In-Person

Southern California CIO Community

Executive Summit

June 23, 2026 | The Waterfront Beach Resort

June 23, 2026
The Waterfront Beach Resort

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Southern California's top CIOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.

Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CIOs today:

Operationalizing Enterprise AI and Governance

Modernizing Core Architecture and Data Foundations

Bolstering Cyber Resilience and Global Risk Management

Southern California CIO Governing Body

The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CIOs, For CIOs®.

Governing Body Co-Chairs

Allen Fazio

Houlihan Lokey
CIO

Chad Hamilton

Fremantle
VP, Technology

Kelly Hamilton

Sony Pictures Entertainment
CIO

Greg Moore

KB Home
VP & CIO

Thomas Phelps

Laserfiche
CIO & Innovate@UCLA Past Executive Chair

Anand Radhakrishnan

KIND
Chief Information Officer

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CIO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Southern California CIO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda

Breakout Sessions

Enterprise AI Frameworks — Building Real Readiness

AI adoption is accelerating, but most organizations lack the structure to deploy it safely and at scale. This session breaks down how Daikin Applied built an enterprise-ready AI framework that balances governance, innovation, and measurable business value.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:
• Build scalable enterprise AI governance
• Structure an effective AI Center of Excellence
• Quantify business value from AI use cases

Identity Resilience — The New Imperative for Business Continuity

As organizations shift from prevention to limiting harm, identity resilience is becoming essential to business continuity. For CIOs, it bridges cybersecurity, risk management, and recovery operations. Because identity compromise accelerates disruption, IT and security must break down silos and integrate identity into disaster recovery to ensure rapid restoration.

Join this session to explore how to:

  • Make identity resilience central to risk management
  • Unify IT, security, and recovery teams
  • Prioritize assets for identity-focused recovery

Activating Unstructured Data and Agents in the Enterprise

The shift from basic AI assistants to autonomous agents is reshaping the enterprise, turning passive tools into scalable workflows. Real advantage emerges when intelligence is grounded in an organization’s unique, proprietary content. As leaders move beyond early experiments, the priority becomes breaking down silos and establishing governance that ensures agents operate on a reliable foundation.

Join this interactive session to learn how to:

  • Prioritize measurable growth beyond LLM hype
  • Connect content to unlock meaningful AI performance
  • Understand the monetary and labor opportunity costs of AI transformation

From Pilot to Powerhouse—Scaling Automation

Many AI initiatives fail before they ever show value, but real progress often begins with small, unglamorous operational processes. This session explores how Generali Global Assistance automated a repetitive compliance and asset‑management workflow, saving hundreds of hours and strengthening cross‑functional alignment. The story highlights what worked, what didn’t, and how to scale meaningful automation across the enterprise.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:

  • Identify high‑impact automation opportunities
  • Build cross‑functional alignment for AI adoption
  • Strengthen data foundations for scalable automation



Executive Boardroom Session

IT Talent Transformation—Adapting for What’s Next

As AI transforms IT operations, leaders face new challenges: finding the right talent, keeping remote teams engaged, and redefining what it means to build a future-ready bench. Let’s talk candidly about what’s working, what isn’t, and how we can help our people thrive in this new era.

In this boardroom, we’ll discuss how to:

  • Identify and attract the human skills needed for AI success

  • Rethink roles and retention for a remote, AI-augmented workforce

  • Develop adaptable leaders who can guide teams through change



We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming in-person gathering

Gartner cares about the health and safety of our community. If you are feeling unwell, please refrain from attending the conference. At this time, Gartner does not have any health-related requirements in place for attendance. Should this change, we will follow up with updated guidance.

Location

Venue & Accommodation

The Waterfront Beach Resort

A block of rooms has been reserved at the The Waterfront Beach Resort at a reduced conference rate. Reservations should be made online or by calling 714-845-8000. Please mention SCES26 to ensure the appropriate room rate.

Deadline to book using the discounted room rate of $429 USD (plus tax) is June 1, 2026.

Your Community Sponsors

Global Thought Leaders

CIO Thought Leaders

Key Sponsors

Program Sponsors

Community Program Manager

For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.

Lauren Hursley

Senior Community Program Manager

503-575-8524

lauren.hursley@gartner.com