Right about this time every year, I like to take a preview of the Morning 1 keynotes - just to get a sense of what’s ahead. As a side note, I’m locking down the agenda this week, so you’ll have a full view of what’s on the board by the end of the week or early next week. But back to morning 1….
First up, is Kevin Kelly, founding editor of Wired Magazine, and one of my personal early inspirations in technology. Kevin’s work has been the underpinnings for movies like The Matrix, and if you haven’t indulged in his books, you’re in for a treat. Kevin will be joining us to talk about the emergence of a technology super organism, and if you go check out his blog, you’ll find that - as often as not - reading and hearing Kevin is as much like being in Blade Runner, as at a tech conference.
Next up, we have a discussion (I hate to call it a panel) on the current cycle in enterprise IT innovation. Two notes on this: 1) it isn’t your typical “panel” - where we get 10 minutes of “buy my product” followed by 1 minute of interesting observation; 2) I don’t think anyone debates that we’re in some kind of innovation cycle in the enterprise, the questions to be answered are ones of what, why, how long? I’ve proposed that we’re in the very early stages of a 20 year cycle.
Third, “Kingmakers and the New Developer Ecosystem” — the natural extension of the second session is this presentation by Lauren Cooney and a soon to be named co-presenter (it should be good!). There’s a growing consensus that developers are the key to this whole equation.
Next, the ever-entertaining and informative mind of Paul Kedrosky. Anyone that’s seen Paul present in the past knows they’re in for a treat. Now if I can just manage to wrestle a session title out of him…
Fifth on the day, is Abhinav Keswani. I was introduced to Abhinav by Ben Kepes, and he and I had a fascinating phone conversation several months back about this phrase “the ethic of delivery” — the idea that iteration and delivery carries with it some sort of ethical framework for satisfying and fulfilling customer needs. I know I’m not phrasing this right, but that’s why I asked Abhinav to come explain it. I can’t wait.
Last up before lunch is Kim Cameron. Kim is the author of the now famous “laws of identity” - and one of the deepest technology thinkers that I know. There is no “active directory” without Kim (he sold his company to Microsoft), and he has advanced the thinking around digital identity in quantum leaps over the last decade. Kim will be joining us to think through some observations about how the cloud is changing all of that.
One last note: our mid-afternoon keynote is a conversation with Peter Levine of Andreesen Horowitz. Peter’s been actively engaging around and investing in “enterprise” deals for A16Z, and has some great thoughts around the renaissance of the enterprise developer. Ian Glazer of Gartner will be interviewing him, and it caps off the part 1 of the keynotes.
That’s just the first part. Part 1 of 4. I hope you’re as excited by the chunkiness and heft of these talks as I am. And I hope you’ll choose to join us (it’s not too late).
