(You can still go for the networking. And the parties. I won't judge.) 

Most vendor relationships follow the same script: renewal conversations, quarterly business reviews, the occasional escalation call when something breaks. 

That script is costing you more than you realize. 

Organizations with purely transactional vendor management see 20–25% lower project success rates and 15% higher total cost of ownership Technologymatch — and are significantly less likely to hit their digital transformation goals. Yet most CIOs are still running that playbook. 

I decided to flip it. 

At my last 3 internal IT leadership roles, once a year, I bring my key vendors into a room — not to review contracts, not to hear pitches — but to do something most organizations never do: share where we're going and ask what they're seeing. 

Think of it as the conference your vendors wish they could host — except you're running the agenda. 

Do not forget to invite your business stakeholders. 

Here's how it works. 

Our stakeholders and I present our business objectives for the coming year. The major initiatives. The problems keeping us up at night. The strategic direction we're heading. 

Then we ask them to do the same. 

What's on their product roadmap? What capabilities are 12–18 months out that should be shaping our plans right now? What are they seeing across their client base that's directly relevant to the problems we just described? 

That last question is where things get interesting. 

Vendors sit at an unusual intersection. They're watching technology mature before it hits your radar. They're seeing the same problems play out across dozens of organizations. And they're making product investment decisions — right now — based on where they think the market is heading. 

If they don't know where you're heading, those investments happen without you. You find out about new capabilities at renewal time, when it's too late to influence anything. You discover a feature that would have changed your architecture decisions — six months after you made them. 

The vendor summit changes that window. 

When vendors understand your multi-year direction, they can accelerate features on their roadmap that align with your priorities. They can flag capabilities in development you don't know are coming. They can bring you into beta programs and early access conversations — not because of the size of your contract, but because you're a known strategic customer with a clear point of view. 

One CIO described exactly this dynamic: "Vendors who want us as a strategic partner stand out because they want our help developing features that could scale. We're testing equipment that hasn't even been assigned a part number yet — that only happened because of the ongoing relationship." Government Technology 

That kind of access doesn't come from sitting in a keynote ballroom with 10,000 other attendees. It comes from showing up consistently as a partner who has something to offer beyond a purchase order. 

The exchange runs both directions. 

We present our priorities. They present their roadmap. We both leave with information that changes what we do next. 

Their roadmap input shapes which solutions we consider for problems we haven't formally scoped yet. Our strategic input shapes which capabilities they prioritize building. Over time, the relationship stops being a vendor relationship at all — it becomes a planning relationship. 

McKinsey research on high-performing strategic partnerships found that the best ones spend 60% of their time together on strategic initiatives and only 40% on delivering the annual plan. McKinsey & Company Most vendor relationships I've seen have that ratio completely inverted. 

Deloitte found that 57% of organizations that formally launched co-creation partnerships said it transformed their approach to innovation Deloitte Insights — not incrementally improved it. Transformed it. 

McKinsey's supplier collaboration research defines joint business planning as buyers and suppliers aligning on short- and long-term objectives, setting mutual targets, and jointly developing plans — with opportunity spanning growth, innovation, productivity, and margins. McKinsey & Company That's not a procurement concept. That's a leadership strategy. 

What I've learned from doing this: 

Your strategic plan shouldn't be developed in a room that excludes the partners who will help you execute it. And your vendors can't bring their best intelligence to you if they don't understand your direction well enough to know it's relevant. 

The annual summit solves both problems in a single conversation. 

Gartner's 2026 CIO Agenda research found that CIOs who proactively manage vendor strategy are 51% more likely to outperform their peers — yet only 28% currently do. Gartner 

The annual vendor summit is one of the simplest ways to be in that 28%. 

So by all means — keep going to Dreamforce, AWS re:Invent, Microsoft Ignite. See your peers. Collect the swag. Enjoy the concert they booked to make you forget about the price increase coming in January. 

But at least once a year, flip the model. Host your own room. Set your own agenda. 

Share your direction. Ask for theirs. Ask specifically what's coming on their roadmap that you don't know about yet. 

The answer alone will be worth the meeting.