Overview
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This Conference has been kindly sponsored by
We are delighted to announce the 2012 CFDG IT Conference
Catch up with new trends in ICT with the 2012 CFDG IT Conference. As ever, this promises to be a lively and informative day. We have put together a programme that we hope you will find both interesting and challenging. The key underlying theme this year is the importance of seeing ICT as an enabler rather than just a cost-centre. We will be looking at how to reduce the risks that ICT brings to your organisation whilst focussing on the practical ways that it can help you deliver services and engage with stakeholders.
As usual we will have two streams to the conference giving you a choice of ten sessions to attend. There will be a mixture of charity case-studies - eg Jane Deal of RNIB on project management and Mark Hallam of RNLI on setting IT strategy - as well as expert guidance. We have sessions that will look at the opportunities presented by the blossoming of social media in the past few years; at the benefits that can be achieved from outsoucing IT services.
We are sure the combination of strategic focus and technological trends will give you food for thought and help you understand the impact and implications of IT for your organisation.
Why you need to attend?
• Get your complete update on all IT issues you should be aware of in 201 2 in just one day
• Meet colleagues and discuss other organisations’ experiences
• Hear high-level speakers from the corporate and charity world
Who should attend?
Finance Directors, Directors of Resources, IT Directors, IT Managers, Chief Executives, Trustees with an interest in IT
Download the conference brochure in PDF 
The Reception
Delegates attending the conference are invited to a reception immediately following the end of the programme.
The reception provides the ideal opportunity to network with speakers and delegates at the end of the day.
The Exhibition
There will be an exhibition alongside the conference programme. Exhibitors working in a range of service areas will be available for delegates to meet, ask questions and share information.
The informal setting is an excellent opportunity to find products and service suppliers who can assist in tackling your charities’ problems and who can help to make the management of your charity more efficient.
The conference timetable allows delegates plenty of opportunity to browse the exhibition and network during breaks.
The following companies are exhibiting at the 2012 IT Conference:
ASI Europe - www.asieurope.eu
Blackbaud - www.blackbaud.co.uk
Broadgate - www.broadgateinfonet.co.uk
Capita IB Solutions - www.ibsolutions.com
Horizon Computers - www.horizoncomputers.co.uk
IP Performance - www.ip-performance.co.uk
Iris - www.iris.co.uk
Kingston Smith - www.kscllp.co.uk
M-hance - www.m-hance.com
Premier IT - www.premierit.com
PS Financials - www.psfinancials.com
RCS London Ltd - www.rcs-london.com
Sayer Vincent - www.sayervincent.co.uk
thankQ - www.thankq.co.uk
Touchstone Group - www.touchstone.co.uk
To book a stand email jazmine.bradfield@cfdg.org.uk
Programmes/Presentations
This year we will have two streams, enabling you to pick the sessions that are most relevant for your organisation
PROGRAMME
09:00-09:45 REGISTRATION
09:45-10:00 WELCOME BY CHAIR
John Tate, CFDG IT Advisor
10:00-10:40 OPENING PLENARY
Post-Bureaucratic Government, Open Platforms, and Innovation: Why Government IT should never be the same again
Mark Thompson, Director of Strategy, Methods Consulting, Lecturer in Information Systems at Judge Business School, IT Futures Advisor, Cabinet Office
Mark explains how recent developments in open standards and supporting technologies are already having exciting, radically disruptive consequences for traditional ways of thinking about IT. As a result, we will soon be designing organisations differently, procuring technology differently, and expecting radically different behaviours from our suppliers. Mark has been a key thinker in the development of an emerging climate within public sector IT based on open standards, and his ideas have been taken up by policymakers including the Cabinet Office.
Download the paper here (available until the 1 March 2012)
10:40-11:10 TEA/COFFEE BREAK & TIME TO EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION
11:10-11:55 SESSION 1
1A Project Management "It Ain't What You Do, It's The Way That You Do It!"
