[Australia] Business Trip

As I mentioned in my previous post, an international business trip in 2025 was NOT on my bingo card. While I had many of these in my younger years, my last international business trip was back in 2009, a whopping 16 years ago. In fact, I was initially hesitant to go on this trip, but as it turned out, it turned out to be something that will really help me.

Photo op with E.T. the Extra Terrestrial

I attended the 3-day Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo held in Gold Coast. Gartner is the world's leading research and advisory company for IT and they apparently host this event every year. While the main topics and agenda items are geared towards IT, this event actually isn't just for IT professionals and many of the attendees weren't IT.

My first time attending the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo

My goal was to learn as much as I could from the many different sessions over the event's three days and try to figure out how I can apply what I learned to enable our company to do things better. I ended up attending 25 sessions so it was definitely information overload for me haha but thankfully, I did have a whole lot of aha moments. Now that I'm back, I still need to review all my notes, check the available documentation, and rewatch the video recordings to come up with recommendations.

View of Gold Coast from the Symposium venue

A colleague went on this trip with me and she got a lot of tips and tricks from her manager who had been to these events before, including registering the day before the event. Apparently, the registration gets very crowded on the morning of the first day so attendees have an option of registering the day before. Thankfully we did because I was able to have my photo taken with this awesome McLaren at the entrance of the convention center before it was cordoned off the next day. (You could still have your photo taken with it of course, but not as close and with a rope barrier.)

McLaren car on display at the venue

While the great value of this event to me is that I feel I've become a bit more equipped to do my job better, one of the highlights of the event for me was the Xpo Galactica event on the second evening. It was an evening socials event with a sci-fi theme.

Kicking off the Gartner Xpo Galactica evening event

According to our agenda, it would run from 530pm to 730pm. I was initially unsure if I would attend, at least until I saw the description of this event: Get ready “to boldly go where no one has gone before”. Join us for an evening voyage to the final frontier, test your aim in laser tag, snap your photo with E.T. and capture the droids that you have been looking for. Embark on a quest of new intergalactic partnerships over a pitcher of spotchka at the Galactica Bar. Get ready to discover the unknown future rolling towards us while being guided by the force. This will be no ordinary night.

Awesome sci-fi design at the Xpo Galactica event

As soon as I saw that it included a photo op with E.T. the extra terrestrial, I just had to go! Naturally, when I got there, I tried to figure out where and how I could get my picture taken with E.T. I finally saw the photo booth that was recreating the most iconic scene in the film: Elliott in his red hoodie riding a bike with E.T. in the basket carrier. I was so excited that I actually forgot to put the hoodie on to cover my head (see the first photo in this post). I asked if I could fall in line again to have my photo taken, this time with the hoodie on, and they said that was perfectly okay. Here is the final photo (which is now on display at home in a picture frame haha):

This photo is the main reason why I wanted to attend the Xpo Galactica event

I also had many more cool photo ops. There were a lot of Star Wars fans there so I got a photo with Chewbacca, Kylo Ren, and a Storm Trooper.

Chewbacca, Kylo Ren, and a Stormtrooper

I also had my photo taken with R2D2 and BB8.

Star Wars droids R2D2 and BB8

There was also a recreation of Han Solo in carbonite at one of the bars.

Han Solo encased in Carbonite

It wasn't all Star Wars though. I got to see the Men in Black with an alien on a gurney and their neuralyzers...

Men in Black with an alien being autopsied

...and I also saw Terminator.

With the Terminator

Another highlight for me was that I got to listen to Ashleigh Barty, a retired Australian tennis player who was ranked #1 for 121 weeks and won 3 Grand Slam singles titles. As a tennis fan, it was great getting to hear Ashleigh talk about how she set her goals and how she achieved her success as well as how she decided to retire when we was still #1.

Former #1 tennis player Ash Barty was a keynote speaker

Then there was the swag. There are a lot of different booths on the Xpo floor and most (all?) of them give out stuff to people who spend some time talking to them. My favorite thing that I got was a really cute bee stuff toy! I would have probably tried to get more swag but I wasn't prepared for it and I didn't have enough luggage space haha.

My loot from the Gartner IT Xpo/Symposium

There was also overflowing food and drinks, including coffee. In the lounge area where I would normally have my meals, they had this beautiful painting on display. It is named "Durungul Budjerum" which means Calm Spirit and it was created by Aboriginal artist Lann Levigne.

Durungul Budjerum created by Aboriginal artist Lann Levigne

I also got a few free books, including "The Graduate's Guide to Future-Proofing Your Career" by Paul Redmond, who was another keynote speaker. I'm definitely not anywhere near close being a graduate haha but his talk about the multi-generational workforce was very insightful so I am sure his book will share even more great insights. He had a book signing on the third day and it was cool that attendees could get these books for free (as long as you fall in line early enough)!

Signed book from Paul Redmond

I believe that it costs a fortune to participate in this event so I am very thankful to my company for sending me there. Now, I just gotta make sure I can apply as many valuable learnings as I can.

Next: Dining in Gold Coast