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What to expect at this year's Gartner Symposium

Matthew Burbidge
By Matthew Burbidge
Johannesburg, 16 Aug 2017
Jeffrey Mann, research VP at Gartner.
Jeffrey Mann, research VP at Gartner.

In the weeks before this year's Gartner Symposium/ITxpo (18-21 September) in Cape Town, Jeffrey Mann spoke to ITWeb about what to expect at the annual gathering of IT, government and industry professionals.

Mann, a research VP at Gartner, has been the chairperson of the Cape Town conference for the past few years, and works with the speakers to shape the conference agenda.

Although he lives in France, Mann says he tries to keep up with what's going on in SA so that he can help the research giant localise its content for the South African market, and has had to explain black economic empowerment to others at Gartner.

Much like recent editions of the conference, this year's broad theme is organised around digital business.

Nexus of forces

Gartner introduced the term "nexus of forces" about four years ago to describe the confluence of cloud, big data, social and mobile.

This nexus, he explains, has become the underpinnings of digital business.

He explains that as cloud, big data, social and mobile became mature, people started using them and "they began to come together" and reinforce themselves to enable new possibilities. And these new possibilities are really what we call digital business.

"The idea that you can do useful work on mobile devices is not new anymore. That's accepted, but the implications of that are what's being covered under digital business ? and that leads to the top-level themes that we have [at the symposium]."

There are 10 themes this year, split into three areas: leadership, business strategy, and technology and information.

Within these areas, there will be tracks on artificial intelligence, Internet of things, cloud, cost optimisation, and leading an IT organisation, among many others.

The Cape Town conference is the "first of the season" for Gartner events, says Mann.

Two weeks later there is the flagship symposium in Orlando (attended by about 10 000 people), after which it moves round the world: Barcelona, Goa, Gold Coast in Australia, Tokyo, S~ao Paulo and Dubai.

The full agenda can be found here.

* ITWeb is a media partner for the event.

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