But what really makes us tingle is knowing that we play a role in organizing an awards program for the 100 best and brightest in IT. It's impossible to attend , now in its 11th year, without being awed by not only the current year's award winners, but also the many Premier 100 alumni who return year after year. For anyone attending this event, the pride, warmth, shared purpose and sheer excellence are palpable.

pushed ahead with vital projects at a time when it was especially difficult to excel. They are innovators in the face of economic adversity. As , the motto of many of the winners seems to be "Why waste a perfectly good economic crisis?" That's the attitude it takes to succeed in times like these.

The trick is finding that opportunity, making a case for it and then executing on it. Computerworld has been writing about IT-business alignment for many years. In a year like 2009, the organizations that have it figured out have had a much better chance to take advantage of tough times.

With budgets tight, were forced to be creative to fund important projects. They developed systems that not only offered returns on investment, but also added business value, increased revenue or even provided new revenue streams.

At CBS, for example, CIO faced the challenge of building technology to support a new content digitization and distribution facility that allows the company to sell its content to new-media outlets through a pay-as-you-go model. If the Premier 100 winners can pull off such feats in 2009, imagine what they'll do when the economy is much stronger.