I’m honored to be the Co-Founder and current Membership Chair of the San Diego Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM). Late last year we co-hosted our 3rd annual CIO Summit in Del Mar, California. As you would expect with events of this type, it was a day filled with world-renowned speakers, prominent IT executive panelists, and lots of networking. Of course the theme of the Summit resonated well with all the IT thought leaders in attendance: “The Big Shift” Leadership, Innovation and Transformation in a Customer-Centric Economy.
For me, however, the real highlight of the day was during the lunch break. No, it wasn’t the pasta and various and sundry other items you’d find in a pretty nondescript buffet, but rather our organization’s ability to fulfill one of its primary charters for which our San Diego Chapter was founded. Giving back. When my co-founder and I started the SIM San Diego Chapter 4 years ago, we didn’t want to be just another professional networking organization. Sure, we put on great events at great venues; relevant topics for IT executives have included Consumerization of IT, Cyber Security, and Social Media and the Enterprise; events have been held at popular venues such as Stone Brewing, the HornBlower Cruise Ship, Pacifica Del Mar, and the new FBI Headquarters. But what was, and is, really important to our Chapter members is the community outreach aspect of our organization’s mission.
It was with great pleasure that at this Summit our Board, on behalf of its membership, was able to award 4 students majoring in Information Technology or Computer Science with $10,000 in scholarship money. A student from each SIM San Diego membership university was nominated by their respective faculty for the award, each receiving $2,500. The students receiving awards were Steve Nguyen of Cal State San Marcos; Hui (Amy) Lieu of San Diego State University; Tim Little of Point Loma Nazarene University; and Dan Partynski of the University of San Diego. It was a great CIO Summit given the speakers, topics, and attendees, but the give-back, now that was gratifying.
Barb Munro is the Co-Founder of The Carrera Agency and SIM San Diego. She has over 25 years of IT experience in organizations ranging from Fortune 100 firms to start-up software and consulting companies. She has a wide breadth of industry knowledge including experience in software development and data base design, product management, quality assurance, customer relationship management, and sales and marketing. Reach out to Barb at barb.munro@104.237.135.190.