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CIONET - What's next

Connecting ambitious digital leaders and businesses around the globe.

Catch up on the upcoming CIONET Events

             
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France Nov 4, 2025 Country Members Physical french

Maîtriser la souveraineté numérique: du réseau à la donnée

Join us on the evening of 4th November for dinner and discussion in the company of experts from BT and Cisco. Hosted at an exclusive venue, this is the perfect opportunity to network, exchange ideas with your peers and leave with actionable insights.

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Spain Nov 5, 2025 Country Members Physical spanish

GROWTH Quest 2025

Este año, además de analizar las dinámicas habituales de la colaboración entre tecnología y negocio para trascender los desafíos tradicionales de comunicación y alineación, damos un paso más allá para abordar otros temas de interés: cómo evolucionar de cultura de proyectos a producto digital, mejores prácticas en Gobernanza IT eficaz., gestión estratégica del cambio o modelos de innovación en el negocio.

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Italy Nov 6, 2025 Country Members Physical italian

Data & AI

Nel mondo digitale odierno, l'IA e le tecnologie dei dati sono forze trainanti che stanno rimodellando i settori e favorendo livelli senza precedenti di agilità e innovazione. Questo evento presenta avanzamenti all'avanguardia come l'IA generativa e i modelli di base, consentendo alle organizzazioni di offrire esperienze personalizzate e soluzioni trasformative su larga scala. Scopri come l'adozione di strategie agili, potenziate dall'IA, stia supportando i leader aziendali nell'adattarsi ai continui cambiamenti del mercato.

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Belgium Nov 6, 2025 Invitation Only Physical english

CIONET Round Table: Securing Your Digital Crown Jewels

The modern cyber threat landscape has evolved from simple data breaches to sophisticated, systemic attacks designed to cripple an entire organisation. Ransomware, in particular, has made traditional backup and recovery strategies insufficient, as attackers often compromise backups before launching their main assault. In this new reality, the question is no longer "if" an attack will happen, but "when” and how quickly you can recover. Furthermore, regulations like DORA and NIS2 are making robust recovery a legal imperative, compelling businesses to adopt solutions that can guarantee data integrity and business continuity even after a catastrophic cyber event, making a Cybervault a critical component of regulatory compliance.

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Netherlands Nov 10, 2025 Public Physical english

Reis mee: CIO Innovation trip Web Summit 11 nov 2025 Lissabon

CIONET Nederland vertrekt met een groep Nederlandse CIO's en digital leaders 10 t/m 12 november 2025 voor de geheel verzorgde CIO Innovation Trip naar de Web Summit in Lissabon, Portugal. Reis jij mee of neem je collega(s) mee!

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Germany Nov 11, 2025 Country Members Physical english

München: The Agentic Advantage

On the eve of the ServiceNow World Forum, CIONET invites you to an exclusive dinner in the fabulous Restaurant Little London in the heart of Munich City. Join leading CIOs, CDOs, and ServiceNow product owners for a candid exchange on how to get the most from your ServiceNow investment.

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Recent Cases

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HB Antwerp's game-changing move: A transparent transformation of diamonds with Azure Confidential Ledger

Belgian company HB Antwerp is redefining how natural diamonds are sourced, crafted, and sold. To gain better supply chains insight, HB Antwerp turned to Microsoft and its Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Project Operations, and Azure solutions.

If the ledger is from Microsoft, you are entering into an environment of familiarity with a quick learning curve. It’s not just scalable, it’s also easily accessible. - Shai de-Toledo: Co-founder & Managing Partner - HB Antwerp

Transforming the diamond industry

In 2020, HB Antwerp, a Belgian diamond company with a fresh perspective, set out to challenge the age-old opacity of the industry. Co-founder Shai de-Toledo aptly summed up the problem: "You could tell me the diamonds came from Mars, and I'd have to take your word for it." Unlike luxury retail sectors with compelling stories for each item, the diamond industry lacked transparency. HB Antwerp aimed to redefine how natural diamonds are sourced and presented, introducing digital twins for every stone and unveiling each gem's journey from origin to artistry. In an era where trust is paramount, HB Antwerp is rewriting the rules, one diamond at a time.

