Futurist Ade McCormack to headline Computing's IT Leaders Festival

McCormack, founder of the Digital Readiness Institute, has worked with hundreds of organisations across 40 countries

Ade McCormack, founder of the Digital Readiness Institute, is to headline this summer's Computing IT Leaders Festival.

Futurist McCormack has worked with hundreds of organisations around the world, including Intel, IBM, HSBC and John Lewis. He is also the author of the books Beyond Nine to Five, Biz 4.0 and Attention Dynamics.

He believes that organisations shouldn't just seek to be ‘resilient', but ‘super resilient'. That is to say, capable of growing stronger as a result of adapting to the forces they face every day. That requires the ability to take, process and respond to data quickly. Often, it means flatter management structures and more highly skilled staff taking more responsibility.

How can you create a ‘safe environment' that enables failure, innovation, and growth within the team?

But it doesn't necessarily mean, for example, that manufacturers should sell software instead, but rather use new technology to make existing products better. McCormack cites the example of John Deere, augmenting its core products - tractors - with the technology enabling farmers to work more efficiently and effectively. In other words, not just selling a product, but becoming a partner of its customers.

"Digital is much more than the industrial era amped up on ‘tech steroids'. Looking through the lens of leadership we will explore how the digital typhoon is impacting business models and people," said McCormack.

He continued: "This session at the IT Leaders Festival will also look at the changing role of the IT Leader, and how to be successful in managing consistent flux and change. How can you create a ‘safe environment' that enables failure, innovation, and growth within the team? Finally, how to build super-resilience into your organisation and the importance of being a visible change leader."

Computing's IT Leaders Festival in October promises to be even bigger and better than the well-established Computing IT Leaders Summits of recent years - hosted in a bigger venue, it doesn't just promise more sessions and presentations. It has tracks split into Leadership, Transformation and Automation with sessions presented by specialists in each field. It also offers a Mentoring Academy, ‘Zen Den', Well-Being Zone and a Tech Zone, as well as opportunities to Ask a CIO and Speak to the Speaker.

Furthermore, the event is all CPD accredited, too.

To view our programme, and to find out more about the day, please see the dedicated Computing IT Leaders Festival 2020 website.