ITxpo is a showcase for cutting-edge solutions from best-of-breed providers and up-and-comers, in an atmosphere where knowledge is king. ITxpo opens with a cocktail reception on the show floor Monday at 5:30 PM.

Visit ITxpo and learn about the following:

• ITxpo Theaters


• Solution Provider Sessions


• Face-to-Face Sponsor Meetings


• Community Lounges


• Replay Theater


• Cool Vendors


• Symposium Invitational Program

Learn more.

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Keynote addresses are a hallmark of Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Emerging Trends and 2008 is no exception. Gartner CEO Gene Hall will officially kick off the event with his opening remarks Monday from 8:00 AM to 8:15 AM. Gene will be followed by the Gartner Analyst Opening Keynote at 8:15 AM. This keynote's theme is "Technology-Powered Business Acceleration" and features Peter Sondergaard, Ken McGee, Anthony Bradley, Partha Iyengar, Mary Mesaglio and Darryl Plummer.

Tuesday's keynote features a format we introduced at Symposium/ITxpo Emerging Trends San Francisco: A Look Into the Labs. We've asked some of the most successful innovators for a peek inside those labs, to see a few of the projects in the pipeline. You won't want to miss this. Participants include: Cisco Systems' Emerging Technologies Group, HP Labs, Sun Labs and Xerox Labs. A Look Into the Labs takes place Tuesday from 10:45 AM to 12:00 PM. Gartner Analysts Jackie Fenn and Martin Reynolds will moderate the session.

Wednesday's keynotes bring the Innovator Interview series to Las Vegas. The fist keynote takes place from 10:45 AM to 11:30 AM and features Aldo Manzini and Tom Peck of the MGM Mirage. Aldo and Tom will be interviewed by Gartner Analysts Betsy Burton and David Cearley. The second keynote takes place Wednesday from 11:30 AM to 12:15 PM and features Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft. Craig will be interviewed by Gartner Analyst Carl Claunch.

All keynotes take place in Mandalay Bay EH. For more information, please visit the Keynotes page.

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We're here! Welcome to Gartner Emerging Trends Symposium/ITxpo 2008. Today is the beginning of what promises to be an exciting event. Driven by our new focus on six megatrends, Symposium/ITxpo will be taking a look into the future and providing you will actionable information, all in the span of five action-packed days.

Start today with our Super Sunday sessions for Symposium Community members. Organize your event schedule with our AgendaBuilder planning tool, available here. Make sure to make time for our special keynote sessions, featuring Gartner analysts, a look into the labs of leading technology companies, and interviews with top executives from Microsoft and MGM Mirage.

Be sure to check out the technology powering these emerging IT Trends at ITxpo, which will be open Monday evening through Wednesday afternoon. There's even time for a little fun – this is Las Vegas, after all, with special events centering on the finals of the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournament.

It's sure to be a great week, so make your plans and make the most of it. Keep checking the blog for the latest information.

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If you have chosen to attend Emerging Trends Symposium, you are probably a leader who wants to keep up with what's next. Our intention is that you will leave knowing important new things that you didn't even know you needed to know. For example at last year's event a couple of hidden gems were Green IT (Gartner was the first to pronounce IT's 2% carbon contribution is comparable to aviation) and a session called 'Cyberwarrior' which pre-dated real cyber-war incidents that occurred later in the year. Both sessions were highly prescient but sparsely attended because the subjects were so new. So, as chair, here are 5 sessions I think will be really important to your future – but you might not yet realize it. Pick a couple of them, and stay one step ahead of the pack

Huawei vs. ZTE: The Emerging Chinese Megavendors

I know what you are thinking … who? And who? That's the point. Its not so long since Lenovo appeared on your radar - now their X300 rivals the MacBook Air. This is your chance to hear about new vendors directly from one of our leading Chinese analysts.

Teardown Live!: Apple iPhone

This device is crossing over into corporate use and its design is influencing other manufacturers. It's what's inside that counts. How unique is it? What do its components tell you about the future?

The Low-Carbon Economy and IT's Role in It

What comes next in Green IT might make datacenter power and cooling look trivial by comparison. Could the health of the planet depend on your future business applications?

3-D Printing: From Prototype to Product

Printers of things are getting cheaper. One day soon they'll be attached to your network. Don't wait for your first helpdesk call to find out what's going on in this breakthrough device category.