Incentives on both ends

The company wanted to build a new supply chain for diamonds to increase transparency on the origin of the diamonds for stakeholders and customers. “Since we know everything that doesn’t work, we tried to do exactly the opposite,” says de-Toledo. The reimagined supply chain ecosystem needed to be built on the idea that a diamond belongs to the community that mines it. These stakeholders include the miners themselves, community members, investors, and even the government. 

First, HB Antwerp had to meet the challenge of tracing something that was previously considered untraceable. “It wasn’t considered untraceable because we’re geniuses and we discovered a new system, but because no one had the incentive to,” says de-Toledo. The biggest issue was because of segmentation; because diamonds traverse many different companies, each company did not want to know the diamond’s origin to avoid responsibility. 

The company wanted to create incentives at the two ends of the supply chain. One, from the point of view of the producer of the diamond, who wants to distinguish their stones and protect their contribution to the economy. And also from the point of view of the consumer, who is eager to learn the provenance and overall story of the diamond.

Tracking touchpoints

HB Antwerp wants consumers to know that they are entitled to information on the diamond transformation process. The company needed a solution that could create a digital twin to the physical diamond, allowing stakeholders to tell the true story of the diamond. The solution would form a blueprint to show how all tracking could be done in one place. “We build the physical infrastructure and supply the distribution, and we allow all stakeholders to follow the journey of every single stone,” says de-Toledo.

It would also need to come from a company that consumers trust. Global familiarity and confidence in Microsoft technology was a key factor in choosing the overall partnership between Industry Solutions Delivery and HB Antwerp, including the block-chain based Azure Confidential Ledger in conjunction with Azure SQL DatabaseDynamics 365 Finance, and Dynamics 365 Project Operations. “Microsoft is part of that trust. You never question if Microsoft technology is authentic, if due diligence was done, or if it’s safe,” says de-Toledo. The Microsoft solution provides a safe place to deposit information with a high level of scrutiny and auditing. De-Toledo adds, “We put the benchmark really high in the hopes that other companies will create the same level of auditing and investment and meet us there. But until they do, we want to say, ‘Look, this is how it’s done.’”

Employees use Azure Confidential Ledger and Azure SQL Database to track touchpoints through roughly 3,000 block chain nodes, the device and stakeholder pairs that record and verify transactions in a decentralized network. These touchpoints are divided into six macro sections which represent the different status of a stone, from the mine through productions. The ledger helps tell an authentic and honest story of the diamond, which transforms something as technical as a ledger into an exciting tool at the heart of the company’s mission.

From mining stones to mining data

"Commencing in a data-scarce landscape, we pioneered the establishment of a data benchmark, setting a precedent for others to emulate. With our innovative solution, HB Antwerp has unlocked the ability to make highly accurate profit predictions, significantly reduce errors, enhance communication, and optimize overall value creation,” says de-Toledo. A paramount advantage offered by Azure Confidential Ledger and the Azure SQL Database is their capacity to transform data into streamlined protocols, facilitating seamless scalability and ensuring accessibility. Shai de-Toledo underscores the importance, stating, “To effect change, every stone must be meticulously tracked and verified within our system. With the Microsoft ledger, we not only gain scalability but also enjoy a user-friendly environment with a short learning curve. It's not just scalable; it's effortlessly accessible.”

These factors had a part in choosing Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Project Operations as well, alongside the need to pick mature technology. De-Toledo adds, “It starts with how you authenticate yourself when you enter Teams, and it ends with the ease of how you input information and how you receive it. There’s an unprecedented level of maturity, collaboration, and relationship to new products like Copilot, which are crucial to growth.” 

Employees use Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics Project Operations to manage the financial outcomes of transactions and the IoT, and Power BI and Power Apps to visualize the traceability of the stone. “Over the last year and a half, there have been so many new tools that Microsoft has added to help us get what we need,” says de-Toledo. Building an app that would speak to the same SQL used to be a question of six months, now it might take two days.

The biggest benefit to the Botswanan government and citizens is ownership, allowing producers to reap the financial benefits of their products. And in turn, giving customers the opportunity to see how their purchases are transforming the Botswanan economy and the life of its citizens.

