It's tough to summarize the 2008 CIO Summit, because the program was diverse and the conversations in the hallways, fairways, and social venues went in a lot of directions. But I'll throw out a few things that struck me over the course of the event:

* Multi-tasking is in. It wasn't just the session devoted to a CIO who also runs real estate for his company, this was a recurrent theme. Tech leaders are seen increasingly as operational leaders.

* Sustainability isn't just a feel-good thing, it's a cost-saving priority and a driver of efficiency.

* Diversity matters in the IT workplace. This point was raised more than once in panels dedicated to other subjects. The crowd was very diverse -- if you don't count gender, as attendees were overwhelmingly male.

* Web 2.0 is still something of a mystery to a lot of senior tech execs. Our panel went well, but it seemed a bit ahead of the day-to-day agenda for a lot of folks. Which is a good reason to go to conferences, I guess.

* Software as a service is well-understood, but the big vision of utility computing hadn't really caught the attention of many attendees. Yet.

* Tech people have hearts. When Anthony Jones, Chief Technology Officer for the City of New Orleans started talking about the situation in NOLA, the room hung on his words -- not just for the IT recovery story, it seemed, but for the human element.