Jane Deal, Head of Information & Knowledge Systems, RNIB
This session will cover some of the common pitfalls that affect projects, particularly those involving IT, and how to mitigate against them, whether the project be large or small.
1B Outsourcing IT
Trevor Skingle, IT & Facilities Manager, Redr
Trevor will talk about the need for external buy in of IT support from RCS for RedR UK, small organisation deploying in country in difficult situations with limited resources. The session will look at the broad range of technical support required, managing risks and expectations, and an example of a long term in country issue that is being resolved with RCS’s support.
11:55-12:00 5 MINS TO MOVE BETWEEN SESSIONS
12:00-12:45 SESSION 2
2A Strategy for the IT FD
Mark Hallam, Finance & Information Systems Director, Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Mark is very focused on his dual role as both Finance and IS director at the RNLI, and changed his job title on joining to give equal prominence to both roles. He will discuss his role as the non technical, technical IT expert on the RNLI's management team, and how he both maintains a high profile of the IT department's strategy, vision, issues and risks within the organisation, and leads a broad team of IT professionals as a non IT professional director.
2B How to move a datacentre
Brychan Watkins, Head of IS & Ben Grinstead, Senior Infrastructure Analyst, Action for Children
In 2010 Action for Children moved its primary datacentre into the Global Switch Datacentre in docklands and 4 months later moved its secondary datacentre into its new administrative site in Watford. This presentation describes what it took to do this successfully, some of the key technical decisions that made it successful, the reasons for the decision to move the data centre and the benefits that have come from it, both intentional and unexpected.
12:45-13:45 LUNCH & TIME TO EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION
13:45-14:30 SESSION 3
3A Social Media
Liz Cable, Social Media Consultant, Reach Further
Liz Cable will talk about how social media can help charities and NGOs get their voices heard. Specifically she will focus on how social media can engage supporters with your work.
3B Reviewing your IT needs
Ian Pritchard, Partner, Sayer Vincent & Laura Dawson, Head of Information Systems, RSPB
The economic outlook for 2012 is challenging to say the least and the commercial availability of Information Technology is both an opportunity and a threat. The expectation that charities will do more with less is bound to be huge. What questions should CEOs and Finance Directors be asking their heads of IT? Do the traditional approaches to strategic planning still work or has technology evolved in a way that means we need to change the way we plan and manage it? In this session, Laura Dawson of the RSPB and Iain Pritchard of Sayer Vincent will consider a range of models for evaluating IT, how to work out what needs to change, what should be left alone, and what will constitute fit for purpose in an uncertain future.
14:30-14:35 5 MINS TO MOVE BETWEEN SESSIONS
14:35-15:20 SESSION 4
4A Cyber Crime & Fraud
Steve Proffitt, Deputy Head and Assurance Manager, Action Fraud
Steve will talk about Action Fraud and what the reporting centre reports. He will also give some basic tips around fraud prevention.
4B Achieving Durable Security: Being honest about what you can really do
Tom Whipp, Head of Risk, The Oval Group
Tom will recap current likely threats to charity organisations (internal, external and environmental) and then look at the psychology/criminology theories that need to be considered when of implementing controls and end by considering what are the real world success factors for delivering security improvements both in terms of resourcing and organisational politics.
15:20-15:50 TEA/COFFEE BREAK & TIME TO EXPLORE THE EXHIBITION
15:50-16:35 CLOSING PLENARY
Web 3.0 – challenge or opportunity for accountants?
Clive Holtham, Professor of Information Management; Director; Cass Learning Laboratory
Web 3.0 is the semantic web, where structured information becomes embedded into objects and systems, which can then communicate which other reliably on a machine to machine basis. This has the potential to destabilise many professions whose central purpose is the collection, analysis and re-presentation of information. But it could also open up tremendous possibilities for the exploitation of information by individuals, professionals, organisations and society as a whole. This presentation reviews both possibilities and concludes with an opinion on the speed and nature of change.
16:35-16:45 SUMMARY OF CONFERENCE BY CHAIR
16:45-18:30 RECEPTION & NETWORKING