Crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 1620 took nine and a half weeks. In 1952, it was 3.5 days. Now it’s seven hours. How is that possible? Because the mode of transportation changed from sailing ship to steamship to jet airplane. That’s easy to see. But what isn’t so obvious is how everything around those modes of transportation had to change as well. The tools used for navigation on even the fastest sailing ships would not work for air travel.

In this engaging keynote, Roy Atkinson will explore how transformation is essential in order to make the next leap of speed in business, and how information technology is necessary to enable that transformation. The capabilities we call “IT” have never been more important. Without getting hung-up on buzzwords, Roy will discuss why speed has become so essential to business and what’s necessary to feed the need for speed, knowing that the thinking we are using now will not be adequate for the future.