One key element of Celent’s value proposition is our attendance at conferences. To be a little flip, we attend so you don’t have to! More accurately, we attend because you have neither the monetary nor the time budget to jet all over the world to industry events. For us, it’s part of the job, and we get to keep our finger on the pulse of the industry at gatherings hosted by individual firms and neutral third parties. In September alone, for instance, I’ve been in Panama, Barcelona and San Francisco. A more comprehensive (although not necessarily complete) list of our attendance is below (and that’s just the third-party events!). One event that’s come incredibly strong out of the gate is Money2020. Its first incarnation was two years ago and garnered more than 2000 people; last year it had over 4000, and this year is shooting for over 6000. Celent (Zil Bareisis and I) will be attending (and in full disclosure, we are a media partner of the event). We view this as a “must;” the breadth of the ecosystem attendees is immense, the diversity of topics fascinating. In the last two weeks I’ve mentioned Money2020 to two clients and both have replied that they’d have to look into attending, particularly based on my positive feedback from last year’s event. If you’d like to register, please go to http://money2020.com/register. Look for us to tweet, blog and otherwise have a host of insights after this and other fall conferences. What events do you consider crucial?