Monthly, 90 min · 8 sitting CIOs
Founders’ Table
The core format. One framed decision, a ten-minute pre-read and a host who keeps the table honest. A Field Brief follows within a week.
Virtual or in personChatham HouseField Brief
Four formats. One rule: the decision is the agenda.
Every CIO Cafe table starts from a real decision a member is facing. The format changes with who needs to be in the room.
- Frame10 min
The decision in one sentence, and what makes it hard.
- Peer cases45 min
Two or three members who faced it say what they did and what it cost.
- Challenge25 min
The table tests the assumptions. The host keeps it on the decision.
- Commit10 min
A stated next step. The Field Brief follows within a week.
Pick the room that fits the decision.
Quarterly, 2 hrs · CIO, CISO, CDO, CFO
Cross-functional Table
Some decisions need more than one chair: AI risk, resilience, data strategy. This table mixes roles on purpose.
In personInvite-only guestsField Brief
Monthly, 60 min · CIO-track leaders
Rising Table
For VPs and directors preparing for the seat. Each table has a sitting CIO host who has made the call being discussed.
VirtualMentoredReading list
Async, any time · Your cohort
Ask the Table
Post a question to your cohort between tables. Answers come from people who have lived it, under the same confidentiality.
Members onlyNo vendorsSearchable archive
Who sits where
Eight seats, matched by role, scale and problem.
Every table has a practitioner host, a current or former technology executive who keeps the table on the decision. Members are screened so you never sit with a direct competitor unless you choose to.
Before each session, members receive a one-page pre-read framing the decision, the constraints and the options under consideration.
On the table: Modernization
Re-platform, clean core or keep patching?
- Host: a practitioner who keeps time and the house rules
- A CIO from a Global insurer
- A CIO from a Logistics
- A CIO from a Health system
- A CIO from a Regional bank
- A CIO from a Manufacturer
- A CIO from a University
- A CIO from a Public sector
- Your seatOpen until 15 Dec: request a seat
What a Field Brief looks like.
Every table ends with a two-page brief. The host drafts it within a week, everyone at the table reviews it, and nothing in it identifies a person or an organization. The member who brought the decision owns it.
Illustrative sample written by the CIO Cafe editors to show the format. It is not from a real table.
Field Brief · Sample
Which AI use cases do we fund, gate or kill this quarter?
Founders’ Table, 8 seats, 90 minutes · Chatham House Rule
The decision
A global-enterprise CIO has 40+ AI pilots across business units, a board asking for a risk view, and budget for about a third of them in the next two quarters.
What peers did
- Member A: (financial services) built a one-page inventory first and found a third of the pilots were the same use case in different units. Consolidating them freed more budget than any cut.
- Member B: (manufacturing) tiered use cases by the harm a wrong answer could cause, and only the top tier went to the risk committee. Approval time for the rest fell from months to weeks.
- Member C: (public sector) killed pilots with no named business owner after 60 days. Nobody asked for one back.
What they would change
Two members said they tracked usage instead of value and could not defend renewals. Agree the value measure before the pilot starts.
The commitment
The presenting member will publish an inventory and a three-tier rule to the executive team within 30 days, and bring the first renewal decision back to the table.
Open question for next time
Who signs off when an AI system bought inside a SaaS contract changes behavior after an update?
Where the tables keep coming back.
New tables form when enough members bring the same decision.
AI governance & value
Funding, gating and measuring AI use cases; model risk; the board conversation.
Read the primer →Core modernization
ERP and core-system renewal, clean core, technical debt and business cases CFOs accept.
Read the primer →Cyber resilience
Recovery you can prove, incident roles, third-party concentration and board reporting.
Read the primer →Operating model & talent
Product and platform teams, funding models, skills and leadership bench.
Read the primer →Cloud economics
FinOps, commit negotiations, repatriation decisions and unit economics.
Read the primer →First 100 days
What to learn, what to fix and what to signal when you are new in the seat.
Read the primer →Schedule
Founding tables are forming now.
Dates go to matched members first, so no table is filled by a sign-up sheet. Request a seat and your host will tell you when and where your first table meets.