Today is my last day at Gartner

9 years and 3 months* ago I touched down on the tarmac in Las Vegas and started my career as a Gartner Analyst. First day I attended the AADI Summit. The second day I did my first 1-on-1 with a client.

I was the first and only Gartner Analyst from Norway. To this day, there are still no other Norwegian analysts. Maybe they felt they couldn't do better, or they thought never again, one is enough.

Being a Gartner Analyst is a sweet gig. It's easily the best job I've ever had, and I have had some great jobs. It took something special to lure me away from that... but that will be revealed later. Today I am celebrating the past, while tomorrow I will embrace the future.

So looking back there are so many highlights. Impossible to mention them all. But there are some who is etched into the wrinkles on my brain. Some experiences that really stand out are:

• Proudly putting my first note into peer review only to be absolutely slaughtered by Brian Prentice , Ray Valdes and Gene Phifer . An intellectually humbling experience. Especially when I discovered that following the advice I suddenly had two notes that were so much better than my feeble first attempt.
• Onboarding in Stamford with a stellar class of analysts that counted superstars like Jason Wong , Adrian Leow and Keith Guttridge .
• Getting a ticket to present at US Symposium after only 8 months by the fantastic Tom Austin , because both him and me recognised that Virtual Assistants was the future.
• Writing the Maverick Research Paper "Machines will talk to each other in English" my second year, with collaborators Bruce Robertson and Eric Knipp .
• Having my peers, other analysts, vote me to receive the Thought Leader Award.
• Writing multiple other Maverick Research Papers on the future of AI with brilliant minds like Anthony Mullen , Brian Manusama , Helen Poitevin and Jan-Martin L?wendahl .
• Having many Top 10 Predictions published, but especially seeing them presented by the always enthusiastic and engaging performer Daryl Plummer .
• Having Presented on Stage in all Continents of the World... except Antartica. North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Oceania - I've been there and done that.
• Legendary meals and late night ad-hoc "meetings" with colleagues at restaurants and bars across the globe. Yet, the trip to High Five in Tokyo with Ed Thompson , Michael Maoz and Gene Alvarez stands out.
• Getting the opportunity to present after Satya, CEO of Microsoft, in London - and discovering that Microsoft employees did not find my joke that he was a great warm-up act even remotely funny.
• Being asked if I could do a roundtable for 10 CIOs in Riyadh only to discover it was a presentation for 150 Government CIOs when I arrived, and I was speaking after the Minister of Digitalisation.
• Keynoting AADI Mumbai with my best friend at Gartner, the wonderful Anthony Mullen .
• Publishing the first Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Conversational AI Platforms with 21 vendors, together with Bern Elliot and Anthony Mullen . At the time, it was the best guide to the market by far and is possibly the largest project I did.
• Advising clients and vendors all over the world. Titles ranging from the common Enterprise Architect, Team Lead, CIO or CTO... to the more uncommon CEO, CMO or CxO... and even the rare Sheik, Minister or Doctor. 9 years of over 500 conversations a year adds up to some considerable experience that I could not have gotten anywhere else.
• But most important of all... the constant intellectual stimulation of good discussion and the profound intellectual curiosity of amazing colleagues.

And this is not even all of it. It's only what I could immediately remember off the top of my head.

So you might wonder, why would I leave this behind?

What I can tell you is that the next chapter is going to be equally exciting. It is sufficiently outside my comfort zone, yet totally perfect. I will be able to leverage my knowledge of AI, my knowledge of Conversational AI - and my experience in User Experience. I will once again be in a position to create something, and no longer just advise.

I had hoped to tell you tomorrow. And although I will be logging on and working for a new employer tomorrow morning, we have decided to hold the news a little bit. There are some press releases and coordination that has to be done. However, as soon as I can tell you, I will be shouting it from the rooftops... and posting it here. I am excited to tell you!

*Note: Technically I haven't done any substantial work for Gartner for 3 months, which is the resignation period in Norway. I have only had limited access necessary for handover of work. My battery indicator is thus showing 120% charge. Thanks for what was essentially a paid vacation.