Panel: The Globalization of Human Capital

Surveys show attracting and retaining talent is emerging as one of CEOs biggest long term concerns. Learn how IT can help, come to this session where senior HR professionals from Accenture, Infosys and Ford discuss best practices

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What comes first: the business strategy or the IT strategy? Well that's a 'no-brainer,' clearly business drives IT right? Actually my colleague Andy Kyte is finding some leading CIOs, recognizing the huge business cost impacts from the lack of IT strategic planning, are nowadays placing IT Strategy before Business Strategy. He points out this is counter-intuitive, and represents a revolution in the relationship between IT and the rest of the business. In his session "Why Leaders Place IT Strategy Before Business Strategy," Gartner Fellow Andy Kyte will show why these leaders are gaining benefits from this approach, and describe how they set about the task.

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In recent news iRobot corporation is reportedly working on 'LAN Droids' – wireless LAN robot devices that can relocate themselves to gain optimum signal strength. That work is for the US military, but the same company makes those familiar home vacuum cleaner 'Roomba' robots. Where is it all heading? Retail analyst Mim Burt takes a look at the brave new world we will all be adapting to over the coming decade or two. She sees robots, avatars, and 3D printing melding to form radical new opportunities for consumer facing businesses.

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In a recently published special report preview (G00156764) some of my software research colleagues are predicting software as a service will eclipse open source as the preferred IT cost-cutting method within a few years. Wow - I hadn't thought of it like that – a fascinating prediction! But it doesn't mean OSS is losing relevance – far from it. If you want to know where that is headed, Mark Driver has all the answers. Clients always love Mark's sessions (some of you may remember a few years ago when his Java vs .Net analysis regularly packed rooms to overflowing). Find out 'How Open Source is Changing the Shape of IT' or 'How to Manage Open Source in the Enterprise.'

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In just a few days thousands of IT and business professionals will converge in Las Vegas for Gartner Emerging Trends Symposium/ITxpo. We've made it easy for you to be a part of it all!

Monday: REGISTER. It’s easy, click here or call +1 866 405 2511. Be sure to choose your Symposium Community while registering. Make your hotel and travel reservations as well. Click here for more travel information.

Tuesday: Plan your agenda. With over 175 sessions it’s hard to see it all. Find suggested agendas by role and industry or create your own with our easy to use agenda builder tool.

Wednesday: Clear your calendar! Call the pet-sitter, babysitter and whomever else you need to help out next week. You have a week filled with activities so make sure the home front is covered.

Thursday: Make your list of burning questions and must see exhibitors. Use this event to help get the answers you are looking for through Gartner Analyst One-on-Ones and Analyst/User Roundtables, the ITxpo showcase filled with solution providers and unparalleled networking with thousands of peers.

Friday: Pack your bags. The weather in Vegas is great! This time of year highs are typically in the upper 70’s and lows in the mid 50’s with mostly sunny days.

Saturday: Take care of any last minute details and relax. Your going to need all your energy for a week filled with fresh ideas and new innovations!

Sunday: Let the games begin! Arrive at check-in and then start exploring all that Gartner has to offer with our Super Sunday line-up.

We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas. Enjoy your week!

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"Innovation is a big idea with a lot of potential - but it is tricky to get right. Enterprises with leading-edge, sustainable innovation practices approach innovation obliquely, not directly." So says researcher Mary Mesaglio in her new March report to members of EXP CIO Signature entitled 'The Innovation Paradox' (G00156596). Just how do you lead an organization to deliver more innovation? Mary has been working with a group of CIOs on innovation questions for several years. In her session ''I' is for Innovation: The CIO as Chief Innovation Officer' she will share some of her findings.

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Gartner Fellow Tom Austin just published a Report with the title Microsoft and Google Jostle Over Cloud-Based E-Mail and Collaboration (ID Number: G00156216) examining the early days of an emerging battle to gain the upper hand in this important arena. Our final late addition to the main conference agenda sees Tom bring this thinking to the stage in his session titled How Google's, Microsoft's and IBM's Cloud Strategies Will Rain on Your Plans. Long-time Gartner clients will know Tom is one of our most senior analysts and a great presenter who never sits on the fence. This session promises to be insightful and thought provoking.

