BCS IT Leaders Forum: Get involved

BCS IT Leaders Conference

The first IT Leaders conference was held in 2021 and is an annual event. The aim of the conference is present the annual BCS IT Leaders Survey, to give a platform to key industry figures and to discuss topics affecting the future of IT, its leadership, and its place in society.

Forum Working Groups

Provide opportunities for members to contribute their opinion either formally or informally to topics raised at conference, or in other places that are important to IT leaders. The aim is not to develop BCS policy but the output from Working Groups may give rise to further conference topics, Forum Events, or Forum Papers.

Current Working Groups include:

1. Software Risk and Resilience. Examining the increasing cost of software failure and gathering opinion on what might be done with others to mitigate against it.
2. Leadership teaching modules for university courses. Is there more that can be done to make students in further education aware of the skills needed to become an IT leader?
3. Early Career leadership. How can we encourage people in the early stages of their IT careers to aspire to and gain IT leadership roles in the future?
4. The future CEO. Will CIO experience be mandatory for future CEO/C-Suite roles, and if not why not?
5. Nurturing ‘Leaderpreneurs’. Is there more that can be done to encourage IT leaders to use their leadership, technical, and innovative abilities to develop commercial ideas that can benefit society/the nation?

To contribute, please email us at ITLeaders@bcs.org.uk stating ‘Forum Working Groups’ and your particular interest.

Forum Member Symposium

Member symposia provide opportunities for members to openly debate and discuss topics raised at conference, in Working Groups, Forum Events, or in other places. They were introduced in 2021, the first of which followed the conference.

Forum events

Events are organised, sometimes in conjunction with other groups or organisations, and sometimes with the help of sponsors. The aim is to select topics which are relevant to members and suggestions for events and speakers are always welcome. 

Please note that it is likely that all of the above events will continue to have a virtual element, even where there is a return to normal working.

Forum papers

From time to time the Forum will publish papers on topics that offer useful insights that may be of benefit to others in the industry. Papers may be outputs from Forum Working Groups, other collaborations or from individual members and by sometimes using professional writers it is easy for busy people to get involved. Involvement is encouraged and we would like to hear from from any member that feels they have something to contribute, please email us at ITLeaders@bcs.org.uk

The Forum LinkedIn group

Our LinkedIn group is open to all members of the BCS IT Leaders Forum. Also, as the membership criteria are the same, any IT leader who meets the BCS IT Leaders Forum membership criteria (see below) is welcome to apply to join this social network group. This is one method by which the group communicates with its members, the other main method being by email. You can also follow us on X @bcs_it_leaders.

Forum membership

Forum membership is open to all BCS Fellows and anyone responsible for or influential upon the leadership of IT who has attained at least fellowship in their professional institutes (FBCS or equivalent, e.g. SFIA+ Level 7), or is nominated by three current Committee members in good standing. Applicants are likely to have 5 years’ experience as an IT leader. Applications are considered under three categories of IT leadership; for more information on how applications are evaluated, download the BCS IT Leaders Forum Membership Evaluation Criteria document.

To apply for membership of the BCS IT Leaders Forum please send your request, your BCS membership number if you have one, and a copy of your current CV to groups@bcs.uk.