Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference
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So MangoCon is not the correct answer to my question. Just putting that out there...
Does anyone here have experience with a vendor neutral IT strategist conference? In my casual googling ITxpo and Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations Management & Data Center Conference 2017 (that's a mouthful) seem like good possibilities.
Basically, I'm looking for a conference that helps me look down the road and see if there are ways I can prepare my company to be ready for new technologies, techniques, approaches, architectures, etc.
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I'm not sure there is one, typically these things are not done for charitable reasons but capitalistic ones.
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Pretty sure Gartner is the absolute worst choice possible, they are quite the opposite of "vendor neutral".
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@MattSpeller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
I'm not sure there is one, typically these things are not done for charitable reasons but capitalistic ones.
I'm not necessarily looking for free, just something that isn't Dell EMC World, etc.
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@RojoLoco said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
Pretty sure Gartner is the absolute worst choice possible, they are quite the opposite of "vendor neutral".
Normally I'd agree, but looking at their actual content it looks like it might be what I'm looking for: http://www.gartner.com/binaries/content/assets/events/keywords/data-center/lsc35/datacenter2016_aaag_final.pdf.
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Saw this one in San Francisco on Twitter. Its from Oct. 23-26 at Hilton San Francisco Union Square. Registration fee is $2100/person.
https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ereg/index.php?eventid=214762&;
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@Kelly while a vendor neutral conference is a great idea, my personal cynicism won't let me believe that it is possible to have an event like this without some form of bias, whether from vendors directly, or from the agendas of the persons throwing the conference. But YMMV.
That pdf is interesting, and looks "neutral" at a glance, but I would be shocked if there was no mention of any vendors at the actual conference. Gartner is pay to play, ergo they have their sweetheart vendors, which I'm sure would be recommended during those various sessions.
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@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
Does anyone here have experience with a vendor neutral IT strategist conference? In my casual googling ITxpo and Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations Management & Data Center Conference 2017 (that's a mouthful) seem like good possibilities.
Gartner is as non-neutral as any platform gets. That's their claim to fame.
Why do you feel that MangoCon is not vendor neutral?
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@RojoLoco said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
Pretty sure Gartner is the absolute worst choice possible, they are quite the opposite of "vendor neutral".
Absolutely. Dell World is more vendor neutral than something from Gartner.
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@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
Does anyone here have experience with a vendor neutral IT strategist conference? In my casual googling ITxpo and Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations Management & Data Center Conference 2017 (that's a mouthful) seem like good possibilities.
Gartner is as non-neutral as any platform gets. That's their claim to fame.
Why do you feel that MangoCon is not vendor neutral?
I don't think his take is that its not vendor-neutral, but just the defacto answer around here. Just needing more variety.
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@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@RojoLoco said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
Pretty sure Gartner is the absolute worst choice possible, they are quite the opposite of "vendor neutral".
Normally I'd agree, but looking at their actual content it looks like it might be what I'm looking for: http://www.gartner.com/binaries/content/assets/events/keywords/data-center/lsc35/datacenter2016_aaag_final.pdf.
That's what they do, their whole thing is making vendor promotions look neutral. That's the one thing that they do, that's their whole business model.
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@RojoLoco said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
That pdf is interesting, and looks "neutral" at a glance, but I would be shocked if there was no mention of any vendors at the actual conference. Gartner is pay to play, ergo they have their sweetheart vendors, which I'm sure would be recommended during those various sessions.
Right, ALL of the content that they give is a sales pitch, all of it. Literally everything that comes from Gartner is to sell something.
It's actually that MangoCon is the opposite of Gartner is why we call it vendor neutral. It's IT training, NOT vendor training that is given. It's not sales sessions, but technical ones not designed to sell products.