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Have you ever thought what the very biggest issues might be for IT over the next 20 years? Most of us don't think that far ahead – but it's important in many industries for small, high level groups doing long range strategic planning. I have just had the privilege of seeing the slide deck my colleague Ken McGee will be using at the event with the title 'IT Grand Challenges.' It is very interesting indeed. It may change your view of the future of IT and your career within it. Don't miss it!

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This week the Wall Street Journal ran a conference called ECO:nomics with headline speakers like the CEOs of Walmart and General Electric and the Governor of the State of California. You might wonder what IT's role is in this new green business gold rush to 'create environmental capital' which has already caused some leaders like Jeffrey Immelt to call for cap and trade regulation in the United States. Clearly there's a lot at stake. In his session 'The Low Carbon Economy and IT's role in it' Simon Mingay will explain exactly where this is leading and how it could impact you. In his session 'How Green is Your Technology or Service Provider?' he'll explain how it is impacting them. Don't miss him!

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I notice my colleagues Tom Bittman and John Enck have just published a really useful reference research report on six best practices to consider before you even start to virtualize your server architecture. For many of course, this subject isn’t an emerging trend, but nobody is cutting edge in everything they do. So maybe you need some of this helpful advice. Tom and John will be available for one-on-one sessions at Symposium.

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Many Gartner clients in company IT departments don't realize we have specialized semiconductor industry analysts. Some of them do 'teardown analysis' – where a device is pulled to pieces and examined in minute detail to find out how its made, who supplied the components and what can be learned about future market developments. We have just added a new session called 'Teardown Live' where we will be doing this in front of the audience, explaining the internal intricacies of the Apple iPhone. Come along to learn what secrets this consumer device, now entering corporate markets, has hidden away inside and what that implies for the future.

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Perhaps you have noticed the concern about recession in the US economy – it would be hard to ignore. Nobody can be certain how serious the economic downturn will be through this year and next, or how it will impact businesses in different sectors. But our advice to IT leaders is to prepare now. All Gartner Research clients can see our first wave of cost cutting advisories here. At the conference we have just added a session called Twenty-Five Ways to Cut IT Costs. Treat it like a trip to the mind gym – to get fit for budget cutting - if that comes your way. Just in case it gets really popular, we'll be running this session twice.

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Maybe you have wondered just how much information Google has been gathering from different sources via its massive search engine and other projects. If they could link all that stuff together, what would they know about you and your organization? If analytics are applied what could be inferred? This is a topic two leading Gartner analysts, Richard Hunter and Mark Stahlman have been investigating for the last 6 months. If you are interested in the power base of megavendors, privacy and security or what the leading edge of information management looks likes, this is for you. We have only just added their presentation session 'What Does Google Know' to our published agenda. If you attend Emerging Trends Symposium you'll be among the first to hear the results.

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Reminder: If you are joining us next month in Las Vegas an ideal way to get familiar with Symposium/ITxpo Emerging Trends is by becoming a Symposium Community member. When you join one of the 9 role-based Communities you get a host of benefits. One you don't want to miss is the Community Pre-event Audio Teleconference. Don't miss this opportunity to ask us questions and you'll hear directly from our analysts about the latest research they will be unveiling while we're in Las Vegas. As soon as you register for Symposium/ITxpo we'll send you your invitation to join us for this live call to hit the ground running. And if you can't make the scheduled call, we email all our Community members with a link to the recording so you'll be able to listen at your convenience.

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The Apple iPhone is a hit, RIM's recent business results show Blackberry sales were strong over the last holidays and Nokia recently claimed 40% of the mobile phone handset market for the first time. Mobile devices have never been hotter. So who do you turn to for insight on what works and what's next? My answer is Ken Dulaney. Ken has been our leading US mobile device analyst for many years. Ask him about your tough decisions and ask him to show you the latest devices in his famous kitbag.

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Last year at this conference we were privileged to host the pioneering CEO of Linden Lab (creators of Second Life) Philip Rosedale. Some of the media buzz about virtual worlds has since died down a little. Maybe you don't yet see why this technology will be so important – but progress is continuing, rapidly. Let us explain how we see the future and what it will mean for your business though our mini track of sessions called 'Virtual Worlds, Real Opportunities.'

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