Executive Leadership Exchange
For Qualified Attendees
The Executive Leadership Exchange (ELE) is an executive program for up to 75 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. 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.
Detailed agenda coming soon.
Analyst Access
Priority Analyst 1:1 Booking
Receive priority booking for 1:1 networking and guidance meetings with our best-in-class analysts & experts.
Exclusive Analyst Networking Sessions
Identify challenges and solve problems in small group collaborations with Forrester Experts.
Networking
Private Executive Roundtable
Facilitated by Forrester team members who specialize in leading C-level networking discussions pointed at meaningful outcomes.
Private ELE Networking Lounge
Connect with your peers during the conference at the exclusive sessions and in a private networking lounge in the virtual experience.
Agenda: Tuesday, November 2
All times listed in Central Daylight Time (CDT).
12:45pm – 1:10pm
Leadership And Innovation: Learning From The Triumph And Tragedies Of The New Space Race
“Flight test was an exercise in creativity and perseverance.” – Mark Stucky (former Virgin Galactic lead test pilot)
Nicholas Schmidle, author of Test Gods and Mark Stucky join senior analyst Phil Brunkard for a unique insight into the trial and tribulations of commercial space flight innovation. Space flight needs leaders who go beyond where they can’t see, into the unknown, pushing the envelope for what might be possible. They are not satisfied staying within the box or looking within their own horizon. They also need to build trust and create an environment to allow their teams to be creative, adaptive and resilient as they face high risks, setback after setback in forging that new world of commercial space travel. What can tech leaders learn from this?
Nicholas Schmidle, Author “Test Gods”
Mark Stucky, ex-Test Pilot for Virgin Galactic
1:30pm – 2:30pm
The Storytelling Leader
When leaders tell stories, they create engagement and belief around their most urgent work. There’s no faster –or more human – way to align people to action. The Storytelling Leader is an active learning experience that has influenced leaders at all levels in the world’s most influential organizations. Those leaders have discovered the power of narrative for exercising influence, fostering an innovation culture, selling, transferring learning and knowledge, and building their own voice of leadership.
In this introduction to the topic, Forrester technology leaders will explore the 3 stories they should be telling now for innovation and transformation work. In this fun and active session, they will encounter:
- Examples of how other organizations are leveraging narrative to create engagement and belief so people will act.
- Compelling stories that actual leaders are telling to engage their systems.
- A simple framework for thinking about the stories that Forrester participants should be finding and activating now in their technology organizations.
- An opportunity to start identifying their “narrative assets”— their value-holding stories — which they can bring back and tell to their teams immediately.
David Hutchens, Author, The Storytelling Leader
Agenda: Wednesday, November 3
12:30pm-1:00pm
Secure What You Sell: Defend Revenue Generating Creative Innovations
For many organizations protecting innovations means ensuring that intruders do not steal your most important intellectual property. But creativity leads to innovation, and innovation leads to revenue when it becomes of your products and services. And defending that revenue requires product security. Product security sits at the intersection of innovation, development, cybersecurity, and product management. Join this fireside chat with VP and Principal Analyst Jeff Pollard for an overview of Forrester’s “Secure What You Sell Model” followed by an interactive question and answer session on product security to understand how to engage more effectively with cybersecurity leaders to secure your revenue generating innovation efforts.
Jeff Pollard, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester
2:30pm – 3:00pm
Product Centricity: Is The New Operating Model Approach Right For You?
Volatile economic times have spurred major re-thinking of IT operating models. Many organizations are turning to product-centric approaches (e.g. the so-called “Spotify Model”). Infrastructure organizations in turn are standing up platform teams, managed as internal products. But efficiency, alignment, accountability, and governance remain concerns. Is this model even a fit for you? How do we balance the tension between expertise and product centricity? How do we coordinate and achieve larger objectives in a world of autonomous teams? Join this fireside chat with Principal Analyst Charles Betz for an overview of Forrester guidance on product centricity, followed by an interactive question and answer session to understand the opportunities and challenges this new approach presents for your organization.
Charles Betz, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Certification
Available OnDemand at Technology & Innovation North America to ELE Qualified Attendees
Forrester Certification Live: Leading Customer Obsession
Customer obsession is more than a passion for the customer – it’s a way of doing business that requires putting the customer at the center of every decision throughout the company. Your organization can’t achieve customer obsession unless leaders like you model the right behaviors for employees and create the conditions in which employees can focus on customers. During this session, ELE-qualified senior technology executives can sample video lessons from Forrester’s new Leading With Customer Obsession course, and walk away with specific behaviors you can adopt today.
