Dortch's Digressions

Interop, The Week After: A Few Thoughts on Trade Shows

I moderated five sessions (on virtualization) at Interop Las Vegas last week. Herewith, some thoughts on that show, and on trade shows in general.

First off, I think Lenny Heymann, Manuela Farrell, Andy Saldana, the Interop show network crew and the rest of the Interop management team deserve a major shout-out, for running the show well, treating speakers well and helping to revive a show that many perceived was moribund, if not on its last legs, not too long ago. And I think that the Interop show (which I also participated in last October in New York after several years away) is playing out an evolution of trade shows I and others have been predicting for a while.

Specifically, my impression is that the hottest, highest-value events at Interop Las Vegas were the educational sessions, including but definitely not restricted to the ones in which I participated. The show floor was decent, but not all that exciting to me or to others with whom I spoke at the show. But every person with whom I spoke who attended a session got value out of it, and seemed excited to have learned and/or validated things they could take home and use and/or do.

There were a few weirdnesses at Interop, at least to me. Most notable among these was the fact that keynote addresses were streamed live on the Web, but could not be viewed on many if not most mobile devices that were not traditional laptops. Given that the keynote venue was almost always full to over-capacity and that many speakers and media attending the conference carried various tablets and other mobile devices, this seems…well, weird. But otherwise, the show seemed to hum right along, with last-minute speaker challenges addressed graciously and efficiently.

If you exhibit at trade shows and conferences, think seriously about upping your company's participation in educational sessions and similar interactions. It may be worth reducing or eliminating entirely the expense and difficulty of mounting a major show floor exhibit, unless you're required to exhibit to sponsor or participate in such sessions. (A hotel suite to which you can invite hand-selected visitors during the day and house a staffer or two at night may make a lot more economic and marketing sense.)

If you go to trade shows and conferences, spend a bit more time examining and planning your time at relevant sessions. And work with your colleagues to share and distribute session attendance intelligently, and to make sure all relevant courseware makes it back home in a usable, shareable form. And it wouldn't hurt to collaborate on a post-event report that summarizes relevant highlights and gathers links to any useful materials available online. (The good folks at Interop make all session presentations available for download with user IDs and passwords provided by show organizers.)

Trade shows and conferences are typically expensive, disruptive events for exhibitors, speakers and attendees alike. But that doesn't mean they don't have value. Especially as they continue to evolve, whatever you can do to maximize that value to you personally and to your organization will help to justify the effort and costs -- and maybe free up more time to consume the free food and drink almost always available somewhere, and to make and deepen those personal connections...

Gartner to Absorb AMR – and Analyst Firm Consolidation Continues…

Ironically, Gartner’s announced plans to buy supply chain mavens AMR Research can be seen as basically an elaborate Yankee Group reunion, of sorts – echoes of one I attended just under a month ago, as Yankee Group employee #5. After all, Gartner Senior VP and Director of Research Dale Kutnick was my boss at Yankee. AMR Chief Research Officer Bruce Richardson and CEO Tony Friscia are both Yankee alumni as well.  (Bruce and Dale were both at the reunion I attended, as was Howard Anderson, Yankee Group founder and current member of the faculty at my alma mater, M.I.T. A good, nostalgia-imbued time was had by all, near as I could tell.)

And while I’m sure the acquisition will be good for AMR and Gartner, and at least neutral if not positive for current AMR clients, I believe its effects on the future of IT analyst/research industry will be mixed at best, at least in the short term. As some have already opined in their own blogs, as reported in Computerworld, taking competitors out of this market reduces reputable corporate sources of trusted, actionable information. And given that many users and at least some vendors already look askance at the entire traditional market, fewer such sources is not a promising prospect.

But there may be some good to come out of such consolidation, albeit not necessarily immediately. As we’re finding at Focus and elsewhere, users and at least some vendors are eschewing relationships with analyst firms. They are instead forging more direct relationships with knowledgeable, credible analysts, users and other individuals with relevant opinions and experience.

This is a trend that will continue and accelerate. It will likely result in significant and sustained benefit for users seeking guidance and vendors seeking alternatives to competing with larger, better-known companies for attention from traditional analyst firms.

(Imagine that you were an analyst or business development person at Analyst Firm X, and two calls came in simultaneously – one from, Big Vendor That’s Already a Client and one from Unknown Start-Up Vendor Y. Which call would you take first?)

If you look at Focus, RedMonk and some other non-traditional sources of IT market analysis and opinion, you see levels of interactivity and connection traditional analyst firms simply cannot match. At least not without wrenching changes to their fundamental business models. And these new levels of interactivity and connection are enabled by analysts who have chosen to pursue alternative ways to ply their trade – and new technologies that make new connections possible.

Consolidation can only go so much further – how many more firms can the big boys buy? (Forrester Research was also started by another Yankee Group alumnus, George Colony, who was also at that reunion I attended. I’m just sayin’.) But opportunities abound for analysts and others seeking to communicate and interact directly with users, vendors and other analysts. Focus, for example, offers numerous online communities, as well as complementary research created by users, consultants, analysts and even vendors.

The future of market analysis is not about analyst firms pontificating to users or vendors. It’s about those who know and those who do sharing what they know and do with others who want or have to know or do similar things. It’s about those seeking information and knowledge vetting and commenting upon the information and knowledge of others. And it’s about using modern technologies to make such knowledge and information accessible to those who need and want it most – the users whose purchases make entire markets possible.

And that future is already happening right now. At Focus and elsewhere. Come participate, and help make that future bright, for you and your company and for others in situations like your own.