C3 Editorial Team

The cost of not being in the room is outdated strategies, missed partnerships, and being a step behind your competition. Every executive knows the danger zone when you stay home, thinking you can catch up later. But by then, your competitors have moved. Your risks compound. At the C3 Tech Summit, you avoid that trap. Let’s talk about what’s on the line if you skip.

Missed Insights $$ Lost

Across all talk tracks from Cybersecurity & Risk, Customer Experience, Executive Leadership, Innovation & Infrastructure, transformations are happening fast. If you don’t get in the room, you miss what’s working right now.

Cybersecurity & Risk: Cybercrime is projected to cost $10.5 trillion annually by the end of 2025. Human error still causes 95% of data breaches. And in the new age of AI-driven threats, only about 10% of large companies are prepared. Miss this track, and you risk paying that price firsthand.

Customer Experience: Companies leading in CX grow revenue 80% faster than competitors. By the end of 2025, 89% of businesses will compete primarily on CX, and product and price will no longer set you apart. If your CX lags, so does your revenue.

Innovation & Infrastructure: From SASE, SD-WAN, ZTNA, and MSP strategies to AI, cloud, and cyber resilience, the infrastructure decisions made today determine whether your organization can scale or stall tomorrow.

Executive Leadership: Disruption doesn’t wait for hesitant leaders. This track equips leaders like you with frameworks to lead decisively, communicate with clarity, and rally teams through uncertainty, skills your organization can’t afford you to lack.

Then, there are lessons you simply can’t afford to hear secondhand.

  • General Stanley McChrystal, former Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan, will close the Summit with a leadership playbook forged in crisis, showing executives how to make high-stakes decisions under pressure.
  • Lt. Col. Robert J. Darling, who stood inside the White House bunker on 9/11, will share what real-time crisis leadership and communication look like, lessons no case study can replicate.
  • Dr. Paul Isely, Economist, will deliver foresight into the economic realities shaping your business in 2026 and beyond: inflation, supply chain shifts, global instability, and what executives must prepare for now.
  • Matthew Toth, C3 President & CEO, will set the tone with his vision for the future of technology and leadership in the Midwest.
  • You’ll also see a live demo of C360 with Taylor Vossler, C3’s VP of Operations. An opportunity to experience how executives are gaining visibility and governance across their IT environments.

And for the first time, clients will even take the stage, sharing candid perspectives on how they’re tackling the same challenges you face. Add in breakout sessions, networking, and panel discussions, and you’re looking at a one-day download of strategies you can’t Google, can’t outsource, and can’t replicate.

Missed Connections Partnerships Lost

What you don’t see in slide decks or LinkedIn posts are the relationships built in hallways, over coffee, and during candid conversations in breakout rooms. At the C3 Tech Summit, the value of one handshake can outweigh a year’s worth of cold outreach. In a single day, you’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with CIOs, CISOs, CFOs, and VPs across industries, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, higher education, automotive, and more. These are the leaders shaping strategy in the Midwest and beyond.

Skip the C3 Tech Summit, and you skip direct access to decision-makers who are usually impossible to reach. You miss the chance to benchmark your toughest challenges with peers who are facing the same pressures. And you forfeit opportunities to build alliances and partnerships that your competitors will gladly claim first. So what’s really more expensive? One day out of the office, or another year behind? If you don’t show up, you'll pay:

  • in missed revenue, by not acting on emerging trends
  • in lost partnerships, by letting others get first access to networks and tools
  • in leadership fatigue, by missing renewed inspiration and vision

Don’t let the cost of staying home be the cost of falling behind. Register now. Get in the room. Make 2025 the year your strategy leaps forward instead of playing catch-up.

Play catch-up later, or register and set the pace now.

Connect & Lead