Chief Information Officer Didier Contis wants to understand your needs, pain points and priorities as members of UW–Madison’s community of information technology professionals. Join us this fall for listening sessions designed to gather your stories, perspectives and innovations and strengthen connections across the university’s IT landscape.
Choose from any of 6 session options—3 online and 3 on campus. Experienced facilitators will lead each 90-minute session using digital tools to gather your questions, comments and ideas.
These listening sessions are a chance for you to engage directly with Didier. By participating, you’ll have a chance to influence his focus over the next 12 months while helping build stronger connections across UW’s IT community.
Registration is required to attend. Sessions will not be recorded for later viewing.
Schedule
Choose the option that works best for your schedule. Space is limited for in-person sessions, so please only register for 1 session to ensure there’s room for all who wish to participate.
In-person sessions
Oct 2 – Central campus
- Date: Thu, Oct 2, 2025
- Time: 10:30am to noon
- Location: DeLuca Biochemical Sciences Building, 440 Henry Mall
- Room: 1211 – Auditorium
Nov 12 – West campus
- Date: Wed, Nov 12, 2025
- Time: 9:30am to 11am
- Location: Health Sciences Learning Center, 750 Highland Ave.
- Room: 3110A – Interactive Learning Center A (3rd floor)
Nov 18 – East campus
- Date: Tue, Nov 18, 2025
- Time: 10am to 11:30am
- Location: Education Building, 1000 Bascom Mall
- Room: 159 – Wisconsin Idea Room (1st floor)
Virtual sessions
Who should attend?
These sessions are designed for university employees whose work involves planning, developing, delivering, supporting or maintaining information technology services and solutions, including:
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IT professionals
- IT user support, system & application administration, network administration
- Application & web development, cybersecurity, data administration
- Business & systems analysis, IT project management
- User experience design, audiovisual technology
Instructors with technology responsibilities
- Academic or instructional technology and instructional design
- Research computing & data analysis services
- Faculty with technology integration responsibilities
Library & information services staff
- Resource management & data services
- Digital collections and systems management
Administrative support staff
- Administrative services staff who support IT departments
- Finance & budget staff working with IT operations
- Project coordinators & program managers in technology areas
- Communications and marketing staff supporting IT initiatives
Other IT-related roles
- University governance representatives with IT oversight
- Student technology support staff
- Multimedia and design professionals
- Graduate students & postdocs in IT-related roles
- Department administrators with IT oversight
- Job Rotation Program participants working in IT units
What to expect
Experienced facilitators will lead attendees through these 90-minute sessions to gather questions, comments and ideas from the IT community. Attendees can share feedback verbally or submit anonymous written feedback via the Padlet app.
These prompts will guide the discussion:
- What are you proud of in your area?
- What are your biggest technology challenges? What are your biggest technology opportunities?
- Are there any local technology implementations for teaching and learning that could be scaled up to work at the university or enterprise level?
- How is AI showing up in your conversations? Are there key topics, issues, concerns or questions that you are exploring?
- Where are there opportunities to increase understanding and support between distributed and central IT?
Accessibility & inclusion
We are committed to ensuring these listening sessions are inclusive, equitable and accessible.
- All sessions will include live transcription services.
- There will be multiple ways to participate, including verbal discussion, digital collaboration tools and written input.
- The campus meeting rooms are ADA accessible.
- Event staff can assist anyone who needs access to a gender-neutral restroom or private health/lactation space.
If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in the CIO listening sessions, please email communications@doit.wisc.edu at least 2 weeks before the scheduled session. We will try to accommodate late requests, but we can’t guarantee we’ll be able to meet them.
Get to know Didier
Didier Contis has served as UW–Madison’s chief information officer and vice provost for information technology since July 2025. He leads the university’s information technology strategy and ensures enterprise IT resources support the university’s mission and goals.
Born and raised in France, Contis moved to the U.S. in 1999 to begin his IT career at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he most recently served as the executive director of academic technology, innovation and research computing.
You’re invited to join him most Friday mornings on Zoom for unscripted discussions and conversations with special guests during the CIO Virtual Office Hours.