The CEO Retreat
2027 CEO Retreat
Leading Through the Reset
April 8–9, 2027 • Maple Ranch • Amoret, Missouri
Technology, talent, markets, and leadership are all being reset.
The 2027 CEO Retreat will explore what it means to lead through this moment of change, and how the leaders who embrace the reset can position their organizations for what comes next.
The CEO Retreat will take place at Maple Ranch in Amoret, MO—a beautiful private property south of Kansas City featuring exceptional accommodations, outdoor amenities, and scenic grounds for sessions and activities.
Unlock unparalleled insights and connect with fellow Kansas City tech leaders while enjoying world-class accommodations, all-inclusive meals, drinks, and activities.
The CEO Retreat is KC Tech Council’s most anticipated gathering—designed for candid conversations and real perspective among the region’s top technology executives.
Local leaders come together to learn from industry influencers, network with fellow CEOs, and of course, retreat. This experience is designed specifically for Kansas City technology CEOs. The KC Tech Council brings together nationally recognized speakers and exclusive programming that attendees won’t experience elsewhere. Beyond the sessions, the retreat itself is intentionally intimate and exclusive. Attendance is limited to CEOs or the highest-ranking local executive, and the private ranch setting offers nature trails, fishing, a shooting range, golf simulator, and ample opportunities for meaningful connection.
Interested in sponsoring the CEO Retreat? Contact Erin Christensen .
2027 CEO Retreat Speakers
Our speaker and session lists will continue to build as we confirm additional programming.
2027 CEO Retreat Sessions
Explore the sessions planned for this year’s retreat. Our speaker and session lists will continue to build as we confirm additional programming. Click a session to learn more.
Three Years in the Making: A CEO Transition Built for the Reset
National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) is in the middle of something common – a CEO transition. However, the way they’re doing it is different.
Rather than a fast handoff, NIPR chose a three-year transition, with the outgoing CEO passing leadership to the organization’s Chief Product & Technology Officer. In this conversation, NIPR’s outgoing and incoming CEOs will walk through how the transition was designed – the timeline, the roadmap, and why they chose a multi-year process. They’ll share what the incoming CEO took on early, how the plan has evolved, and what it’s actually been like living inside a multi-year transition once it started.
The bigger context: NIPR, like much of the industry, is navigating major external pressure – shifting workforce dynamics, changing technologies, and economic uncertainty. Their bet is that a steady, well-planned leadership transition gives the organization more capacity to absorb everything else changing around it.
Tech and the Global Economy: Potential Influence
An executive-level economic outlook for technology leaders looking ahead through the remainder of 2027 and into 2028. This session explores capital markets, geopolitical dynamics, and macroeconomic trends shaping the operating environment.
The Pragmatism Pivot: Leading Commerce Through the Reset
VML’s 10th annual Future Shopper report, with 28,000 consumers from 17 countries and 2.66 million data points, reveals a “pragmatism pivot”: under cost pressure, consumers are trading flashy digital novelty for speed, reliability, and frictionless execution, while still protecting a few “sacred luxuries.”
For tech leaders, the sharper signal is in discovery itself. Traditional search is losing trust as AI answers become new entry points, making AI visibility a new competitive battleground, even as consumers draw hard lines on privacy and low-quality AI content. And the winners of the next era won’t simply be the brands with the best technology – they will be the ones that earn and sustain consumer confidence. This session explores where investment actually moves the needle, and how to balance trust with technical performance in a market that’s already reset.
2027 CEO Retreat Planning Committee Members
Our CEO Retreat Planning Committee brings together a group of executive leaders from across the Kansas City tech ecosystem to help shape the conversations, experiences, and programming for our next retreat.
2026 CEO Retreat
Explore the speakers and programming featured at our 2026 CEO Retreat.
2026 Speakers
Kansas City National Security Campus, Managed by Honeywell FM&T
2026 Sessions
Designing a Workforce that Works
The workforce expectations shaping tomorrow’s companies are already here. Leaders today face growing competition for senior talent, shifting employee expectations around transparency and growth, and increasing questions about how AI will reshape roles and careers.
This session explores how organizations can build workforce strategies that attract, engage, and retain high-performing teams in a rapidly evolving environment. From communication and career development to navigating the intersection of talent and AI, the conversation will focus on what leaders must do differently to create organizations where people want to stay and grow.
Operationalizing AI Starts With The CEO
AI doesn’t transform companies, leaders do. This session reframes AI adoption not as a technology strategy, but as a leadership discipline. What are you, personally, doing each day to embed AI into decision-making, operating rhythms, and growth? How do you use AI as an executive advantage without isolating yourself or siloing your organization? This conversation focuses on the CEO’s role in operationalizing AI, through behavior, structure, and influence, so it grows you as a leader, not just your tech stack.
Built To Win – Why The Smartest Companies are Betting on Kansas City
A panel discussion on why companies have chosen Kansas City to scale, grow, and relocate, and how executive leaders can translate regional momentum into competitive advantage for their own organizations. Beyond highlighting Kansas City’s emergence as a rising technology hub, the conversation will focus on the strategic factors CEOs can leverage — including talent, infrastructure, partnerships, and ecosystem alignment — to accelerate business growth.
Tech and the Global Economy: Potential Influence
An executive-level economic outlook for technology leaders looking ahead through the remainder of 2026 and into 2027. This session explores capital markets, geopolitical dynamics, and macroeconomic trends shaping the operating environment.
Leadership at Scale: What Must Change as You Grow
As organizations scale, leadership cannot remain static. What works at 20 employees breaks at 200. What works at 200 breaks at 2,000. This CEO-to-CEO conversation explores how leadership must evolve as complexity increases – what decisions must shift, what control must be relinquished, and how a founder or early-stage executive adapts to leading through layers, systems, and structure. This session offers perspective from the helm of a large, complex enterprise, and practical insight on how to prepare your leadership style for the next stage of growth.
When
Thursday, April 8th – Friday April 9th, 2027
Where
The retreat will take place at Maple Ranch, a beautiful private property south of Kansas City, offering a wide range of amenities and top-notch accommodations. Nature trails, fishing and shooting ranges are all at the guest’s disposal.