Several times a year, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) from each university in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) collaborate on the latest innovations in IT. These meetings are organized by the CIO of the host school, and host sites rotate to allow discussion and dialogue at each member school. 

On February 21, 2023, the meeting took place at Texas A&M University for the first time. Texas A&M CIO Ed Pierson partnered with fellow Technology Services leadership at The Texas A&M University System and Texas A&M-RELLIS campus to host CIOs from across the SEC to discuss challenges, successes and plans for future improvements. 

“Collaboration is vital in leveraging innovation in higher education,” said Pierson. “This is an opportunity to strategize, learning from fellow CIOs and the experiences they have to advance our cybersecurity efforts, discuss and identify key points of weakness to plan for the future.” 

This also serves as a key platform to discuss real-world topics and draw from current events like security and network developments and AI tools (like Chat GPT).