Technology of Tomorrow event this September
I’ve been talking with the chaps behind Technology of Tomorrow, an event that is happening one day after my birthday this coming September (30th). I’ve been hearing folk talking about it for a good few months. I’m going to see if I can liveblog it and maybe even do some interviews with some of the main protagonists. And quite a line up they’ve got.
Branson, Wozniak, Wales (that is, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia), Carly Fiorina, Ben Verwaayen and more. All going along to talk about how we consume and apply technology in our lives and business. Obviously I’ve got a particular interest in this subject because the field of mobile communications is increasingly becoming a central pillar of our existence.
You can see a load of interviews on the site already. It’s taking place at the Royal Albert Hall — and circle ticket can be yours for £520… until, that is, the end of March, when the early bird 20% discount ends.
Anyone else planning on going? Perhaps we could do a meet up there…
Jimmy Wales? The one who’s embroiled in sex and financial scandals covered all over the world these last 2 weeks? If he’s there, then as a woman, I’m NOT.
http://www.valleywag.com/tag/jimmy-wales
Posted by Kim Blake on March 17th, 2008 at 3:51 pm.“a gathering of the world’s greatest technology and business leaders of our time”
My invite appears to have been lost in the post… guess I’ll have to buy a ticket
Posted by Dan Lane on March 17th, 2008 at 4:16 pm.£520?
What flavour of magic beans are these?
Technology is adopted by two means in my opinion: social acceptance/uptake, which companies have little to no control over, and via international standards, which companies control utterly.
So, the arguably inexplicable/unpredictable success of FaceBook, Tamagotchi, leather belt holsters and the RAZR is driven by fashion, socially-networked individuals, the wisdom of the crowd, etc etc. Get this mobile exec types: you cannot predict this. If you could, you would all be millionaires instead of desperately scrabbling for £520 tickets to the apparent inside track.
The success of GSM, subsequently UMTS, now HSPA and in future LTE was/is guaranteed by the fact that ALL the world’s equipment & handset vendors get together in conference rooms all over the world every month to thrash out the details. They pour hundreds of millions into running a staff of literal rocket-scientist boffins, whos sole reason for existence is to make sure that the MMS you compose on your N95 can be sent over an NEC network, across the globe, through an Ericsson network and arrive on your mate’s LG in one peice. It’s not perfect all the time, and occasionally standards sneak through without a viable business plan behind them (e.g. ‘Mobile’ WiMAX). But by & large it works.
Rule of thumb: take the agenda items of IEEE/ETSI/3GPP, fast-forward 3-5 years, and hey presto! there’s your Technology Of Tomorrow.
…and that way you can spunk the £520 on a new RAZR, resplendent in crocodile-skin holster to update your FB page on. (Tamagotchi optional)
n.b. 99.9% of customers do not give a stuff about technology. They care about the experience & cost. If the iPhone ran on vinegar and used a new version of morse code to get the data back & forth people would still love it, because of the UI. The technology’s job is to get out of the way.
£0.02.
/m
Posted by Mike on March 19th, 2008 at 10:36 am.