Expanding the mission and the infrastructure 

HB Antwerp has been tracing 100 percent of the stones passing through its Mineral Infrastructure since day one. In the first three years of operation, HB Antwerp traced an amount of 500 million USD in diamonds. In 2024, the company plans to up the value of diamonds tracked to one billion US dollars. In terms of continuing to use AI like Copilot, de-Toledo says that 60 percent of emails are written with AI, suggesting the importance of AI to the future of the company. The company is also looking to grow by hiring more employees to expand the mission and track other precious stones with the Microsoft ecosystem.

What started as a mission to collect data on diamonds has developed into a robust solution that is also applicable to other minerals, but even more importantly, turned out to be a great catalyzer to mine data, finding useful data patterns and trends for better business insights and predictions. HB Antwerp has embraced the move from being just a diamond company to a data company. “It’s about how do you mine data and create scalability on it that attracts different humans, companies, and institutions who want to be a part of the story, and that’s how we aim to grow,” says de-Toledo. 

There’s an unprecedented level of maturity, collaboration, and relationship to new products like Copilot, which are crucial to growth.  - Shai de-Toledo: Co-founder & Managing Partner - HB Antwerp

 

Checkout our CIONET COOKBOOK

cookbook

Embark on a culinary journey through the ever-evolving world of digital leadership with our third edition of the CIONET Cookbook: Recipes for Digital Success. Unveiling the intricate trilemma faced by today’s Master Chefs, our trailblazing European CIOs address a challenge at the nexus of customer interests, digital transformation strategies, and IT modernisation. Their secret? Synchronising the gearing between customer, business, and technology to create a frictionless movement through the digital landscape.

The CIONET Cookbook uses the analogy of a five-star restaurant to explain the importance of optimally integrated technology, with the CIO as Master Chef. In order to provide the best service to its customers, a top restaurant must have the right atmosphere, an inviting menu, a well-equipped kitchen, talented and committed front-of-house and kitchen staff and smooth-running processes that ensure an enjoyable experience for diners.

CIONET TV

 
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Jesús Oliva, Head of Data & AI at Moeve - From Data Challenges to AI Leadership

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Radosław Maćkiewicz - CEO at COI - Empowering Citizens Through Digital Innovation

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Kalman Tiboldi - CTO & Founder at GemOne-TVH - Simplify or Die: Why Complexity Is the Real IT Challenge

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Isabelle Droll - CIO for Airline, Corporate, Hotels & Resorts and Sustainability at TUI - Data, Diversity, and Destinations

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Sharon Prior - CIO in transition - How Great Tech Leadership Begins with Business Thinking

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José Antonio López, Group CIO at TOUS - Jewels, Data & AI: Inside the Digital Transformation of TOUS

CIONET Reports

 
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How CIOs drive game changing results at scale?

The role of the CIO has evolved from managing systems to shaping outcomes: growth, resilience, and competitive edge are now won or lost in the technology arena. Today ’ s CIOs must balance stability with innovation, control costs while attracting scarce talent, and modernise legacy infrastructure while adopting emerging technologies.

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A research proposal_AI and the Human Experience

As AI transitions from a specialised tool to an all-pervasive force, understanding its profound implications for our human lives is no longer merely academic but an urgent imperative for social well-being and strategic preparedness.

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Cybersecurity in critical infrastructure

Geopolitical tensions have dominated the headlines for over two years now. In this context, the cyber threat landscape is also evolving rapidly. The protection and security of critical infrastructure – both physical and digital – is becoming increasingly important.

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“The CIONET App allows us to learn from eachother and and find the courage to be authentic by hearing stories from others! Thanks to Tobias and the whole team for bringing us together:-) ”
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“The CIONET app provides a really cool platform to network and share insights.”

About CIONET

CIONET’s mission is to help IT executives become more at ease and above all more successful in their jobs. So they can do more than just keep up with change but ultimately define it. CIONET opens up a whole new universe of opportunities in IT management.

With the largest membership of corporate digital leaders across Europe, Latin America, US and Australia, CIONET has the expertise and pioneering vision to solve or address any IT management challenge.

Why join CIONET?

From our local and global events, from our publications and research to our executive education programmes, everything we do is aimed at making sure digital leaders maximise their potential.

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with digital leaders who share your interests, who face the same challenges, who care about the same topics.

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inspiration, thought-provoking conversations, expert perspectives and exclusive first-hand content each and every day

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