June 2006
5-minute interview: Alister Christopher
Senior Vice President, Gartner Events Worldwide

Despite catering to the tough technology market sector, Gartner Events Worldwide is launching 10 new conferences in 2006, bringing its total number of events to 78 conferences worldwide. Gartner events revenue totaled $151 million in 2005, up 9 percent from the previous year. Senior Vice President Alister Christopher talks with EXPO about Gartner’s one-of-a-kind approach to events.

EXPO: Gartner events focus on senior-level executive attendees. There are a lot of shows that would love to have those demographics. Besides the obvious things like service and content, what’s the key to getting a senior-level executives out of their office’s and to a conference with so many demands on their time?
Christopher: We’re very proud of our demographics. Our attendees represent more than a billion dollars of revenue annually and 95 percent are key decision makers or decision influencers. Thirty percent of our attendees make more than $50 million of purchases a year. You say it’s obvious, but service and content really are the key to getting executives out of their offices. Our advice and expertise is unbiased, and that carries through to our events. It’s valued by our attendees. Our attendees come to network, to talk to one another and to meet industry luminaries. In fact, last year we had representation at Gartner events from 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies.

EXPO: A number of the b-to-b media companies have been moving to an integrated selling process across all their media products. Is this your approach?
Christopher: Yes, we do have an integrated selling strategy. We don’t sell booth space in mass like some of the larger shows. We sell marketing and sponsorship opportunities. Thus, we get to know our sponsors over time, and we work with them to identify the best opportunities for their message. We’re seeing significant growth as a result. It’s something we’ve been doing for about three years now.

EXPO: Gartner produces a number of international events. Which international markets do you think will be hot markets for Gartner in coming years? Which have the most potential for growth in your view, and why?
Christopher: Our strategy is to deliver only the very best, very top-end events. So, we won’t go into a market unless we believe we can achieve that. We’ll continue to grow in North America, Europe and the Middle East. We’re also launching a new event within our Australian portfolio. As for Asia, we launched our first event in China last year. It was an outsourcing event, it went very well, and we’ll continue to look at that market.