Finding your People at the C3 Tech Summit

The work of running technology inside an enterprise can be lonely. Vendor pitches blur together. Peer advice often comes from people whose stacks look nothing like yours. The AI roadmap decisions you make this quarter will live with you for years after the meeting that started them.

The C3 Tech Summit exists for the moments that interrupt that pattern. On November 10, 2026, hundreds of Midwest technology leaders will gather at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to work through the same questions you're working through. Some show up with hard-won answers. Others bring sharper questions worth chewing on.

Why does peer connection matter more this year?

Honestly, we have mixed feelings about how much "networking" at most conferences is performative. The choreography is familiar: business cards swapped and conversations that don't actually go anywhere. That isn't what happens at the C3 Tech Summit, and the design plays a big role in it.

C3 curates the room. Registration goes through an approval process, which keeps the conversations between actual decision-makers. You end up across the table from the CIO of a healthcare system or the VP of Cybersecurity at a manufacturer who's working through the same vendor consolidation question you are. People who carry real budget and accountability for what happens next.

What does "finding your people" actually look like?

For some attendees, it means comparing notes with another CISO about how they're staffing an AI security review board. For others, the breakthrough comes from sitting next to a contact center director who solved the routing problem they've been stuck on for six months.

Most attendees describe the biggest value as coming from side conversations. The main stage matters, but it's rarely what they remember a month later.

Where do the real conversations happen?

C3 built the agenda around protected time for connection. Three breakout sessions run throughout the day, each split by track, so you can self-select into rooms with people facing similar challenges. After the third breakout, the vendor hall opens at 3:00 PM with an hour of networking before the closing keynote, and the day wraps with a reception from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.

A few specific moments are worth planning around:

• Breakfast at 8:00 AM: Quietest part of the day. People are caffeinated but not yet over-stimulated, and they're open to a real conversation before the room gets loud.
• Lunch at 12:30 PM: A full hour, intentionally unstructured. Skip the people you came with and sit somewhere unfamiliar.
• Vendor Hall at 3:00 PM: Sponsor booths from Zoom, Comcast Business, Five9, Dialpad AI, NICE, RingCentral, Rackspace, Vonage, Exabeam, Glia, and dozens more. Conversations here lean technical. The C3 standard is content over sales pitch, and the sponsors know it.
•  Closing Reception at 5:30 PM: The post-keynote crowd is energized and reflective. Some of the best ideas come out of those last 60 minutes 

Who else is in the room?

Job titles run across CIO, CISO, CTO, VP and Director levels in Cybersecurity, Operations, Technology and Information Systems, Technical Services, and Contact Center leadership. IT Managers and Specialists round out the rest. There isn't a single profile that captures it, but anyone carrying decision authority over technology investments will find counterparts on every side.

For 2026, attendance is on track to exceed 600 vs. 400 in previous years. Sponsor representation has grown past 60, with several new names on the floor this year.

What's different in Year 9 for those returning?

If you've come before, the format will feel familiar. Here's what has actually evolved for 2026:

• A dedicated event app for the four talk tracks. All sessions across Customer Experience, Cybersecurity, IT, and Executive Leadership now live in one place where you can build your day and see what your peers are choosing in real time. The no-sales-pitch standard applies to every session in the app: thought leadership and working knowledge, with nothing dressed up as a product reveal.
• AI sits at the center of the keynote programming through Sol Rashidi's closing Q&A, with Robert J. Darling returning by popular demand with his account of leadership inside the White House bunker on 9/11. Dr. Paul Isely brings his economic forecast back for the third year. C3 is still finalizing the rest of the agenda, with additional sessions to come in the run-up to November.
• Content elevated specifically for director-level decision-makers. Past attendees told us the most useful conversations happened in the hallway. For Year 9, C3 rebuilt the agenda to put those conversations inside the rooms.

What if you're not a natural networker?

Most senior leaders in the room would say the same about themselves. A few habits help:

• Pick the sessions you actually care about and let the rest go. A crowded calendar makes for shallow conversations.
• Read the speaker list ahead of time and pre-identify two or three people you'd like to meet. Approach them after their sessions when they have a minute, not before.
• Bring one specific problem you're working through. Conversations move faster when you're asking for input than when you're introducing yourself.
• Eat with strangers. Yes, even at breakfast.

The two or three people whose context maps closely enough to yours, the ones you can text in March when something breaks, are the real outcome here. Fifty LinkedIn connections rarely pull that weight.

Reserve your spot

Registration for the 2026 C3 Tech Summit is open at c3techadvisors.com/summit. The event is free to attend (subject to approval), and the room fills up earlier each year.

If you've been on the fence, the most useful question is whether the right people will be there with you. Reading the speaker list and the sponsor list is the fastest way to answer it. From where we sit, the answer for most Midwest technology leaders is yes.