Recognizing Practical Leadership Where It's Overlooked

Letter from the Founder

Dear Colleagues and Partners,

In 2016, my wife Jennifer and I hosted the first CIO forum in Clearwater, Florida with just five attendees. That small, authentic gathering has grown into a trusted network of approximately 200 active CIOs participating in roughly 30 forums every quarter across 30 cities — primarily serving state & local government, education, healthcare, utilities, and mid-market organizations.

Over the past decade we have watched these leaders quietly deliver extraordinary results under real constraints: tight budgets, complex regulations, legacy systems, and rising expectations from citizens, students, patients, and boards. Yet the major national awards programs — CIO 100, Gartner Eye on Innovation, MIT Sloan, and others — remain heavily weighted toward large private-sector enterprises with substantial marketing resources. Mid-market, SLED, education, and healthcare CIOs often feel they do not have a realistic path to recognition.

That is the gap we set out to close. The vTECH io CIO Impact Awards are designed to be peer-nominated and community-owned. Nominations come primarily from within our network of forum participants. Selection is guided by practical impact — responsible AI adoption, cybersecurity resilience under budget pressure, digital transformation that actually improves public service, and the quiet work of mentoring the next generation of technology leaders.

This is not another vendor awards show. Executives will outnumber partners in the room. The focus stays on the CIOs. Sponsors gain authentic association with real leadership excellence in the exact markets where they sell.

We have already secured Dell Technologies as Title Sponsor alongside vTECH io, Intel for the AI Leadership category, Bitdefender for Cybersecurity Resilience, and Wasabi for the Rising Star category.

I would be honored to have you participate in this inaugural year — whether as a nominator, attendee, or partner.