Jeffrey Mann

The time period after an intense conference like Symposium closes down is always a bit strange for analysts. We inhabit an isolated world with the delegates, revolving around presentations, workshops, 1 on 1 meetings, receptions, meals and (usually not enough) sleep. It’s the same for attendees, but there are a slew of people making sure [...]

[Read more →]

We have been experimenting with using Twitter at several of the recent Gartner events. I have the most experience with the PCC conference in London, but have also been watching what has happened at the recent CRM, Enterprise Architecture and BPM conferences.
I started to collect some of the best practices we have found to [...]

[Read more →]

Gartner’s Symposium/ITxpo conferences are a mammoth undertaking. For the second year, I get to serve as the chair for the European conference, to be held in Cannes November 2-5, 2009. I work together with colleagues organizing Symposia in Cape Town, Sydney, Tokyo and especially Dave Cearley, the Orlando chair.
The series of Symposium conferences is [...]

[Read more →]

I am just beginning to produce materials for the Spring conference season, but planning for Fall Symposium is beginning to get underway. I am always looking for ways to make the Symposium conference experience more effective. Last year in Cannes, we tried these innovations (at least for us)

Using an online chat system to collect questions [...]

[Read more →]

I have both figuratively and literally left Cannes behind me, as I write this on a TGV train heading north. A train ride provides a good chance to reflect and to blog; there’s not much time for either of those activities during Symposium itself.
Every conference is different, but this one had several differences which [...]

[Read more →]

The two weeks between Orlando and Cannes Symposium this year gives analysts working both events a chance to catch up with families and the work that inevitably piles up; at least for the analysts who are not also at Tokyo Symposium. A few will also do Sydney and Cape Town, which leaves little time for [...]

[Read more →]

I feel like I’ve been leading two lives at the Gartner Symposium this year in Orlando. Not because it is so busy; it always is. In every snippet of time I can grab, I am watching reactions to what we are saying and the conference as a whole on Twitter and blogs. It is an [...]

[Read more →]

I’m on my way to Orlando for the Fall Symposium, so I thought I would write about what it is like to work these conferences as an analyst. I plan to deliver three presentations in Orlando and no doubt dozens of 1 on 1 customer meetings. I also will be visiting several presentations to see [...]

[Read more →]