Global CIO Institute Oxford highlights Web3 and blockchain best practices

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The Global CIO Institute Oxford took place at the prestigious Randolph Hotel on October 4, bringing together dozens of chief information officers (CIOs) and suppliers to network and share best practices. The event was comprised of a series of keynote sessions and panels with pre-arranged one-to-one meetings taking place throughout the day.

“CIOs today, it’s a different breed. There’s a modern era of CIOs coming through that are quite different, and they’re quite disruptive and innovative. And it’s really about trying to make sure we cover that as well,” shared Jo Drake, CIO of The Hut Group and member of the event’s advisory board.

When asked what exciting sponsors were in attendance, Drake mentioned Boomi, who talked about automation; Leapwork, who led a session about automated software testing and speed of delivery; and she also mentioned nChain.

“nChain covered the whole digital identity and Web3 and what that means and what that might look like and what we can do as organizations to get on that bus, really,” she said.

Delivering the Web3 and Digital Identity keynote for nChain was CIO Christine Leong, also a PPE graduate of Oxford University.

“It is a pleasure for me to be here as part of the CIO Institute and also the aspects of knowing that there are like-minded people, different organizations. Very often, the events I attend may be very specific for financial services, and it’s interesting that it’s in an academic institution and also the commercial aspects of this. It’s a slightly different crowd,” Leong told CoinGeek.

The senior executives in attendance were from big-name organizations such as NHS, HM Revenue and Customs, and Nokia, including several representatives from ITHCA Group, an investment group that focuses on emerging technology for Oman in the Middle East.

“I think this event is a good opportunity for us to network and to share the knowledge,” shared Said Al Mandhari, Group CEO of ITHCA Group.

“It’s a very prestigious event where we get to meet lots of people in this field, which is very important for us. Our strategic investments are focusing on the emerging technologies, and this is one of the areas where we find the best resources to get and learn from them,” he said.

Simit Naik, director for commercial strategy for nChain, was also in attendance, educating CIOs on Web3 infrastructure and how nChain’s solutions can help them perform their jobs better and faster.

“For us, it was important to be here because we needed to make sure that the CIOs of the biggest organizations understand what blockchain is, what it’s capable of, and how Web3 is going to impact them in the future, but also to start getting them to understand what role we can play in supporting them in that transformation,” Naik confirmed.

Leong added, “I think in terms of Web3, people often talk about the subject but don’t think about what it actually needs to make it happen, and digital assets, digital identity for us are the key components that enable the future of Web3 and to build that trust.”

“In order to trade digitally, you need to verify who you say you are. In order to make transactions, you need to verify who you are,” she pointed out.

nChain’s Head of Commercial and Strategy Valentine Labarthe joined Leong and Naik in Oxford and was happy to share with CoinGeek the topics hit with CIOs throughout the day.

“The profile of the clients as the attending persons is quite technical, so usually people would know about blockchain integration and blockchain infrastructures,” Labarthe said.

“They would approach us for a lot of different services about notarisation, data integrity, digital products, passports, and digital identity. So we found it quite interesting to cover those topics with them,” she said.

“There was a topic also on digital identity associated with digital asset, so the level of education and knowledge is good foundation and ground to start having this infrastructure conversation,” she added.

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