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-B Swaminathan | IMAWS
Chennai: Increasing membership, inculcating start-up ecosystem among the members and creating awareness on advanced threats to protect data inside the organizations are some of the top priority of Chennai chapter of the CIO Association of India. The CIO Association of Chennai, a dynamic forum of Chief Information Officers from Chennai and neighboring regions, celebrated its 13th anniversary recently at The Leela Palace, Chennai. The chapter boasts CIOs and IT decision leaders from industries including banking, manufacturing, healthcare, IT services, automobile, logistics, and more.
The Chennai chapter’s management committee was represented by Manjunath Prasad, T G Santhosh, Balaji TK, K Saravanakumar, Balakrishnan K, Rakesh, Pragati Kumar, Shankar V and Ganesan S. The event witnessed enthusiastic participation from over 150 CIOs and 50+ industry leaders across the country. Prominent IT and technology partners such as AWS, Precision Infomatic, Zscaler, SIFY, Manage Engine, Hitachi Vantara, Tata Communications, Zoho, Techno Data Center, Skylark & HPE among others, participated along with their senior leadership teams, making it a truly high-energy evening of networking, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.
The inaugural address was delivered by Satyanarayanan (Satya) Chakravarthy, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras, renowned for his pioneering work in propulsion, deep-tech entrepreneurship, and electric mobility. In a captivating keynote, Prof. Satya shared insights into futuristic transportation technologies including Hyperloop systems and the latest AI-driven electric aviation innovations from his venture, The ePlane Company. He spoke about how AI, EVs, and next-generation mobility are poised to redefine urban transportation.
“Electric aviation is no longer a distant dream — it’s becoming reality. AI is transforming how we design, optimize, and pilot the future of air mobility,” said Prof. Satya, inspiring CIOs to think ahead and embrace innovation. He also emphasized the rapid evolution of the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem and its growing role in building sustainable cities and industries. His address left the audience energized about the role of emerging technologies in shaping the next decade.
Speaking at the event, the Chennai Chapter Management Committee highlighted the importance of fostering technology leadership, continuous innovation, and cross-industry collaboration to stay ahead in an ever-evolving digital world. They emphasized the chapter’s commitment to building a strong, connected CIO community that drives transformational change across industries.
This year, the chapter added a tech twist by introducing a Robo-host, programmed to deliver the inaugural welcome, symbolizing the embrace of AI and automation in today’s technology-driven world. A special India map-themed photo booth showcasing the CIO Association’s 14 chapters across the nation was also a major highlight, celebrating the organization’s expanding footprint.
Speaking further on the same, President Manjunath who is proud to lead the forum on this occasion says, “We have increased our strength from around 15 members since inception to more than 150 members at present. Our community has increased the networking and knowledge sharing opportunity between CIOs and vendor partners.” Adding further that the forum had different types of engagements to cover all aspects of technology like knowledge sessions, experts panel discussion and connecting with startup tech companies, he averred that these initiatives are mainly to boost both the next-gen CIOs and fostering the growth of startups eco system as well. In addition to knowledge sharing, lot of activities are done towards health fitness for their members as well.
Some of the key plans of the association in the coming days, according to Manjunath, includes increasing the member strength, enabling start-up eco-system to showcase latest technologies to the members for their adoption and evolution and help the CIO-members to make them aware of the latest threats in the cyber world and give them better awareness on the advancements in the technologies that would help them protect their digital data of the organization.
The CIO Association platform has been instrumental in fostering collaboration among peers. It has enabled meaningful knowledge exchange and helped build strong, lasting relationships. A true community that grows together by sharing, learning, and supporting one another.
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