No sponsors. No media. No sales. Just value.

Spark is a private event series for senior technology and business leaders. Each session is focused on providing a private venue for open collaboration and sharing of  insights on issues and trends in business and technology. Attendees can establish and enhance valuable relationships, creating value that endures well beyond the sessions themselves.

Upcoming Sessions

Previous Session Topics: April 26-27, 2023

• Session Theme: The Next Decade of Digital Transformation
• Funding Transformation in a Volatile Economy
  
• The Future of AI in the Enterprise
• Achieving Sustainability at Scale
• Reimagining Enterprise Data Strategy
• Evolving the Focus of Cybersecurity Investments

The Evolution of Spark

The idea behind Spark began with a business called Telwares and an event called the CIO Global Forum. During advisory board discussions, it became quite clear that there was very little opportunity for CIOs to connect in an intimate, collaborative environment where the agenda was not influenced or dictated by vendor sponsorship – where CIOs were truly among senior-level peers and participants could relate their successes, but more importantly, their failures and lessons learned. That led us to create the CIO Global Forum, an event comprised of timely and important educational sessions.

Between 2004 and 2012, approximately 2,000 CIOs and senior executives engaged in the program's twice-annual main sessions or regional dinners, and it rapidly gained wide respect as one of the premier C-level events. After the final sale of Telwares in 2012, the CIO Global Forum was disbanded.

Yates Ltd was born in 2014. Much like Telwares, Yates is an outcome-based management consultancy that works with senior executives to accelerate opportunities for business transformation. We believe that creating powerful C-Level relationships between the enterprise and its suppliers can unveil alchemy that enables innovation and unprecedented results. In working with IT and business leaders, it became clear that there were no venues for senior leaders to have open and honest exchanges or identify best practices in enterprise technology management, organizational change, and business and digital transformation. So we assembled the Spark Executive Forum™ and held our inaugural session October 3-4, 2018.

The People Behind Spark

Charlotte Yates is the founder and CEO of Yates Ltd, a management consulting firm that works with key executives to optimize and transform their organizations and technology environments, reduce costs, and create competitive advantage. Yates Ltd's areas of focus include network, software, hardware, managed services, automation, supply chain optimization, digital transformation, end-user services and business process design. Its services include strategy, sourcing, program execution, change management, communications and governance. Yates Ltd is a WBENC-certified women-owned business.

Charlotte is also a Partner at Seraph Group, a structured angel investment fund. She serves on the board of Academy of Art University and as Advisory Board member for both Sumeru Equity and Point Inside, Inc.

Previously, Charlotte was Co-Founder and Partner at Telwares, Inc. – a leading provider of network transformation and advisory services, strategic sourcing, and telecommunications expense management solutions for global enterprises. She served as CEO and Vice Chairman of Telwares through its sale to private equity, roll-up of multiple expense management providers, and divestiture to Tangoe, Inc. in 2011. Charlotte has also held executive positions at both Sprint and IBM. Her experience includes M&A, executive consulting, infrastructure strategy and design, supplier contract negotiations, corporate cost reduction management, re-engineering, and specialized programs focused on strategic partnerships and alliances.

Ms. Yates holds both a B.S. in Biology and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Florida.

Michael Voellinger is the Principal Executive of the Spark Executive Forum™ and a Managing Director at Yates Ltd. He is responsible for planning and executing Spark events and programs, leads select Fortune 500 client engagements, and drives all marketing activities for Yates Ltd.

Prior to Yates Ltd., Michael was Managing Director and Head of Business Development at Austin-based ClearBlade, an industrial Internet of Things software company. Prior to ClearBlade, Michael served as EVP of Marketing and leader of the Mobile Technology practice at Telwares, Inc. He also served as the Executive Producer of the CIO Global Forum, an exclusive think tank for CIO and CTO thought leaders. Prior to joining Telwares, Michael served as Partner and Principal Consultant at OES Telecom and held operational leadership positions at both AT&T and Nextel.

Michael has also served as a strategic advisor to Electronic Polymers Inc. (manufacturer of tunable polydiodes), Angelspan (investor relations software and services) and NuLite Technologies (cold cathode lighting). He is an active supporter and participant in Haymakers for Hope, a series of charitable boxing tournaments raising money for cancer research, and Covenant House, the largest charity in the Americas serving homeless, trafficked and runaway youth.