The Gartner Symposiums are one of the top industry events that we take part in every year, and the gathering at Walt Disney World in Orlando earlier this month stayed true to form. Not only do we get to meet a large number of the event’s attendees – many of whom are IFS customers or partners – but it was also an invaluable opportunity to be part of the conversation. And by ‘part of the conversation’ I mean both listening and speaking.
Many months of research and preparation go into an event of such scale (we know, having hosted the IFS World Conference in May!).
But it’s more than just the logistics that need preparation to make such an event valuable for the 10,000+ CIOs and senior tech executive that descend on Disney every year. We specifically enjoyed hearing the outcome of Gartner’s CIO survey as well as the tech-related forecasts Gartner predicts will influence business success in the future – look out for future forecasts from the IFS Global Industry Directors that share our view of the future for the vertical industries we serve.
Ginni Rometty from our partner IBM and Jeff Immelt who runs GE (an IFS customer) added interesting perspectives on how their companies are addressing the areas of cognitive computing (particularly the importance of algorithms in managing big data and decision-making) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
These are certainly hot topics in the industry and something we’re proud to be addressing through various IFS Labs projects – see this recent ARC paper on how IFS customer Sporveien is embracing IoT to improve the operational efficiency of the trams in Oslo, Norway, for instance. And listen to IFS Labs Director Martin Gunnarsson’s keynote at the World Conference in May in this IFS podcast.
What we’re proud that IFS brought to Gartner’s Orlando Symposium was the reality of how these often talked about topics can be implemented in reality to deliver tangible improvements and results for our customers.
In a packed-out session on the first-day of the conference, IFS Global Industry Director Antony Bourne (pictured above) took to the stage to provide insight into how IFS is helping customers derive value from IoT, wearables and the voice-controlled IFS Personal Assistant.
If you didn’t manage to make Antony’s session in Orlando, check out the video recording.
Or better still, if you’re attending Gartner’s upcoming symposium in Barcelona, why not attend in person?
In Barcelona, Antony will be speaking at 13:15 on Tuesday November 10, where you can learn more and see some of the demos for yourself. We encourage you to ask Antony the toughest questions you can!
