The Technology Awards recognize excellence in technology strategy that drives an obsession with customer success and business growth.
The following reports define the key concepts at the core of Forrester Technology Awards.
- The Customer-Obsessed Growth Engine. This report explains the key steps to take now to align internal operations that fuel a customer-obsessed growth engine designed to grow revenue, profit, and customer retention efficiently and consistently.
- The Best Tech Organizations Are Future Fit. This report helps you understand how IT organizations move through the stages of IT maturity to ensure their business delivers on the promise of customer obsession.
Want to find out who the nominees were in 2022 and why they were chosen? Read the blogs linked below.
Consultancies and agencies are welcome to nominate their clients with their clients’ written permission and agreement to the terms of the award. Nominators should gather all permissions and information prior to submitting the entry form. Entries cannot be withdrawn or amended after the deadline.
SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR 2023!
Technology Strategy Impact Award
The Technology Strategy Impact Award recipient will demonstrate:
- A technology strategy that enables the firm’s customer obsession: an enterprisewide technology strategy that puts the customer at the center of the firm’s operating model.
- A high-performing IT operating model that leverages a continuous, iterative, and integrated strategy-to-value delivery process linking business objectives through business capabilities, with end-to-end value streams.
- Quantifiably better outcomes for customers, employees, and the business as a result.
Enterprise Architecture Award
Forrester is pleased to announce that this year’s EA Awards are co-judged by The Open Group, author of the TOGAF® Standard, which was developed by The Open Group Architecture Forum.
In selecting the winners of the 2023 Enterprise Architecture Award, the judges from Forrester and The Open Group are looking for stories of enterprise architecture (EA) excellence resulting in tangible business and customer results. Outcome-driven approaches to EA help firms become future fit — adaptive, creative, and resilient. This year’s winners will embody the six principles of outcome-driven enterprise architecture: valuable, influential, continuous, agile, accountable, and pragmatic.
The Enterprise Architecture Award winner will demonstrate:
- An EA roadmap that contributes to the future fitness of the technology organization and the entire business.
- EA practices that drive change, growth, and differentiation through timely yet strategic decisions.
- An EA organization that embodies six principles: accountable, agile, continuous, influential, pragmatic, and valuable.
Executive Leadership Exchange
For Qualified Attendees
The Executive Leadership Exchange (ELE) is an executive program for up to 50 qualified senior technology executives. The program will expand on the Forrester thought leadership presented at the keynotes of the conference and create a private senior executive network. A facilitated networking session will be offered that targets best practices aligned to executive priorities.
ELE is an invite-only program. To be approved to attend, applicants must be the senior-most technology leader from their organization, not reporting into any higher technology executive. Applicants cannot be representatives from high-tech and service provider organizations that sell technology products or services. Attendees who may meet these qualifications will be invited to join the ELE experience.
Please contact events@forrester.com with any questions.
Exclusive Agenda
Recommended Executive Agenda
Take Forrester’s guidance on which sessions to attend as a technology leader from the entire conference.
Private Executive Sessions
Attend private sessions featuring exclusive-panels and presentations from Forrester analysts.
Analyst Access
Priority Analyst 1:1 Booking
Receive priority booking for 1:1 networking and guidance meetings with our best-in-class analysts & experts.
Private ELE Networking Lounge
Connect with your peers during the conference at the exclusive sessions and in a private networking lounge.
Detailed Agenda
Sunday, Sept. 10
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm | Meet Your Peers: Networking Reception
Join us for a pre-conference reception where you can network with Forester experts and Industry peers who will be part of the ELE program throughout the event.
Monday, Sept. 11
Visit the Agenda tab, then click ELE Agenda and find a curated agenda.
8:00 am – 8:55 am | Breakfast Session
Start the day with a nourishing meal, the company of your fellow ELE participants, and an overview of the day ahead.
10:50 am – 11:35 am | Q&A: Fair & Explainable AI
Join us for a conversation with one of the thought leaders in the domain of fair and explainable AI and explore the multi-faceted opportunity to design AI-enabled products and services that benefit not only our organizations but society itself.
Speaker: Matthew Lease, University of Texas at Austin
12:45 pm – 1:45 pm | Exclusive Lunch: TIER: The Impact of AI on Labor, Productivity And Capital Investment
The continued development of artificial intelligence promises to transform the business environment as we know it. As we attempt to make decisions in an environment characterized by change and uncertainty, a view of AI’s impact rooted in traditional economic concepts of labor, productivity, and capital can help anchor our strategies and decision-making. Join us for a fascinating perspective on how to apply timeless economic principles and make better sense of the new.
