Symposium is what you make of it

Sun’s Claire Giordano has pointed out that Gartner’s Symposium and IT Expo are worth only what you put into in.

As I recover from the double jet-lag of going there and coming back, I realise that it’s an instructive comment, and points to the value that much of the value of the event is in getting to meet other people there.

That’s especially the case because the event itself is tightly resourced. Analyst 1:1 sessions are heavily booked up. That partly explains why I saw few analysts milling around at lunch, let alone in the audience.

The scale of the event has other implications. Some other Gartner events are getting very large, especially the outsourcing series, which had 700 attendees in London. That is a much more conformable size, similar to Forrester‘s GigaWorld forum. The success of the services event must also partly explain the feeling I get that the Symposium is returning to its core focus on hardware and software.

Duncan Chapple

Duncan Chapple is the preeminent consultant on optimising international analyst relations and the value created by analyst firms. As SageCircle research director, Chapple directs programs that assess and increase the business value of relationships with industry analysts and sourcing advisors.