Straight answers, no fine print.

CIO Cafe is a peer community for chief information officers and senior technology leaders. Members meet in small, vetted, off-the-record tables of eight to work through one hard decision at a time, with no vendors in the room.

CIO Cafe is for sitting CIOs and the leaders who share their decisions: CTOs, CDOs, CISOs and VPs on the CIO track. Every application is reviewed by hand so that each table stays peer-level. See who it is and isn’t for.

Three differences: tables are capped at eight peers, every session is built around one live decision, and vendors and sponsors are excluded by rule. The output is a Field Brief you can use, not a slide deck.

Free CIO communities are usually paid for by vendor sponsors. That buys the sponsors programme themes, hosted sessions and, under some published terms, attendee details. CIO Cafe is paid for by members. You bring one live decision to the same eight peers every month, nothing about you goes to a vendor, and you leave with a Field Brief the table has reviewed. You can keep your free city community for the summit and bring the one decision it cannot hold to a CIO Cafe table. See the comparison.

A host reads your request and replies within two business days with a yes, a no or a question. If it looks like a fit, you have a 20-minute fit call with a host, not a salesperson: the price is already on the membership page. Then you are matched to a table of eight and receive the house rules and your first pre-read.

Because the first tables have not met yet. We will only publish a member’s words with their written consent, and we will never show invented quotes, logos or member counts. Until then, judge us on what you can check: the published price, the house rules and a sample Field Brief.

Yes. Every CIO Cafe table runs under the Chatham House Rule: you may use what you hear, but never attribute it to a person or an organization. Tables are not recorded. The Field Brief that follows is anonymized and reviewed by the people at the table before it circulates.

No. Tables are closed to vendors, sponsors and sales roles. Nobody can buy access to members, attendee lists or contact details. Tables are never sponsored. Up to three research partners a year fund the free public playbooks and glossary, credited on each piece. Partners never get a seat, an attendee list, contact details or a say in what is published. How research partnerships work.

A practitioner host: a current or former technology executive who frames the decision with the presenting member, keeps the 90-minute clock, protects the house rules and drafts the Field Brief. Hosts will be named on the About page, with their consent, before the first table meets.

Both. Founders’ and Rising Tables are usually virtual so geography doesn’t decide who’s at the table. Cross-functional Tables usually meet in person.

Plan on one 90-minute table a month and a pre-read of about ten minutes. Asking peers questions between tables is optional. Tables are scheduled around quarter-end and board cycles, not over them.

A two-page, anonymized summary of a table: the decision, the options peers weighed, what they chose and what they’d change. Everyone at the table reviews it before it goes to members.

No. We never give a vendor your name, contact details or the fact that you attended: no attendee lists, no badge scans, no sponsor-hosted sessions, and no opt-out you have to remember. Some free CIO networks are funded by sponsors who can receive attendee details after events. CIO Cafe is paid for by members so that this never happens. See the privacy summary.

You will see the full terms before you commit to anything: price, renewal date and how to cancel. Cancelling takes two clicks, with no phone call. Founding cohorts for the First 100 Days Table are $2,500 company-paid for four sessions over 100 days; annual table seats are $4,800/year company-paid. Invoicing supports corporate cards, ACH, and Net-30 purchase orders with standard W-9 and vendor documentation.

Yes, and most seats are. CIO Cafe invoices by card, ACH or Net-30 purchase order, with a W-9 and standard vendor documentation. The two-page Field Brief from each table is a written record you can show whoever approves the spend. See a sample brief.

We never sell access to tables or members. Up to three research partners a year fund our free public playbooks and glossary, credited on each piece, with zero access to tables or attendee lists.

Yes. You can leave from your account in two clicks. No retention call, no exit interview and no guilt copy.