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Story URL: http://management.silicon.com/itdirector/0,39024673,39268809,00.htm

CIOs brave the cold for children's charity
silicon.comrades prepare to sleep out for NCH

By Steve Ranger

Published: Thursday 07 August 2008

A team of CIOs will be braving the night outside in the cold later this year to raise money for children's charity NCH.

Byte Night is the IT industry's annual sleep out in aid of the charity, and this year sees the event celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Each year hundreds of individuals and teams from the technology and IT industries spend a night exposed to the elements in a bid to raise awareness, as well as sponsorship, for NCH's work. The main Byte Night event takes place in Potters Field near London Bridge on Friday 3 October.

This year the 'silicon.comrades' team including Steve Clarke, director, systems and operations at AOL Broadband, Graham Benson, IT director at M and M Direct, Nic Evans, European IT director Key Equipment Finance and Richard Steel, CIO of Newham Council, will be joining the great and the good of the technology industry out in the cold.

Benson said: "I am really pleased to be involved with the silicon.comrades and such a worthwhile cause. What we 'experience' is actually normal life for the unfortunates that Byte Night aims to help. I hope what we do, and the people we browbeat to support us, makes a difference, however small."

And Evans added: "I had known about Byte Night for a few years but had never got around to getting involved. Having taken the time now to find out more, this is a fantastic opportunity for the whole IT sector to support those most vulnerable teenagers. NCH can help people, the same age as my kids, who have fallen through other support networks and stop them getting into the downward cycle from sleeping rough."

The team, all members of silicon.com's CIO Jury, have also set up a page where silicon.com readers can contribute to this fantastically good cause.

Steel said: "As a public sector CIO and, now, the president of Socitm I'm used to thinking about how ICT can be used to promote improved service accessibility through digital inclusion, but Byte Night provides a special focus that's about the really hard to reach, most vulnerable people in our society, who happen also to be a key part of its future. I'm proud to represent public sector ICT in such a worthwhile cause. "

The team's donation page can be found here and you can learn more about Byte Night here. silicon.com will be following the progress of the team right up to Byte Night itself.