Upcoming Analyst and Industry Events: What’s Virtual? What’s In-Person?

The latest ARInsights client “open session” covered a lot of ground. These quarterly, virtual meet-ups give AR pros an opportunity to discuss industry trends, swap best practices, pick the brains of other practitioners and experts, and air what’s on their minds – all in an informal, unrecorded forum. In general, discussion topics arise organically – driven by the priorities and interests of attendees. (Sign up to attend the free September event here.)

Salient topics during our June 2021 meeting included:

• Blackstone’s acquisition of IDG (including the IDC research business) – motivating factors and what’s next
• Analyst comings and goings across various firms
• Upcoming events – What’s in person? What’s virtual? What’s hybrid?

In particular, events and their formats are frequent topics of interest among companies today. (To that end, ARInsights recently conducted a three-part, on-demand series with an events expert: looking at the pandemic’s impact on events and event roadmaps moving forward.) 

In the U.S., with many COVID restrictions now easing, more fall events are being planned with in-person or hybrid formats. In many other parts of the world, virtual events remain the predominant format. 

For in-person planning, event organizers must consider safety, as well as probable attendance – for example, during our open session, many AR pros shared that their companies have travel bans in place through the end of the year.

Based on the conversation and interest at the open session, we wanted to provide a list of some upcoming analyst and industry events that our clients typically attend – with a look at what’s planned as virtual, what’s in-person and what’s hybrid. 

First, a few notes:

• After September, Gartner events are largely planned as in-person.
• Upcoming Forrester events are being offered both as live and virtual experiences.
• No word yet on the format of IDC Directions, which is typically held in March (and was a virtual event this year). Many other upcoming IDC events are virtual.
• Our own event, the annual ARchitect User Forum – focused on AR technology strategies, customer success stories, the ARchitect roadmap and more – will be held virtually. You can register for the event (Dec. 7 and 8, from 9 a.m. — 12 p.m. PT each day) here.

Upcoming Analyst & Industry Events