Chicago 2026
In Person Event
Sept 9 Evening - Sept 11 Afternoon
A No Cost, Members Only Event
Arrival Dinner: 45 Members (Waitlist)
Day 1 Event and Social: 70 Members (Waitlist)
Day 2 Event: 70 Members (Waitlist)
No Cost
Sponsored meals and entertainment
Not Delegated
A network for executive leaders
Vendor Neutral
Badge-free and never selling
Chatham Rules
Information without attribution
Our Agenda
Adapting our Enterprises for the AI Age
An event for and by our members

Arrival Dinner
Sept 9th Evening
Beatnik On The River
180 N Wacker Dr
7:00pm Dinner
FULLY BOOKED
Wait List Available and Encouraged

Day 1 Event
Sept 10th Day
Capgemini
Solution Accelerator Environment
333 W Wacker Dr #300
8:00 Breakfast
8:30 Agenda Begins
12:00-1:00 Lunch
5:30 Depart for Social and Dinner
FULLY BOOKED
Wait List Available and Encouraged

Social & Event Dinner
Sept 10th Evening
City Cruises
Odyssey Lake Michigan
600 East Grand Avenue
Lake Michigan Dinner Cruise
Board at Navy Pier
6:30pm Boarding
9:30pm Disembark
FULLY BOOKED
Wait List Available and Encouraged