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The problem with Gartner is not that their are sales people, but that they lie about it and claim to be free consultants. There is nothing wrong with sales, nothing at all, but there is something wrong with being dishonest. Gartner is the lowest of the low. They aren't consultants or technical people at all, they are just the most vile and evil of marketers. There is, quite literally, no one that should be more avoided for advice because there is nothing that you can trust from them - but they are so good at making what they say sound reasonable. It's very tempting to not see their trick and give in to the lure of free advice.
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Talks like Scott's LANless network are about as vendor neutral as you can get.
So many technologies are tied to proprietary technology that I'm not sure how far you could get on vendor neutral.
Of course I write that and can think of VOIP and file sharing (Nextcloud like) things come to mind.
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I think there are two factors, one that Dash mentions that SO much in our industry is specific to a vendor that that is always a challenge. But on the other hand, nearly all talks and material in our industry is focused on vendors that there is such a vacuum for neutral stuff that there is plenty of opportunity for it.
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The reason that MangoCon does not appear (haven't been) the answer to what I'm looking for is that I'm not looking to learn technical skills, but rather to hear people talk about the things that they're doing to prepare for what's next. I'm looking for a discussion at one level higher (or so) than systems. I'm not biased against MangoCon, it just doesn't appear to be what I'm looking for.
As for vendor neutrality, I don't really care if someone is trying to sell me on something so long as they're laying out the long view strategy. I just don't want a vendor siloed event, e.g. Dell World, VMworld, etc.
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@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
The reason that MangoCon does not appear (haven't been) the answer to what I'm looking for is that I'm not looking to learn technical skills, but rather to hear people talk about the things that they're doing to prepare for what's next. I'm looking for a discussion at one level higher (or so) than systems. I'm not biased against MangoCon, it just doesn't appear to be what I'm looking for.
As for vendor neutrality, I don't really care if someone is trying to sell me on something so long as they're laying out the long view strategy. I just don't want a vendor siloed event, e.g. Dell World, VMworld, etc.
So the issue isn't vendor neutrality, it's that you want vendor roadmaps? MangoCon is actually more focused on the future of IT than any conference I know. Not that that means it's the most advanced, but it is actually looking at things like architecture and the future paradigms of IT. Not something I've seen other conferences trying to do. They are all focused on vendor products, not what to do next.
I feel like you literally described MangoCon's goal.
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@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
I'm looking for a discussion at one level higher (or so) than systems.
You mean platforms?
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@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
The reason that MangoCon does not appear (haven't been) the answer to what I'm looking for is that I'm not looking to learn technical skills, but rather to hear people talk about the things that they're doing to prepare for what's next. I'm looking for a discussion at one level higher (or so) than systems. I'm not biased against MangoCon, it just doesn't appear to be what I'm looking for.
As for vendor neutrality, I don't really care if someone is trying to sell me on something so long as they're laying out the long view strategy. I just don't want a vendor siloed event, e.g. Dell World, VMworld, etc.
I feel like you literally described MangoCon's goal.
If that is the case, the sessions from 2017 don't appear (at first reading) to reflect that.
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@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@scottalanmiller said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
@Kelly said in Vendor Neutral IT Strategist Conference:
The reason that MangoCon does not appear (haven't been) the answer to what I'm looking for is that I'm not looking to learn technical skills, but rather to hear people talk about the things that they're doing to prepare for what's next. I'm looking for a discussion at one level higher (or so) than systems. I'm not biased against MangoCon, it just doesn't appear to be what I'm looking for.
As for vendor neutrality, I don't really care if someone is trying to sell me on something so long as they're laying out the long view strategy. I just don't want a vendor siloed event, e.g. Dell World, VMworld, etc.
I feel like you literally described MangoCon's goal.
If that is the case, the sessions from 2017 don't appear (at first reading) to reflect that.
Not all are there, but can you give an example of what you are thinking? There are two sessions for sure that should reflect that the server and desktop state of the art talks that will be covering where IT management is going in the future.
That's teh system level, so misses your other criteria, but just as examples.
did you look at the 2016 topics?
