From the Executive Liaison

Oh, What a Conference!

Wow – what a conference! From my vantage point, this year’s ChemITC Annual Conference was a huge success.

Over a three day period, we brought our Business Intelligence Technology Networking Group, CIO Roundtable, Cyber Security Program, Survey and Benchmarking Program and Telecommunications Networking Group together at SAP Headquarters, breaking attendance records with more than 160 participants including 25 ChemITC member company CIOs. We stepped outside of the technology space for a bit to hear about sustainable development concepts for the chemical industry from our esteemed keynote speaker Alan E. Barton. We also had the opportunity to mingle with members of the Chemical Industry SAP Users Group (CISUG) and Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX), who were also holding their fall meetings in Newtown Square. In total, over 330 people were in attendance at the three conferences which far exceeded our expectations. There is plenty of conference coverage in this issue of ChemITC Connections so please check out the other stories for more details.

I am so pleased to welcome three new members to the ChemITC organization following the Annual Conference – EMD Chemicals, W.R. Grace and Arkema. Every new member that brings their experiences to the table further enhances the value of participation for all ChemITC members. We look forward to connecting with these new participants as we head into the New Year.

The bar has been set high and the wheels are already turning as we set in motion plans to make the 2009 Annual Conference even better than this one. Before we do though, it is important to recognize that many months of planning and hard work by a lot of people went into making the conference the success that is was.

THANK YOU to the ChemITC Program Committee; Program Directors and Networking Group Leaders; Bridgette Bourge, Stacey Bates and the ACC support staff; Gina Borgman and the Gibbs & Soell communications team; Godfrey Hiltebrandt and Cecilia Barclift of SAP; and our event sponsors – SAP and IBM. We could not have done this without you.

Chic Saile
Executive Liaison, ChemITC
Rohm and Haas