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Editor's Blog: CIO central
Getting close to our readers matters...

By Tony Hallett

Published: Wednesday 17 October 2007

On Monday we held our fifth silicon.com CIO Forum, seeing leading lights from IT user organisations meet in London and discuss all manner of things - though this year the debate was mainly around what people refer to these days as 'talent management'.

The day was a success by my reckoning and the theme worked - it's something that is relevant across every type of sector and especially relevant near the peak of the cycle, where good staff become much harder to find or keep.

So far, so rational. But what did I come away from the event really thinking?

Well - and this is nothing new to me - I see up close and personal how hard it is to do real CIO events. I write 'real' because I've been to a few by top-tier business publishing brands where you'd be hard-pressed to find any CIOs, in the audience or on stage.

We made a conscious decision to this year still allow in some non-CIOs but make overall numbers smaller, so CIOs made up more than half of those in attendance.

Not everything was perfect about the day, I'll admit that. Don't have a flapping door 10 feet away from the main lectern, I'd advise.

But this was an event where major CIOs didn't just take to the stage but stuck around afterwards to see their peers.

Trust me, my team were quick to report much of what was said. See what happens if you tap 'CIO Forum' in to the silicon.com search.

But it is undeniably hard work to get the audience together at all. I take my hat off to people such as Gartner and IDC whose CIO events attract hundreds, though of course they don't have the media channel to report on what happens, nor would they always want to.

At the other extreme, I come back to the media brands - many of them major - which can't attract CIOs. And that is quite amazing, as our own research shows, as well as online publications such as silicon.com, major CIOs read mainstream business papers and magazines.

I'll sell ourselves a bit more here - you don't get to write exclusives about major CIOs, their thinking, their career twists and turns, including appointments such as Robin Dargue going from Diageo to the Post Office or the AA losing its head of IT without the right CIO connections.

Look out for another exclusive later today.

Our first planning meeting for next year is next week. Do let me know if there's anyone you'd like to see at the next CIO Forum - or anyone we should avoid at all costs.