ATLANTA, Aug. 16, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Atlanta CEO Council today announced that the ION Venture Forum, its annual investor showcase, will feature a panel discussion with industry-leading chief information officers. Panel members will discuss corporate entrepreneurship, mobile applications, offshore development, productivity improvement and global trends in IT, as well as share their vision for the marketplace.
The ION Venture Forum will take place Sept. 25-26 at the Buckhead Ritz Carlton in Atlanta, Ga. The CIO Panel Discussion will be held Wednesday, Sept. 26 along with presentations by emerging technology companies seeking funding.
The panel will consist of Brian Shield, executive vice president and CIO of The Weather Channel; Karen Painter, senior vice president of enterprise applications at Turner Broadcasting Systems; Robin Bienfait, CIO of Research In Motion; and Sue Powers, CIO and senior vice president of Worldspan.
"For years, the CEO Council has provided a forum for important technology industry dialogue and leadership," said Shield. "The thought leaders on this panel will offer a wealth of information that investors from around the country will find useful as they make the decisions that define the future of our industry."
Shield oversees all technology infrastructure, internal systems, weather forecasting, IT and broadcast operations, and is responsible for setting the strategic, technical and financial direction of the IT organization at The Weather Channel. In 2004, he was named Georgia CIO of the year.
Painter leads an application development team at Turner Broadcasting Systems responsible for technology solutions such as database administration, systems architecture, software development, quality assurance, business analysis, R&D, project management, and security and process improvement.
Bienfait oversees all BlackBerry Operations and Corporate IT functions at Research In Motion.
At Worldspan, Powers is responsible for guiding product and applications technical strategy and for product and project delivery for all of the company's customers worldwide.
In addition to the CIO Panel, the ION Venture Forum will offer venture capitalists and others in the industry a chance to network and receive presentations from some of Georgia's newest and most innovative technology companies.
Registration for the Venture Forum is currently open with limited availability, so those interested in attending are encouraged to register as early as possible due to limited space. To register for, or learn more about, the ION Venture Forum, visit www.ionventureforum.com.
About the Atlanta CEO Council
The Atlanta CEO Council is an exclusive organization for C-Level and senior executives that has been serving the community since 1999. The Council membership is comprised of more than 1,000 CEOs and senior executives (CIOs, CFOs, COOs, CTOs, etc.) from leading technology and related companies from across the Southeast. The Atlanta CEO Council focuses on the strategic development and support of the technology community in the metro Atlanta area. Members of the Atlanta CEO Council represent companies that employ more than 50,000 people in the Atlanta region and generate over $10 billion in direct annual revenue for the local economy.
The Atlanta CEO Council logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=4101