Day 2 Event
Sept 11th Day
Capgemini
Solution Accelerator Environment
333 W Wacker Dr #300
8:00 Breakfast
8:30 Agenda Begins
9:00-11:00 SwitchOn Broadcast with Architecture Leader Awards
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-3:00 Charting and Activating our Future
Post event:
Fun @ Navy Pier
Train Route to Suggested Hotel
Hotels & Venues
Adapting our Enterprises for the AI Age
| 7:00 PM | Arrival Dinner Beatnik On The River 180 N Wacker Dr |
8:00 – 12:30 Scanning for Insight with Analysts
| 8:00 | Breakfast |
| 8:30 |
Executive Welcome Grant Ecker – Founder, Chief Architect Network Capgemini Hosts Context setting, review session purpose & objectives |
| 9:00 |
The Intelligent Factory: Why Manufacturing Needs a New Operating Model Jeff Winter – Vice President, Commercial Strategy, Belden (Top 10) |
| 9:30 |
When Context Becomes Software Michael Carroll – Research Fellow, LNS Research (Top 10) Randy Potter – VP US Innovation Office & EA Practice, Capgemini |
| 10:00 |
Learn As Much As You Can (90 minutes) Choose 3: Repeating 30-minute Interactive practitioner sessions and peer-led workshops Scaling Enterprise AI Chetan Prakash – Head of Merger, Acquisition & Divestiture and Enterprise Architecture, Zoetis Inc. AI Culture Karan Dhawal – Transformation Leader, ZS Associates Know Your Why Before AI Linda Finley – Founder, TCBAF; Leadership Advantage; BETA MN (Architecture Leader Americas 2025) AI Enabled Business Transformation Robert Sheesley – CIO/CISO, Slavic Retirement Services Agentic Transformation Workshop Geeta Pyne – Chief Architect & AI Strategist, Guiding Possibilities (Top 10) The Work We Remove Is the Work That Teaches Us Michael Fulton – Enterprise Architect, Koch Industries (Top 10) |
| 11:30 |
Panel: AI and the Future of Architecture Daniel Hebda – Head of AI, Bizzdesign (Moderator) Michael Carroll – Research Fellow, LNS Research (Top 10) Nathan Lasnoski – CTO, Microsoft Americas Practice, IBM Phillip Finucane – Chief Technology Officer, CareCentrix Ryan Simpson – Chief Technology Officer, Koch |
| 12:00 |
Lunch & Networking Table discussion topics |
| 12:45 | Table Topics Debrief & Trivia |
1:30 – 5:00 Focus and Sharing
| 1:00 |
EA’s No-Regrets Guide to AI Charles T. Betz – Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research (Top 10) |
| 1:30 |
Panel: Building Reliable AI for Architecture Decisions Jason Baragry – Chief Enterprise Architect, Ardoq (Moderator) Amy Forsee – Director of Advanced Systems Architecture, State of Missouri (Top 10) Michael Fulton – Enterprise Architect, Koch Industries (Top 10) Robert Sheesley – CIO/CISO, Slavic Retirement Services Vikas Wali – CIO | Chief Architect |
| 2:00 | Networking Break |
| 2:30 |
Vision of the Future: Individual Perspectives Participants complete a wildly successful future state: Adapting our Enterprises for the AI Age |
| 3:00 |
Share Individual Visions + Synthesize in Teams Teams share their individual perspectives and summarize themes |
| 4:00 |
Large Group Report Out Similarities, differences & BIG ideas |
| 4:45 |
Frame Up Day 2 Align on breakout topic options |
| 5:15 | Trivia & Day 1 Close |
| 6:30-9:30 | Lake Michigan Dinner Cruise City Cruises Odyssey Lake Michigan 6:30 Boarding at Navy Pier 600 East Grand Avenue |
9:00 – 11:00 SwitchOn Broadcast and Awards
11:00 – 3:00: Preparing for ACTION
| 8:00 | Breakfast |
| 8:30 | Day 2 Welcome & Recap Day 1 and Align on Breakout Topics |
| 9:00 | Chief Architect Network Overview |
| 9:15 |
Whynde Kuehn – Founder & Managing Director, S2E Transformation Inc. (Architecture Leader Europe 2026) Beyond Transformation: The Adaptable Enterprise |
| 9:35 |
Wei Manfredi – SVP of AI and Architecture, IHG AI Ready Foundation |
| 9:55 |
Wendy Walsh – Chief Learning Officer, United States Air Force CLO as an Architect: Engineering Cultures of Continuous Growth |
| 10:15 |
Panel: AI Enabling Industry Grant Ecker – VP of Enterprise Architecture, Ecolab (Moderator) Damian Ng – Vice President of Enterprise Architecture, Walgreens Jeff Winter – Vice President, Commercial Strategy, Belden (Top 10) Praveen Moturu – Global VP Digital Platforms, Chief Enterprise Architect, MARS (Top 10) Ryan Cahalane – Managing Director, LNS Research Matthew Versaggi – Former Presidential Innovation Fellow, Executive Office of the White House (Top 10) |
| 10:45 | Architecture Leader of the Year Americas 2026 Awards |
| 11:00 | Stretch Break |
| 11:15 |
CFO-Recognized Impact from Your AI Efforts Nathan Lasnoski – CTO, Microsoft Americas Practice, IBM |
| 11:45 |
‘Take Your Choice’ Breakouts Breakouts explore relevant CAN topics aligned to Adapting Enterprises for the AI Age Includes Lunch 1. Governance Without Killing Innovation Charles Wiggins – CIO / Founder & CEO, AlterEnable Matthew Versaggi – Former Presidential Innovation Fellow, Executive Office of the White House (Top 10) 2. The Future of Enterprise Architecture Charles T. Betz – Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research (Top 10) Ryan Simpson – Chief Technology Officer, Koch 3. Proving AI Value Gokula Mishra – Chief Data & AI Officer, OmniProAI Martin Bliss – Co-Founder & CTO, Prophetic Solutions 4. Designing the Adaptive Enterprise Erin Allen – Director, Enterprise Architect, Bain & Company Vikas Wali – CIO | Chief Architect 5. Building an Enterprise That Learns Fast Michael Carroll – Research Fellow, LNS Research (Top 10) Praveen Moturu – Global VP Digital Platforms, Chief Enterprise Architect, MARS (Top 10) 6. Enterprise Data in the Age of Agents Paul Kurchina – SAP Community Evangelist, Connector & Analyst, Enterprise Architect SAP Community (Top 10) Neda Parnian – VP of Innovation, Matt3r Technologies Inc. |
| 2:00 | Large Group Report Out, Discussion and Debrief |
| 3:00 | Event Close |
Exploring Chicago
| 3:00+ | Navy Pier Area |
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