Last week I was at the industry event, RSAC and this week I’m at IBM Think, a vendor event and this got me thinking about the difference between the two types of conferences and how much they’ve changed over the years.

Flashback to 15 years ago: If you wanted to experience a blockbuster tech event, you were probably booking your ticket to something like Networld + Interop. Back then, tech expos such as Interop and SUPERCOMM were the “it” events, allowing vendor carnival barkers to yell over each other to grab your attention. Sure, you could catch glimpses of exciting innovations, but it felt more like tech industry speed-dating: all surface, no depth.

Fast forward to today, and the rise of dedicated tech vendor conferences has turned vendor events into specific tech-centric hubs where you can dive deep into select technologies without the distraction of brightly colored booth swag or gimmicky sales pitches.

There aren’t as many industry events as there were in the past. The ones that remain, such as MWC, EnterpriseConnect and the recently held RSAC, have become a place to meet and for people to build relationships rather than for the practitioner to learn. An interesting byproduct of this is that industry events seem to have a much lower percentage of actual information technology buyers compared with years past.

Juxtapose this with vendor events, which are geared more toward specific job functions, specifically the practitioner and increasingly C-level. Complementing that are ecosystem partners, resellers, investors and industry disruptors, all there to talk shop. Because of this, most attendees at vendor events are IT pros looking to plan out their purchases for the next 12 months.

It wasn’t until the pandemic forced these events into digital limbo — or placed them in suspended animation — that I realized just how valuable they are. After years of virtual meetings and webinars trying (and failing) to replicate the unique aspects of these gatherings, I can confidently say virtual events can’t replace the effectiveness of a tech vendor event.

The reality is, when you’re at a physical event, there’s power in the palpable energy of brainstorming with like-minded “birds of a feather,” the unfiltered honesty of hallway discussions, and the serendipity of bumping into someone at the coffee station who just might inspire your next career move. Dedicated vendor conferences deliver all that plus deep-dive roadmaps, hands-on demos and a peek behind the curtain at what’s coming next. Industry events can replicate some element of networking but not the engineering-specific content.

Over the next few years, as IT continues to grow in complexity, I’m expecting these events will only grow in importance. Whether it’s about cybersecurity, AI-powered tools or cloud everything, these conferences are where innovation is born and celebrated. Attendees will leave with more than just a bag full of SWAG — they will exit with the connections, ideas and inspiration to fuel the next big breakthrough.

Many of my peer analysts prefer dedicated analyst-only events. Though these certainly add value, my preference has been vendor events because I can interact with people that use the company’s products as part of their day-to-day job and that’s something that can’t be shown on a PowerPoint.

Here are 10 excellent examples of some recent vendor events and what I thought was the most meaningful knowledge gained:

• AWS Re:Invent. The Amazon Web Services portfolio continues to grow in breadth and depth. Re:Invent provided many sessions on how Amazon services can be used together to create broader, portfolio value and how to derive short-term value from AI.
• Zscaler Zenith Live. The concept of zero-trust security is no longer a foreign one but getting from today’s security environment to zero trust everywhere can be complicated. At Zenith Live, Zscaler focused on the Zero Trust Exchange and how to implement the technology to dramatically reduce their attack surface. Over the past few years, Zscaler has done a nice job of keeping the practioner content while adding in tracks specific to the C-level.
• Canva Create. Canva is the hot new thing and has turned creative upside down. It’s a relatively young company but Canva Create had many sessions on how to get started with it. Canva is the first vendor I have seen in a long time that has a realistic shot at disrupting Microsoft and Adobe.
• Nvidia GPU Technology Conference. This event was a good mix of vision and hands on learning. Engineers at GTC learned about the latest advancements in AI, accelerated computing, and related software, along with their applications across various industries. Developers also love GTC because the event helps them fast-track accelerated computing apps.
• Cisco Live. Networking is a critical part of AI and Cisco is the biggest network vendor. Attendees of Cisco Live learned about the network and security roadmap but how the integration of the two offers a unique way to secure artificial intelligence. As AI grows in importance, so does the value of Cisco Live.
• Extreme Connect: The current Extreme Networks has been put together through a series of acquisitions, for which most of the integration work is done. The last connect focused on its strength in Wi-Fi and its Fabric and how those fit into the broader portfolio strategy.
• Zoomtopia. The very nature of work has changed, and few vendors have as broad a set of tools to reach every type of worker – remote or hybrid. Zoomtopia has provided prescriptive guidance on how to ensure workers of any type – from back-office to front-office — can use Zoom technology to be more efficient.
• NICE Interactions. NICE is the king of contact center, and its Interactions show has been filled with guidance on how to bring AI into customer service, securely and with minimal risk. NICE always does a great job of parading customer after customer on stage to help prove the value.
• VeeamON. Over the past few years, the boring industry of backup and recovery has evolved into business resiliency and no vendor has been more important in that shift than Veeam. Veeam technology is a critical component of recovering from all kinds of outages, including ransomware. Backup and recovery have shifted from something no one cared about to a board level discussion and that’s on display at VeeamON.
• IBM Think. What I like most about Think is how it front-ends of the user event with a Partner Plus Day. This lets it take its AI, cloud and other content and deliver how to information to its customers but also drive its portfolio value throughout its massive partner ecosystem. Many companies split these events, but I like the two being part of one event, as they are two sides of the same coin.

Zeus Kerravala is a principal analyst at ZK Research, a division of Kerravala Consulting. He wrote this article for SiliconANGLE.

Photo: Robert Hof/SiliconANGLE