James McQuivey, VP, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Jenna Wohead, Director, Certification, Forrester
Learn more about Certification here
Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity & Inclusion are part of the fabric of Forrester’s culture. We are excited to share that this year’s program includes sessions dedicated to a number of important areas of focus as it relates to Diversity & Inclusion. The below highlights sessions which are available to attendees during the program.
A New Society Has Arrived. Is Your Firm Ready To Embrace It?
The conversation about race and gender and the imperative for fairness and equality has reached a crescendo. Companies face a new urgency to address these social vectors head-on in the way they do business. To get it right, firms must move beyond knee-jerk action to systemic change. In this session, we will explore the challenges ahead and outline a framework to rethink stakeholder relationships – employees, partners, customers, and the community – in light of the new social reality.
Dipanjan Chatterjee, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Forrester
The Value Propositions of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Tech
Technology can innovate and shape our lives in magnificent ways. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion can contribute to that innovation in new and exciting ways. Join Jordan Mitchell and Forrester’s Katy Tynan to discuss how finding the value proposition of DEI within your functions can revolutionize results.
Jordan Mitchell, Global DEI Engagement Partner, Sprout Social
Katy Tynan, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Inclusive Leaders Spark And Sustain Innovation
Workers who say their companies are diverse — from their peers beside them to the executives at the top — also say their companies are more innovative, adaptive, and creative. How does diversity translate into creativity? The secret lies in the inclusive practices of leaders at all levels.
Katy Tynan, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Design Accessible Experiences To Energize Employees And Unlock Creativity
Creating accessible experiences helps you reach new markets, reduce legal risk, and prove to customers and employees that your company is serious about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). But most firms take a narrow approach and miss out on these benefits. This session will showcase examples of how focusing on accessibility early, in design, unleashes creativity in teams and leads to differentiated products and experiences. You’ll walk away with best practices for designing accessible experiences and enabling a culture of creativity in the process.
Gina Bhawalkar, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Inclusion And The Math Of Equity
What does inclusion mean and what are the implications if we truly want to be an equitable organization? Schindler’s Inclusion Scale explains how inclusion relates to tolerance, equality, empathy and equity. The session reveals the surprisingly radical implications of equity based on a mathematical model.
Eric Way, Global Head of Inclusion, Diversity and CSR, Schindler Group
Diversity And Curiosity: Power Creative Tech Cultures
Unlocking creativity requires a heavy dose of diverse perspectives. Not exactly a strong suit of most tech teams. This panel puts real teeth into the struggles of – and proven strategies for – creating more diverse and inclusive tech teams full of curiosity and creativity.
Sharyn Leaver, SVP, Research, Forrester
Marta Zarraga, CIO, Capital Group
Kristie Grinnell, CIO, General Dynamics Information Technology
Fiona Mark, Principal Analyst, Forrester
Team Send Program
Large Team Send Program
The Technology & Innovation North America Forum provides a broad and deep agenda to maximize learning and networking opportunities for groups of attendees from the same company.
The large team program includes the following premium experiences in addition to pricing incentives for teams larger than 10*. Where applicable, additional exclusive in-person opportunities will be provided to qualified teams. To find out how to qualify your large team, contact events@forrester.com
Priority Analyst 1:1 Bookings
All of your team members will have advanced access to book 1:1 meetings with Forrester analysts before the general attendee population. Ensure that the more focused discussions individuals on your team need to have with Forrester experts happen at their convenience.
Team Meeting with Analyst
Use your team’s time at the conference to all meet on a key initiative or challenge with one of the many Forrester analysts during the event. This group-level meeting is in addition to your team’s exclusive 1:1 opportunities, allowing individuals and the team to get expert guidance
Team Concierge & Orientation
Prior to the conference, enjoy a guided tour of the platform and conference agenda to help you maximize your learning, networking and solution discovery experiences. During the conference, a dedicated Forrester events team member will support your team’s attendee experience.
Small Team Send Program
The small team program includes the following premium experiences in addition to pricing incentives for teams larger than 5*. Where applicable, additional exclusive in-person opportunities will be provided to qualified teams. To find out how to qualify your medium team, contact events@forrester.com
Priority Analyst 1:1 Bookings
All of your team members will have advanced access to book 1:1 meetings with Forrester analysts before the general attendee population. Ensure that the more focused discussions individuals on your team need to have with Forrester experts happen at their convenience.
Team Orientation
Prior to the conference, enjoy a guided tour of the platform and conference agenda to help you maximize your learning, networking and solution discovery experiences.
*Team send qualifications for attendees registered with purchased tickets, using pre-purchased tickets or service units.
Technology & Innovation North America · November 2 – 3 · Live Virtual Experience
Use discount code 2FORR1TINA21 to take advantage of our team discount – receive 2 tickets for the price of 1 in one transaction.