Nearing the end of a long day at the first day of the innovator’s track, I think I can conclude two things:
- The quality of people hanging around the innovator’s track and the unconference is excellent. These people probably represent the best in the business.
- The majority of the VON show doesn’t attend or care about the innovator’s track.
Yes, high in quality if not mighty in numbers, approximately 60 of the 6000 VON attendees came today to talk about next generation services, SOA architectures, vertical services and Enterprise 2.0. Having a chance to spend serious time with Dan York, Bob Frankston, Alec Saunders, Jon Arnold, Andy Abramson, Jay Philips, Carl Ford and David Isenberg, as well as dozens I could list was a true pleasure and joy.
What did we cover?
- Dennis Peng from Ooma stopped by to sit on a panel with me and Jon Arnold, and we hashed out the Ooma business model and challenges. All in all, I think Dennis did a fine job in explaining how Ooma fits in tomorrow’s home. I was, frankly, unconvinced, but I acknowledge that I am sort of out of the norm on this.
- We had Jay Phillips work his adhearsion magic in real time, creating in twenty minutes what couldn’t be done in a month a few short years ago.
- We had a roundtable discussion with Shirish Andahare from Sylantro, David Jodin from Iperia and Kevin Nethercott from Lignup about new service creation environments. I was stunned about the agreement from each one in terms of how new services get deployed, yet all three had different business models that supported their vision.
- I saw my partner, Pat Murphy, work his magic in the room when he hosted the Enterprise 2.0 session. If there’s ever been a man who can bring people together, who can transform a crowd into a team, I swear it’s him.
Is it that we are so far ahead of the curve? Or is it that our heads are so deep into our curves? I suppose time will tell on that one, and I am just happy to have the chance to tell our story, and for the sixty people who shared their story with me.
And I am so tired.. what I wouldn’t do for my own house, my wife and cup of tea.
