Anyway, the final result was well worth it.  Our “final” registration count was nearly 500  – and the buzz from the weeks’ earlier Gartner BI Summit seemed to spill over to the MDM Summit.  We got off to a good start with the two pre event tutorials that were over attended (standing room only).  It is great to see such interest in MDM.

The Keynote went well (I didn’t get undressed this year!) and day one ended with the humorous Second City crew taking a wild look at our BI and MDM worlds.  Hopefully the humor came across OK.  It was the most nerve wracking time of the week.  In most cases a Gartner analysts is “in control” of the agenda so it is always down to us to “deliver” but when someone else is in charge of the agenda, the session?  It’s a whole new ball of wax.

Day 2 kicked off well: the 1-1’s were booking up; the workshops and roundtables too.  I presented a couple of presentations – my favorite was the governance pitch.  For those of you that attended – you know why I enjoyed it the most!  I got to dress up.  I also did some 1-1s which are always good since you get to meet users up close and personal like.

Day 3 saw the Gartner MDM Excellence Award, and as you probably saw from tweeters, we had three finalists – Daymon, xpedex, and Lexmark.  A big “thank you” to all three speakers – Abhishak Beniwal from Daymon, Jo Young from Lexmark, and Scott Dickerson from xpedex, and to all the other companies that submitted case studies for consideration.  And a special congratulation goes to Jo – for bringing home the win to Lexmark.  The attendees get to vote on the three case studies and Lexmark won that important vote.

I hosted a round-table on Friday – on getting started with MDM and what to do on Monday.  We had a number of users exploring MDM (for the most part) across different roles, IT and business, and we concluded that looking for business opportunities, for where MDM can add value to the business, was a good place to start. 

From me – a special thanks goes out to the Gartner team too.  They all worked real hard, often behind the scenes, to make such events happen.  I was the lucky one – to have been Conference Chair.  But there is a large team “behind me” and those guys did a great job.

Thanks also to all of you that came.  Hope you went away with some useful ideas, best practices, or tips and tricks, an ideally made some new contacts with other likeminded MDM users.  See you next year!

On the website is a link to a document to fill out that describes your MDM program, according to Gartner’s 7 Building Blocks for MDM.  Myself and the other track chairs (John Radcliffe and Ted Friedman) then review the submissions for completeness and uniqueness, and overall fit to the building blocks.  We select from all those submitted a small number, normally between 3 and 4, to present at the North American MDM Summit in May.  After each user organization has presented, the audience get’s to vote on which was the best!  And at the end of the event you join a select band of previous winners and collect a special gift to show-off back at the office!

So “come on down”, submit your story, and get your name in lights!  For details of the Excellence Award and to download the submission form (and free research describing the 7 Building Blocks of MDM, go here.  And for more information and to register for the 2011 Gartner Master Data Management Summit, May 4-6, go here.

Interest in MDM is very high; the term is in the top 20 search terms on gartner.com for 2009!  The event provides a new, updated look at “all things MDM” that you won’t get anywhere else.  I will “be there” via video – where I will present on MDM of Product Data.  My colleague and partner in MDM crime, John Radcliffe, is Conference Chair for the event.  I pick up that responsibility for our US event in May 2011.  Hope to “see” you there.

The immediate goals are to publish our MDM Key Issues – the note that highlights the lenses through which we will publish our material in the next year.  The “Key Issues” is a set of questions that are posed in order to capture what our clients are asking, and should be asking, in the immediate future.

I have several other notes underway.  One on “why ERP won’t work well without MDM”; one of defining what “governance” means in context to MDM.  I also have a case study from my old SCM days to get published that highlights some innovative business processes in consumer goods/retail.  Lastly, I am working on a “sister” note to my recent MDM Magic Quadrant – on “other vendors that augment your MDM of Product Data program”.  It should be a busy December and January.  And there was me thinking I might get a break!

How can an extra step of administration that adds major costs to several stake-holders in this industry, not least of which is the extra time now incurred by families messing around with getting pieces of paper from doctors’ offices that probably won’t want to issue the paper anyway for OTC drugs.  What on Earth is going on here?  Are we stark raving bonkers?  Where is the saving?

When I was a lad (yes, I was one once) I used to fall about laughing so much, watching Normal Wisdom movies, that I would cry.  My chest would ache from the continuous guffawing I would suffer as Norman went through his program.  Then, at the next moment, I was romantic and melancholy when he started to sing.  That was 30+ years ago.

Two years ago my father gave me a wonderful Christmas present – the collected set of Normal Wisdom movies.  Two years ago a relived that same time, but this time Io was the parent and my 3 boys laughed and rolled about the floor the same way as I had done.  And when Norman sang, they too went silent and listened with awe at this little man, black and white, who reminded us all of how gentle we can be.

Thanks Norman!

• Perfidious Albion Again: The British are Different, really.  But they are stick with Europe – and it with them.  Entertaining look at how the British look at and work with Europe, versus its other options.  Recent history, as in the last several hundred years, defines Britain’s foreign and trade policy acutely.  Britain continues to be defined with Europe’s wobbles (more recently), and US unnamed Empire strategy (previously).
• Overstretched: Many people who kept their jobs are working too hard.  What can companies do about it?  Interesting report that explains how those workers that kept their jobs, through the current recession, are now working harder, even too hard, for long term benefit.  My personal experience seems to conincide with this, and maybe yours too.  Does your company have a “list” of key resources that need to be “protected”?  In a previous life I actually established a Key-Man policy and it worked to some degree.  I just hope I am on “the list” now . 

Scott Carson, Micah Richards, Wayne Bridge, Steven Gerrard, Joleon Lescott, Sol Campbell, Gareth Barry (Jermain Defoe, 46), Frank Lampard, Peter Crouch, Shaun Wright-Phillips (David Beckham, 46), Joe Cole (Darren Bent, 80).

Those playing for England in the World Cup this time around include: Gerrard, Defoe, Lampard, Crouch, Wright-Phillips, and Joe Cole.  That’s 6 out of 11 have remained the same. 

• Crouch – too tall and cant complete most passes; obvious target man for headers but never jumps because he doesn’t need to
• Gerrard v Lampard – too many leaders on the pack; should have dropped one or both 2 years ago and groomed a new captain
• Heskey – old man, already retired but no one told him, can run for 10 minutes at a time.
• Ferdinand – If you watched him on TV this last year at Manchester United you would have noticed how easily wingers were getting past him.  Despite his recent history, he is past his best.  I was gladdened to hear tha he is now injured and can’t play.  Shame he didn’t take Heskey out at the same time.
• Goalkeeper David James is also old and makes too many mistakes. 

When England failed to qualify for Europe 2 years ago, Gerrard was interviewed right after the game.  The reported asked him, “So is this the most embarrassing time of your career?”  Gerrard, captain of England, had to think.  He waited for 20 seconds and the reported had to follow up, asking what could be more embarrassing.  Gerrard said something about what might have happened before in some game for Liverpool.  What?  What the heck as club football got to do with it?  England failed.  Of course it was the most embarrassing point of his carrier.  He is an embarrassment.  He should be been saddened and broken.  I was.  He should be kept at Liverpool and 2 years ago we should have groomed a wholly new team with 25% old guys. 

I hope England does well, but when we don’t, it will be obvious why.  We needed real change, and we only got a half hearted attempt.  We needed vision and we didn’t get it.  I can’t wait to eat humble pie.