The CIO Marathons

More Information about the CIO Focus Group Marathon
Oct 8, 2009 at the SJ Capital Club

The CIO Focus Group Marathon is held annually by CISE, the Consortium of Information Systems Executives, a professional Community of Practice that also has a commitment to raising funds for student scholarships. The more than 25 members include the current CIOs of Trimble, Synopsys, PGP, Serena Software, Autodesk, Palm, and others, and the former CIOs of Yahoo, Symantec, Lucent, Brocade, HotWire and TiVo. These CISE members volunteer their time to hear companies pitch a new product or strategy and provide feedback. The CISE organization canvasses to find companies to sign up to present their concepts in a half-hour appearance.

Here's how the CIO Marathons work: the presenting company buys time in front of these effective [and opinionated] Chief Information Officers. The Marathon includes the entire CIO group and their corollary Director Level group, a total of over 45 Bay area IT executives. Before the session begins, a standard non-disclosure is signed and the participating company presents a check for a fully tax deductible $5000 fee, up-front, made out to the CIO Foundation's CIO Scholarship Fund, our registered non-profit organization.

Typically 3-5 diverse companies participate in the annual Marathons. Donating companies have used these sessions as try-outs for radical new technology approaches, dry runs for media rollouts, tests for the appeal of product modifications, and blatant sales pitches. The CIO team, under the non-disclosure, is committed to providing direct, constructive feedback and suggestions as requested: from the basic concept of the talk, strategic discussions about timing and pricing, to the method of presentation and effectiveness.

We conduct our "CIO Marathon" once a year at the Capital Club in San Jose, and this year it is Thursday, October 8, 2009 from 3-8 PM. The CIO Marathon has been held for the past 6 years. For their $5000 contribution, the participating companies are also invited to remain for a wine tasting and buffet dinner at the Capital Club where more discussion continues with the members.

Please Submit a request for information about, or reserve an entry slot in our CIO Marathon.