Top Five Resources for IT Executives, IT Pros and Developers

With so much noise on the internet, what are the top five curated quality resources and events for IT executives to direct their teams? I get invited to support hundreds each year and I personally get involved with these ones due to the value to executives and their IT teams.

Number 1: Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs)

An MVP like a CIPS fellow is recognition for outstanding service and expertise. MVPs are unbiased and objective, select and exceptional community contributors recognized for their expertise across more than 70 products and services and in over 40 languages. They are independent experts who collectively volunteer tens of thousands of hours each year supporting consumer electronics, smart devices, gaming, enterprise technologies and solutions, solutions for small and medium-sized businesses/organizations. To get firsthand knowledge from MVPs, they have the MVP Virtual Conference, May 14 and 15 that will showcase 95 sessions of content for IT Pros, Developers and Consumer experts designed to help you navigate life in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of Developer Platform, Steve Guggenheimer, will be on hand to deliver the opening Keynote Address.

Number 2: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

The non-profit ACM is the US representative to the United-Nations(UNESCO)-founded IFIP, International Federation for Information Processing. The ACM reach is 3.4 million, with 1.5 million users of the digital library and is the largest and most prestigious organization in computing science: 200 events and conferences, 78 newsletters/publications, 37 special interest groups such as SIGGRAPH, the top awards in computing science such as the ACM A.M. Turing Award -- the Turing is considered the Nobel Prize of Computing with a 1 Million USD prize. They have a suite of services such as books, videos, courses, webcasts, techpacks, podcasts and more through the ACM Learning Center. As one example are the freely available multimedia products with the top experts worldwide (for April 30th the webcast with Mike Stonebraker) and deep dive presentations from their recent Applicative Conference.

Numbers 3 and 4: IFIP World Computer Congress and World CIO Forum

These seminal events are held every two years though alternating. Last year it was the World CIO Forum (WCF) and this year it's the World Computer Congress (WCC) hosted in South Korea. For a look at the World CIO Forum see these two articles for IT World: World CIO Forum: The vice-chair's 8 takeaways, Toyota CTO Tadao Saito: My IT leadership lessons. There is also this week's talk with Carlos Juiz, who spoke on a framework for ICT governance at the 2014 WCF.

The WCC is a family of 12 forums, summits, and conferences -- 2015's top event in Korea providing many opportunities to build government, business and organizational relationships within Korea and also from the over 50 countries participating and gain insights into all aspects of computing. The WCC is Oct 4 to 7 at the Daejeon Convention Center, Daejeon, Korea. Organized by the Korean Institute of Information Scientists and Engineers (KIISE). The WC is supported by: Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning; Daejeon Metropolitan City and Daejeon International Marketing Enterprise. IFIP, the International Federation for Information Processing, was founded under the auspices of the United Nations Educational Scientific Organization in 1960 and now has over 50 country member bodies and affiliates representing over 90 countries. IFIP is a consultative body for IT for the United Nations Educational Scientific Cultural Organization, Sector Member for the International Telecommunications Union or ITU, Scientific Associate Member of the International Council for Science or ICSU.

Number 5: The 38th International Conference on Software Engineering Austin, TX, May 14 - 22, 2016

ICSE is the largest premier international conference in software engineering sponsored by ACM, IEEE CS, Technical Council on Software Engineering, SIGSOFT which are the largest international organizations in computing and software engineering. The event is hosted in a different country each year and draws the top researchers, computing professionals and students from industry, government and universities worldwide — over 50 countries. "There, the top minds in software engineering research and practice will convene for a week of inspirational talks, demos and conversation. A quarter-century after the Texas state capital first hosted ICSE, Austin has become a hub for technology, entrepreneurship, music, outdoor recreation and nightlife. ICSE 2016 will be located in the lovely Austin Arboretum Area — known as "new Austin" — at the start of the Texas hill country and at the peak of the Texas wildflower season. What better setting could there be for flourishing ideas?"

Bonus Number 6: CIO CITY Summit

This annual summit is hosted by CIONET. CIONET represents 4500 CIOs from Europe, Asia, South America and North America and last year at the World CIO Forum signed a partnership with the China CIO Union, the official Chinese CIO organization. CIO CITY 2015, the European digital leadership summit is held June 4 and 5 and features the European CIOs of the Year. The delegates are CIOs and CEOs. "For the fifth consecutive year CIONET gathers top thought leaders and IT professionals around vital topics to make digital leaders more successful in the immediate future. With its interactive workshops, multiple CIO speeches, keynote addresses and networking opportunities, this event has proven to be an invaluable opportunity for CIO's around to globe to get new ideas and insights."