Join now FREE. The Grand Rapids Tech Leaders is an association of IT leaders and decision makers who meet to share ideas and best practices. See how some of the best local companies solve their IT challenges with innovative solutions.
Association Schedule

2021: Jan.15, Feb.12, Mar.12, Apr.19, May.14, Jun.11, Jul.16, Aug.13, Sep.17, Oct.8, Nov.12 Dec.10.
2022: Jan.20, Feb.17, Mar.17, Apr.21, May.19, Jun.16, Jul.21, Aug.18, Sep.15, Oct.20, Nov.17, Dec.15.

Date: June 24, 2021.
Location: Grand Rapids Maririott, 235 Louis St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
• What's Working in Supporting Remote Workers (Panel Discussion)
• New and Persisting Cybersecurity Threats During COVID-19
• Assessing IT Weaknesses Exposed by COVID-19 (Panel Discussion)
• Geopolitical Cyberwarfare – Hacktivism-as-a-Trend
• Conclusion and Upcoming Monthly Speakers Schedule (Included).

Our most popular member benefits include a book summary of the month, key articles and ideas each month, mentoring resources and much more. Watch recent speakers, get completion certificates if you track your development hours, network with other members, get intros, set up times to meet up with key members, and more for 12 months.

also includes 12 monthly speakers by webinar, access to our online
IT community resources, and our exceptional monthly benefits.
Featured Current and Past Speakers (INCLUDED On-Demand) . . .
Join your peers by registering now. Gather the key IT knowledge needed to be indispensible. This year's Tech Summit agenda is carefully designed to provide you with the latest IT trends and knowledge needed to make the best possible decisions on behalf of your organization. It will allow you to see the best practices other leading companies have adopted, key IT challenges they are facing, and new solutions that are solving these challenges. The available seating is limited so be sure to sign up as soon as possible to ensure you will have a seat. You are welcome to invite other key people on your team.
![]() Sanjay Shringarpure CIO E.J. Gallo Winery ![]() Mike Wright Global CIO McKinsey and Co. ![]() Blaine Hurst EVP and CTO Panera Bread ![]() Tom Woehrle VP Global IS Boston Scientific |
![]() Jason Krever Director IT Campbell Soup ![]() Bala Subramanian CTO Standard and Poor's ![]() Sean McCormack CTO Harley-Davidson ![]() Liz Reich V.P. IT Mastercard |
![]() David Kepler CIO Dow Chemical ![]() Jean Wilson Sr.V..P. IS LL Bean ![]() Jay Vijayan CIO Tesla Motors ![]() Jon Kirby CIO AstraZeneca |

also includes 12 monthly speakers by webinar, access to our online
IT community resources, and our exceptional monthly benefits.

Example Past Participants in Our Nationwide Events
• AECOM • Aggreko llc • Ally Financial • Altegra Health • Aramark • Arby's Restaurant Group • BB&T • Bell Flavors & Fragrances • Big Lots • Burrow Global, LLC • Capital One • Catholic Charities USA • CH2M HILL • City of Grand Rapids • City of Fort Worth | • CVS Health • DC Department of HR • Dept of Veteran Affairs • Detroit Housing Comm • Dollar Tree • Dunkin' Bands • Encore Capital Group • Energy Transfer • Equifax • FEMA • First Green Bank • Florida Blue • Franczek Radelet P.C. • FUJIFILM SonoSite, Inc. • GameStop | • Hilton • Hotel Managers Group • Kelly Moore Paint • Kennesaw State • Luminant • Mansfield Oil Company • Marriott • MARTA • McKesson • Montgomery County Gov • Museum of Art • National Labor Relations • Pasco Co Sheriff's Office • PepsiCo • Petro Hunt, L.L.C. | • Rexel USA • Rutgers University • Santander Consumer • SBM Offshore USA, Inc. • Sharp HealthCare • Southeast Restoration • Starwood • SunTrust • The Container Store • Goodyear Tire & Rubber • The Home Depot • TransCentra • TXU Energy • United Natural Foods, Inc • University of Colorado | |
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Please Thank Our Sponsors.

also includes 12 monthly speakers by webinar, access to our online
IT community resources, and our exceptional monthly benefits.

Detailed Agenda

subject to change without notice
9:30 am - Business Continuity Amidst COVID-19 Business continuity planning involves creating the capability to identify how unplanned disasters could disrupt critical business functions, and having a plan allows the organization to take steps to mitigate a disaster’s impact when people, systems, facilities, suppliers, and partners may be unavailable for an extended period. Learn top crisis management and crisis communications techniques, and offer member training and participation in simulation exercises to become skilled in responding to a disaster. Galvanize C-level champions who supports the goal of operational resiliency and create a team within the operations division. Why determining the best way to prepare crisis communications in order to document procedures is necessary to ensure consistent messaging is presented to internal and external stakeholders. 10:00 am - Tools to Keep remote workers engaged and productive
Learn from this panel of operational experts on the best ways to deal with productivity and engagement within a digital work environment. Hear from top organizational experts on the best practices to reach operational targets and goals with an online workforce. Create a personal environment where people are recognized and create times in which you can be responsive to feedback and questions. Learn top execution strategies for regular check-ins and the best online-building techniques. 10:30 am - Latest Hacker Strategies and Counters
Hackers have cost the global economy billions. Additionally, loss of trust of your users whose data was likely compromised. The costs are even harder to bear for small/medium businesses. Everything from attacks on internet banking customers, denial of service attacks, to ransomware viruses. These attacks are daily and varied. Join this session for best practices and leading trends developed to protect companies of all sizes. 11:00 am - New in Disaster Recovery
IT disasters happen every day, in every company. With the right preparation, no one ever hears about them. Without it, these disasters can make the evening news. The first step is to define what your company cannot live without, otherwise known as a Business Impact Analysis (BIA). Once the mission critical applications have been identified, you must then agree upon what is acceptable downtime or the recovery time objective (RTO). The difference between zero downtime and fifteen minutes of downtime is significant from a cost perspective. This session will then cover the new tools available for the actual backup and disaster recovery process including testing. There's little doubt that bring-your-own-device (BYOD) adoption has profoundly changed the enterprise. By 2017, one-half of organizations will no longer provide devices to their employees, according to industry research. This is another banner year where personal devices are expected to make a bigger leap forward than ever and with the line between personal and business blurring, BYOD technology needs to be able to adapt with the changes ahead. - Keep usage policies updated.
- Secure the end points.
- Track impact and set device ceilings.
- Plan security around the data/content/holes.
11:30 am - Mobile and BYOD Security
There's little doubt that bring-your-own-device (BYOD) adoption has profoundly changed the enterprise. By 2017, one-half of organizations will no longer provide devices to their employees, according to industry research. This is another banner year where personal devices are expected to make a bigger leap forward than ever and with the line between personal and business blurring, BYOD technology needs to be able to adapt with the changes ahead. - Keep usage policies updated.
- Secure the end points.
- Track impact and set device ceilings.
- Plan security around the data/content/holes.
12:00 am - Conclusion.
This concludes our speaker sessions, but we encourage you to reach out to any of our service providers for additional information. Thank you for your time and participation in our event.


also includes 12 monthly speakers by webinar, access to our online
IT community resources, and our exceptional monthly benefits.