn what it means to move to the cloud, and how you can prepare your people and your technology now. Ask us anything!
Tuesday, May 9: Closing Session
What in IT Matters? Real Talk with Real World Experience
Panel session facilitated by: Dan Roberts, CEO of Ouellette and Associates
Where are technology leaders investing their time and energy in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA)? Learn from some of the brightest minds at the intersection of leadership and technology as they reveal what really matters most to them. Our panel of leaders will talk about grappling with prioritizing evolving technologies, to managing talent and creating an inclusive culture, to anticipating and positioning their team and company to seize opportunity. This session will deliver unfiltered insights into the biggest challenges and opportunities for IT. Leave energized, focused, and ready to get to work.
Immediately following this session, Executive Forum participants will enjoy a cocktail reception, exclusively for Executive Forum registrants, giving attendees a chance to connect with other leaders and their stories.
