Nicholas Carr
Author of The Big Switch & Does IT Matter?
What Your IT Department Will Look Like in 2020

In this lecture, which draws on the themes of his new book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, Nick Carr uses stories from the past, present, and future to create a historical, economic, and technological context for the transformation of IT that is now underway. He looks ahead to how IT departments themselves will be transformed by "the big switch." Rich with examples and anecdotes, Carr's lecture is intended to spur fresh thinking and incite constructive discussions about the future of IT.

His intriguing 2003 Harvard Business Review article “IT Doesn’t Matter,” was an instant sensation, setting the stage for the global debate on the strategic value of information technology in business. His 2004 book, Does IT Matter?: Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, published by Harvard Business School Press, was a bestseller and kept the worldwide business community discussing the role of computers and IT in business. His new 2008 book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google, examines the future of computing and its implications for business and society. The Wall Street Journal says The Big Switch is "destined to influence CEOs and the boards and investors that support them as companies grapple with the constant change of the digital age."

A prolific business thinker, Carr has written more than a dozen other articles and interviews for Harvard Business Review and writes regularly for the Financial Times, Strategy & Business and The Guardian. His articles have also appeared in the New York Times, MIT Sloan Management Review, Wired, Business 2.0, Boston Globe, Industry Standard, The Banker, Director, BusinessWeek Online as well as in his blog, Rough Type. He also edited The Digital Enterprise, a book of HBR writings on the Internet. Carr is a member of the Encyclopedia Britannica's editorial board of advisors.

Carr has served as a commentator on CNBC, CNN, and other networks and has been a featured speaker worldwide at industry, educational, and government forums. In 2005, Optimize Magazine named Carr one of the leading thinkers on information technology, and in 2007 eWeek named him one of the 100 most influential people in IT.

Earlier in his career, Carr was a principal at Mercer Management Consulting. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.A., in English literature, from Harvard University.

Peter Coffee
Director of Platform Research, Salesforce.com
The Effect of Web 2.0, Collaboration and Social Networking’s on the Business Environment

For enterprise organizations, internal communications are becoming increasingly difficult as business structures and technologies continue to grow in complexity. These challenges limit an organizations ability to securely collaborate on projects, reducing project efficiency and document accuracy. This presentation will showcase how your organization can tackle these communication challenges to increase communication and collaboration with anyone regardless of location.

Eddie Schwartz
CSO, Netwitness Corporation
Network Forensic Techniques to Accelerate Incident Response

Drawing upon case studies of sophisticated cyber attacks observed within the public and private sectors, this session discusses approaches for significant improvements in threat intelligence and incident response through new approaches to network security monitoring. The session provides an in-depth examination of detecting and analyzing zero-day attacks and advanced data infiltration techniques used by organized crime and nation-sponsored attackers while providing techniques for building an active threat intelligence plan.

His work in the security and privacy space includes strategic and operational engagements with organizations such as the US Department of State, US Department of Justice, US Postal Service, AIG, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Marriott Corporation, McDonald’s Corporation, Merrill Lynch, Mutual of Omaha, Thomson Financial, and Vanguard. Prior to Netwitness, Mr. Schwartz was CTO for Mantech Security Technologies Corp., and VP and General Manager for Predictive Systems, Inc., SVP/Operations for Guardent, Inc., and Chief Information Security Officer (CISC) for Nationwide Insurance Enterprise, and a Senior Computer Scientist with CSC. Mr. Schwartz served on the Board of Directors of secured services, inc. Infosec , and has served on the executive committee and lab governance board for the banking information technology secretariat (bits) and the board of advisors for numerous security start-ups. He has worked as a technical advisor to Boston and New YorK VC firms, and the workgroup for the computerization of behavioral health and human services records. Mr. Schwartz has a B.I.S.in information security management and an M.S. in information technology management from George Mason University.

Prior to embarking on his consulting and writing career, Robert was a network applications programmer and WAN administrator. He earned a BA in English at Oberlin College.