When will they learn to stop sending me these inappropriate offers of free travel and resort hotel stays? Here is the latest one to come into my mailbox. The rooms at this hotel start at $500 per night. I am used to the Stevens Point Fairfield Inn where I get a $59 per night rate. I can’t believe anyone would find this ethical:
Hello Will, I’m pleased to invite you to a 1-½ day event that will be well worth your time: a leadership retreat with [vendor] executives and a small group of your peers from other companies. [vendor] will sponsor your stay at the St. Regis Hotel in Monarch Beach, California covering one night room accommodation and air travel if needed.Our goal is to help you identify areas where you can develop technology pathways that satisfy your unique organizational goals.You can expect the following benefits from this event:
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Collaborative solutions to your complex technological challenges
- Access to the collective knowledge and expertise of peers and leaders
- Discovery of potential knowledge gaps
- Strategies for supporting service-level alignment between IT and your business
- Real-world approaches to managing the complexity of IT
Please let me know if you would like to receive more information on this or to register.
I really hope you can make it!
Best regards,
[snip]
Candid CIO 
“When will they learn to stop sending me these inappropriate offers of free travel and resort hotel stays?”
Maybe the problem is that you’ve never gone on any of these free trips. Maybe next time you should accept the free trip. Never buy anything that they offer and make it clear that you are appreciative of their free trip, but don’t want any of their products. Next time they’ll think twice about wasting their time giving you free stuff.
I’m looking for some useful CIO events and CIO roundtables and I’m an “upcoming” CIO. Any advice?