Having just finished with the FST Summit in Evian, France (and cooling my heels for a couple days in Switzerland) I would like to share my observations from this event - an event that has definitely raised the Customer Value Proposition while clearly setting a new standard of excellence (i.e. - value) in conference-style events.

There are many factors that have contributed to the uniquely successful character of the FST Summit put on by GDS, and while I pride myself in my ability to notice the difference I know that I have failed to recognize many subtle differences that have made this event the unique success that it is. That is truly the mark of excellence when a program is so well prepared and conducted that you know it’s great but its not easy to point out why. It is far more impressive “magic” than the slight of hand magic tricks by several street magicians that were captivating people on the evening of the second day of the event.

What I did explicitly notice was that the quality of the people attending the event was superb. People with vision, goals, focus, and a challenging mindset tuned to doing the right things for the right reasons (including new ideas and concepts) was the norm where it is typically the exception. The quality of people created a very stimulating environment.

The next thing I noticed was the design of the event that very adroitly brought us all together in many interactive ways, stimulating discussion in a creative flow that constantly brought introduced people to people, and people to topics. The resulting information sharing and learning was the strongest benefit of the event.

I also note that the event attracted vendors that by-in-large were aptly able and actively engaged in the peer-to-peer exchanges going on throughout the summit. That again is typically the exception rather than the norm, and I must say it was a very exhilarating breath of fresh air.

Finally, the representatives from IDC served the role as the primary research/analyst resource at the event with (what I consider almost shocking) the sharing of their insights as a truly independent research and analysis resource. As many of you probably know, I find that characteristic to be generally lacking in the research and analysis market, with certain bigger players (perhaps starting with the letter G?) recently moving into an even more commercially-focused model of vendor marketing rather than independent analysis and research. I can’t speak for all of IDC but the group in attendance at this summit are clearly doing the right things for the right reason.

Of course the popularity of the messages in our workshop around SCOs, the Outside-in Customer focus and eliminating Causes of Work rather then fixing their affects didn’t hurt my impression of GDS and the FST Summit. Being accorded the privilege of running our workshop on both days of the Summit was certainly a clear statement by GDS in respect to the value of our message. Having strong turn-out both days at our workshop, lots of interaction in the sessions by participants and many, many post-workshop compliments from participants certainly validated the judgment of GDS. At the end of the day we are all judged by the value we create and while I know that Bennu Group exceeded everyone’s expectations in this regard it is even more important to note the GDS exceeded the “conference/summit market expectations” by leaps and bounds.

I think that will be a hard act to follow. While the Bennu Group has begun reviewing the “quality” of conferences for 2008 we have certainly realized one thing, you can expect to us NOT see us at some of the events you may have seen us at in the past as our bar has been raised from what we experienced at the FST Summit.

The one place you can expect to see us in 2008? GDS events, of course!