Professor Ron Weber- Dean, Faculty of Information Technology – Monash University, Conrad Harvey – Group General Manager – IT - Coles

Jane Wilson – Director – Information Technology, Asia Pacific – Dun & Bradstreet, Ashley Peck – General Manager – ICT, SP AusNet

and Moderator Morris Lieberman – CIO – Treasury Wine Estates

'Has Globalisation negatively impacted Australia’s future IT capability?’

The Women are IT Network is thrilled to present it’s first debate with a topic that is sure to challenge the audience.  This invitation is being offered to men and women, members and non-members alike and should not be missed.

The affirmative team: Globalisation has negatively impacted Australia’s future IT capability to be presented by:

· Professor Ron Weber- Dean, Faculty of Information Technology – Monash University

· Conrad Harvey – Group General Manager – IT - Coles

The negative team: Globalisation has not negatively impacted Australia’s future IT capability to be presented by:

· Jane Wilson – Director – Information Technology, Asia Pacific – Dun & Bradstreet

· Ashley Peck – General Manager – ICT, SP AusNet

The Moderator –Morris Lieberman – CIO – Treasury Wine Estates

We will not strictly adhere to a debate format, however we will be presented affirmative and negative arguments moderated by Morris Lieberman, concluded with audience participation.

Anne Weatherston - CIO ANZ

Amanda Gome - CEO Private Media, Founder Smartcompany, Startup Smart

Topic : "Meeting Diversity Targets" 

According to leading research, it has been revealed that companies with the highest representation of women in their senior management teams achieve a 35% higher return on investment and a 34% higher total return to shareholders than companies with the lowest women’s representation. In spite of this, only a small proportion of business leadership positions are actually held by women.

Women start careers with the same level of intelligence, education and commitment as men. Yet few reach the top echelons.

Today we will hear two inspiring stories and learn the leadership tools and techniques required to achieve and develop personal and business leadership success.

Janet Matton - Vice President, Sales Enablement & Operations, IBM, Australia / New Zealand

Bhawna Kapoor - Enterprise Architect – AGL Energy Limited

Sonja Bernhardt - OAM – CEO, ThoughtWare

Topic : "What impact will cloud computing have on the way in which we work." 

The Women are IT network is absolutely delighted to be commencing 2011 with a panel of presenters representing the very highest degree of talent available in Australia.

This invitation is being offered to men and women, members and non-members alike and should be considered essential for all business leaders.

The term "cloud" is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents. However, ‘Cloud Computing’ is not readily understood.
The fundamental concept of cloud computing is that the computing is "in the cloud" i.e. that the processing (and the related data) is not in a specified, known or the same place.

Generally, cloud computing customers do not own the physical infrastructure, instead avoiding capital expenditure by renting usage from a third-party provider.