In response to a call for deeper alliance between practice and academe, the Computers and People Research (CPR) conference begins its next 50 years with a panel designed to generate timely and relevant research. This panel will be composed of practitioners who will discuss leading IT and people issues with the goal of spurring academics and practitioners to collaboratively investigate these questions.

The outcome of these investigations is intended to produce a cycle of research to be presented at later CPR conferences. We intend to present this forum each year to fuel future research and assist practitioners in managing the valuable resource of IT professionals and provide pragmatic topics for researchers to investigate. Potential topic areas include: the IT skills and workforce shortage, social inclusion, recruiting and retention practices, user adaptation to new and emerging technologies, global and cultural influences of IT work on people, among others.

The panel will refine these topic areas to a more focused research agenda and facilitate relationships for specific projects. The panel is intended to be highly interactive with the audience. Please join the discussion. The format will be an hour of panel discussion followed by a half hour for breakout sessions where participants can network and form expertise areas in which to work together.