All 2026 Conference Tracks

I&O leaders are confronted with unparalleled challenges that complicate the creation of a flexible and forward-looking vision for their organizations. Developing a dynamic strategy and roadmap is essential, but true success lies in the effective leadership, execution and continuous adaptation of that strategy. This track is dedicated to supporting I&O leaders as they communicate with their leaders, design, transform and manage their functions, ensuring they have the right talent and skills in place to meet both current and future organizational needs.

Successfully navigating the constant whirlwind of innovation and disruptions is essential for maintaining a competitive advantage. Innovation is not limited to technology advancements; it also encompasses corporate social responsibility, customer and employee experiences, and unlocking the power of people and technology to drive improvement. This track examines how I&O leaders can empower their teams to drive organizational success by embracing innovation and disruption.

As organizations seek greater value from their cloud investments, the strategic role of cloud platforms in driving emerging business innovations has never been more critical. Transforming cloud platforms enables I&O leaders to accelerate business outcomes by implementing a structured and cohesive approach to cloud innovation, modernization, governance, adoption and migration. This track guides cloud leaders in developing and executing transformative strategies that harness the full potential of cloud platforms, ensuring they become powerful enablers of organizational goals and sustained competitive advantage.

Organizations are under immense pressure to adapt to rapidly evolving business demands and to make decisions about their data center futures. This track is designed for I&O leaders seeking to modernize data centers and infrastructure to support the breadth of workloads a modern organization requires. By focusing on these areas, leaders can drive the adoption of modern platforms that empower their organizations with the agility, resilience, technology enablement and innovation required in today’s dynamic environment.

Operations leaders are tasked with reimagining strategies for delivering complex, distributed operations that align with evolving customer expectations on AI. I&O leaders are continually exploring innovative solutions to support hybrid workloads, adopt AI in their operations, enhancing resilience and recovery, and maintain optimal system performance. This track highlights how I&O leaders can drive transformation within their operations teams by embracing new practices and cutting-edge technologies, enabling them to intelligently navigate and manage increasingly intricate operational landscapes.

I&O plays a pivotal role in shaping employees’ experiences within the digital workplace. I&O and end-user services leaders face the challenge of adapting to rising expectations, striving to provide engaging and seamless DEX while safeguarding assets through endpoint management and patching. This track offers guidance to help you elevate and achieve your near- and midterm goals, providing clarity amid industry hype so you can concentrate on modernizing the digital workplace and advancing your organization’s digital maturity.

Security is fundamental to a robust, resilient and effective I&O. To efficiently mitigate risks, organizations must prioritize integrated collaboration and embed security at every layer of their I&O operations, ensuring agility and cost-effectiveness are maintained. This track equips I&O leaders with strategies to proactively secure and defend their organizations against threats, risks and vulnerabilities. It emphasizes the importance of partnering closely with security and compliance teams, and integrating security, recovery and compliance best practices.

A shortage of critical skills and talent remains one of the most significant challenges facing organizations today. Rapidly changing business needs, swift technological advancements and a competitive talent landscape make workforce planning increasingly complex. The success of all I&O initiatives relies on robust skills development. This track is designed to help I&O leaders ensure they have the right talent with the right skills to meet both current and future organizational demands.

Cost optimization and value realization are essential priorities for I&O; navigating economic uncertainty, inflation and talent shortages is crucial for success. This track, designed for sourcing, procurement, vendor management and I&O leaders, explores strategies to optimize operational costs across software, services and infrastructure whether at the edge, in the cloud, or on-premises while maximizing business value.

AI is critical to the I&O operating environment. Developing approaches to utilize AI and realize tangible value from AI is essential, as well as charting a course to incorporate AI into more of your use cases. It is also critical that I&O become an enabler of AI in their broader organization, supporting business initiatives to introduce, utilize and gain value from AI. This spotlight track focuses on guiding I&O leaders in these two endeavors and exploring the use cases and organizational needs they are challenged to meet. 

Sourcing, procurement and vendor management leaders must become catalysts for business-led IT sourcing while supporting diversity and sustainability. This spotlight track helps sourcing, procurement and vendor management leaders reinvent their role by focusing on business outcomes through digitally enabled processes and tools, and provide value by leveraging data to make better decisions.

Midsize enterprises face many of the same challenges as large organizations, but also have unique challenges and have fewer resources with which to execute. You have greater agility and lower bureaucratic overhead that can provide the edge on larger competitors. Dedicated sessions and networking opportunities in this spotlight track are designed with your scale and operational environment in mind.

Created for the most senior infrastructure and operations leaders, the Senior Leadership Circle Program is an exclusive opportunity to engage with Gartner analysts as well as your I&O peers and attend recommended sessions to optimize your conference experience. As part of the IT IOCS conference track for I&O leaders, we suggest attending the sessions on skills, organization and leadership as well as sessions exclusive to the program. An application is required. 

The Technical Insights spotlight track for I&O leaders offers sessions that provide in-depth analysis of critical I&O topics. They are designed for attendees who desire greater technical detail in areas of architecture and design. The sessions are presented by Gartner for Technical Professionals analysts.