Gartner Symposium / ITxpo 2019: key takeaways for AR professionals

This year’s Gartner Symposium in Barcelona had a couple of updates for AR professionals in store. And the analysts on stage shared new ideas and new perspectives to the already known tech story.

Gartner Keynote: The Aristotelian Concept of the Golden Mean applied to Technology and Business

This year’s opening keynote on Monday Morning developed further the concept of “Continuous Next” which was presented at Gartner Symposium last year. This year, Ed Gabrys (LinkedIn, @edgabrys), Senior Director Analyst at Gartner introduced the picture of turns that businesses are facing in the era of ever-changing realities and increasing speed. It is all about anticipating these twists, knowing how to take them, and winning in them. Disruption becomes opportunity, not a wipe out.

Geopolitics, regulatory requirements, economic and environmental conditions and downturns trigger the turns, as does fierce competition and the arrival of digital giants to shake up traditional marketplaces.

In my view, the most interesting idea that Gartner presented in the keynote was that of Technology Equilibrium, dubbed TechQ. According to Gartner, the dichotomy of traditional and digital business no longer exists. It is all about finding the right mix of traditional and digital business practice. The sweet spot, or TechQ, is different for every company. But ever organization should get as close as possible to its own Golden Mean. The further away, the more likely of getting disrupted.

AR Forum: New AR Role in the works

Gartner invited AR professionals to an update on its research and business. Gartner reported that MQs and critical capabilities will be updated more regularly, and is streamlining the data collection and evaluation process, which will result in reduced time and efforts for vendors. Furthermore, Gartner will undertake interim updates to Magic Quadrants, to reflect major updates such as a Merger or Acquisition. Updates will only apply to providers positioned in the Magic Quadrant. However, the dots will not move, the MQ graphic will remain unchanged.

Last year, Gartner introduced the new role-based subscription model, intended to better serve different roles within a company, around product management, product marketing, general manager and emerging tech CEO. In the past year, Gartner account representatives have been aggressively pushing the new research formats and updated contracts. This year, Gartner talked about a new AR-specific role and seat.

What does the new model mean for AR professionals?

Does this mean only limited access to research? How can AR pros then serve internal stakeholders in different roles? These remain open questions. Gartner is open for feedback to help define the new research service for AR professionals. The IIAR recommends contacting your account rep to share feedback.

The role based model sounds promising at first. It promises more focus on specific needs and best practices, peer benchmarks and access to a variety of working and benchmark tools and frameworks that can help in refining programs and achieving success. The flipside is the confinement to one specific role. For example, if you buy into the product manager role, you don’t get access to the industry-specific research. If you would like to develop an industry-specific product, you will need additional budget to access to the industries seat.  If you buy into the Emerging Tech CEO role, you will not get access to product management, nor industries.  

Events like Symposium allow access to all presentations and analyst insights, no matter which role or seat you bought into. Also, you have access to analysts in one-on-one meetings, although it is increasingly difficult get the one-on-ones with top tier analysts on your wish list: Some were booked out weeks in advance.

Finally, thanks to all the AR pros who turned up to the IIAR AR Café Anja and myself organised at Gartner Symposium in Barcelona 2019 -it was a great conversation!

Previous posts on Gartner

• And the winners are… Celebrating the IIAR> Awards recipients for 2025 (12/25)
• The Wait is Over! Announcing the IIAR> Award Winners for 2024.
• IIAR> Webinar: top 5 lessons from the 2023 IIAR> Awards winners
• IIAR> Discussion Group + Viewpoints: maximise returns from your Gartner relationship
• IIAR> Discussion Group – Peer Reviews
• IIAR> Discussion Group + Viewpoints: Forrester Pricing and Negotiation (and other firms)
• IIAR> Discussion Group: managing analyst advisory days
• IIAR> Discussion Group: managing inquiries
• IIAR> Discussion Group: approaching research contracts negotiations in a pandemic
• IIAR> Webinar: Peer Insights Updates
• IIAR> AR Forum: Have your say on Gartner’s Initiatives for AR pros
• IIAR> Webinar: Gartner’s Initiatives for Analyst Relations Professionals
• [GUEST POST] Gartner Announces pilot to handle mergers & acquisitions updates for Magic Quadrants
• A turn of the tides? The IIAR> Analyst and Firm Of The Year 2019
• Gartner Symposium / ITxpo 2019: key takeaways for AR professionals
• IIAR> AR Café at Gartner Symposium in Barcelona 2019
• IIAR> Discussion Group: working with Gartner
• The IIAR> Tragic Quadrant 2018
• IIAR> Analyst Of The Year 2018: The Awards Unwrapped.
• Gartner Symposium / ITxpo 2018: key takeaways for AR professionals
• IIAR Discussion Group: negotiating with Gartner
• Join us for the IIAR Café at the Gartner Symposium in Barcelona
• Gartner Magic Quadrant shortcomings or how not to use the gartner magic quadrant
• We’ll Miss You Claire
• Peter Sondergaard leaves Gartner
• [GUEST POST] What I Learned from 5 Years at Gartner
• [GUEST POST] Does Israel have more cool vendors than China?
• Trio of analyst departures at Gartner underlines why backup strategy is so important
• Around Fabio Di Capua from Gartner in 10 questions
• Wrap-up: IIAR> Germany 2018 kick-off