Speaker: Christopher Gilchrist, Forrester
5:40pm – 6:40 pm | Exclusive Reception
Enjoy this opportunity to further engage with peers met during the ELE program.
Tuesday, Sept. 12
Visit the Agenda tab, and use the filter to highlight your ELE curated agenda
8:00 am – 8:55 am | ELE Breakfast Networking: Birds of a Feather
Join one of the networking tables during this informal discussion on hot topics. Engage with experts, share insights, and forge meaningful connections.
12:10 pm – 1:10 pm | Exclusive Lunch: High Performing IT with the Technology Strategy Impact Award Winner
Hear the “behind the scenes” story of the Forrester Technology Strategy Impact Award Winner and ask your questions about the journey that led to the award and the winner’s perspective on the road ahead.
Forrester Women's Leadership
Join us as we discuss the many ways you can power change and growth for yourself and other women in the workplace. Network and learn from your peers on advancement strategies for women leaders and participate in conversations about how to develop meaningful relationships with women leaders in the data and analytics industry. All are welcome to join!
Monday, Sept. 11
8:00 am – 8:20 am | Networking Breakfast & Introductions
8:20 am – 8:55 am | Fireside Chat: Powering Change In Your Career
Speakers:
Chioma Onwuanibe, Forrester
Heidi Norman, City of Pittsburgh
3:35 pm – 4:20 pm | Interactive Discussion And Q&A: Powering Change In The Workplace
Speaker:
Melissa Gill, Forrester
Heidi Norman, City of Pittsburgh
Tia Eady, Cognizant
Yvonne Wassenaar, Forrester
Cecilia Coates, U.S. Department of State
Tuesday, Sept. 12
Join us as we focus on how to help advance women leaders in your organization break down barriers and overcome challenges. Learn from your peers on advancement strategies for women leaders and participate in a conversation about how to develop meaningful relationships with women leaders in the data and analytics industry. All are welcome to join!
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Your Why. Your Superpower. Your Career Vision of Success.
Each of you has a superpower that motivates your actions. That influence is the WHY that explains why you do what you do. Your WHY empowers you to intentionally plan and make informed career decisions that elevate personal satisfaction and professional impact.
Join us as we:
- Explain the influence of WHY on your career vision.
- Introduce the WHYs that shape change and actions.
- Position you to tap into your WHY and intentionally create the career that brings joy.
Speaker:
Lillian M. Davenport, Principal, End View Solutions, LLC
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
IN-PERSON & DIGITAL SESSION
Monday, Sept. 11 | 10:15am – 11:00am | Embracing Diversity As Your Key For Growth: A Few Practical Steps
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are key concepts at the forefront of many corporations’ agendas today. The need for a more inclusive workspace is not new, but corporations are now recognizing trends in the correlation between a diverse, inclusive workspace and greater staff retention and productivity. This session provides an easy-to-follow pathway that helps get any company past the initial step (of what is often viewed unfavorably as “requisite diversity training”) and around the most common traps that stop companies from maintaining best practices.
- How to jump right in and identify specific areas for program enhancement. Don’t get lost in the big picture!
- Learn the three key components of the employee lifecycle for DEI incorporation.
- Discover how a stronger DEI program can lead to team and company maturity.
- Recognize the most common traps: where attempts to be inclusive go wrong with most corporations.
- Act upon two things you can do today to improve immediately.
Speaker: Jade Johnson, Owner, JadeInclusion
DIGITAL SESSION ONLY
Build A Better Listening Strategy To Inspire And Enable Your Employees
Gone are the days when leaders stood in front of their followers and told them what matters. Modern leaders engage their teams to learn from them, and with them, what matters in business and for customers. But that can only happen with a more purposeful listening strategy. In this session, attendees will learn:
- What listening is and why it plays the largest role in an organization’s approach to employee input.
- How listening is a productive, rather than merely reactive, tool for improving the business.
- Why successful leaders will be known as much for what they learned as what they said.
Speaker: David Johnson, Forrester
DIGITAL SESSION ONLY
Earning Excellence: How Managers Can Inspire And Enable Sustained Excellence
Energy and engagement are finite resources that are essential to achieving business results. One of the challenges that organizations and leaders face is that these resources have been depleted for many of their employees due to a lack of strategies to refresh and sustain that energy. In this session, we will:
- Define “tired rock stars” — high-engagement contributors who are at risk of burning out.
- Guide leaders to see the tired rock stars in their ranks (including, possibly, themselves) and understand them more clearly.
- Share how leaders can sustainably earn excellence from their talent.
Speaker: Jonathan Roberts, Forrester
DIGITAL SESSION ONLY
The Evolving Drivers Behind Accessibility Commitments: Attracting and Retaining Talent Enters The Spotlight
Compliance and avoiding lawsuits are no longer the primary driver behind enterprise accessibility statements. This panel will discuss the shift of firms citing that “attracting and retaining talent” as the top driver behind their accessibility commitments.
During this session, we will discuss:
- The myths of providing accommodations, and how to manage an increasing number of requests from employees
- How companies are personalizing their employee value proposition at scale
- Why a “one size fits all” approach no longer works and how having a strong, accessible culture can be the difference between a productive employee base vs. an unsatisfied one.
Speakers:
Gina Bhawalkar, Forrester
Sarah Bernard, Inclusively
Charlotte Dales, Inclusively
DIGITAL SESSION ONLY
Fireside Chat: Resilience, Growth Mindset And Self-Care: A Leadership Journey
Hear about a product leader’s personal and professional journey of success across multiple industries, geographies, and at the intersection of technological and business disruption. In this fireside chat, Ash Mukherjee will discuss with Monica Carlesso how she has grown as a leader by embracing curiosity and displaying grit and openness to being constantly out of her comfort zone. But she has also learned how self-care is key to leadership and sustainable growth. Modern leadership is about embracing change and dichotomies, both as strategic business levers but as a display of compassionate leadership through massive societal changes.
During this session, we will discuss:
• A product leader’s journey across different industries and geographies, exploring challenges and implications.
• How to overcome the bumps of a growth journey with curiosity, grit, and self-care.
Speakers:
Ash Mukherjee, Forrester
Monica Carlesso, Lloyds Banking Group
DIGITAL SESSION ONLY
Fireside Chat: Inner Master, Outer Impact: Lessons in Leadership
Hitendra’s mission is to discover, codify, and explore the laws of success in life and leadership. With an MBA and Ph.D. from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Wadhwa brings a mathematician’s rigor and a truth-seeker’s spirit to some of today’s most vexing questions about authenticity, success, leadership, and human potential. In this conversation, we’ll explore with Hitendra his personal journey of discovery, his insights, and his recommendations for defining, and then achieving purpose, and how you can be a better leader with Cultural Intelligence.
Speakers:
Ash Mukherjee, Forrester
Hitendra Wadhwa, Mentora Institute
Analyst Relations Exchange
For Qualified Attendees
The Analyst Relations (AR) Exchange at Technology & Innovation North America welcomes AR leaders to join Forrester Executives in exploration of Forrester’s evolved value proposition, product portfolio, and research methodologies benefitting high-tech and service provider organizations.
This session is designed exclusively for analyst relations professionals at high-tech and services companies and will provide an overview of Forrester’s product strategy, research strategy, and evaluative research methodology. It will be followed by a networking reception.
The AR Exchange is for qualified AR leaders only. To be approved to attend, applicants must have an analyst relations title or be a verified AR leader with another title. Attendees who meet these qualifications will be invited to join the AR experience. This event is offered in person only.
Agenda
Tuesday, September 12
This event is offered in-person only.
4:00 pm CDT | Arrival, Coffee & Networking
4:15 pm CDT | Welcome and Kick Off – Led by Forrester Product Management
Christopher Andrews, VP, Research Director, Forrester
4:30 pm CDT | Forrester Research Update – Led by Forrester Research
5:00 pm CDT | Forrester’s Research Methodology And Insights For High-Tech & Service Providers – Led by Forrester Evaluative Research
Danielle Jessee, Researcher, Forrester
5:15 pm CDT | Q&A With Forrester Executives
5:30 pm CDT | Private Reception with Forrester Analysts
6:00 pm CDT | Program Concludes
Bring Your Team
“If you want to go fast, travel alone. If you want to go far, travel together.” Technology & Innovation North America provides a broad and deep agenda to maximize learning and networking opportunities for groups of attendees from the same company.
Take another look at the agenda today. Browse some sessions you think would interest your team. See for yourself why it really is smarter to “travel together” when you come to this year’s Technology & Innovation North America.
Small Team
Pricing incentive for teams of five to nine paid attendees from the same enterprise.
- Discounted Tickets: Receive five tickets for the price of four in one transaction. No code required; add five tickets to your cart and receive 20% off.
Large Team
Pricing and experiential incentive for teams of 8+ paid attendees from the same enterprise.
- Priority 1-on-1s: Advanced access to book (1) 20-min 1-on-1 meetings before the general public.
- VIP Seating in Keynote Room: Premier seating reserved for VIP attendees
- VIP Badge: Unique name badge identifier to signify VIP-level status.