With the swiftest of reflexes, Brook Byers, grabbed our lunch table umbrella and rescued us when a mountain wind threatened to dump it unceremoniously upon us. The table behind us was not so lucky. Faster than a speeding bullet, Brook! Otherwise, the Techonomy patio lunch buffet was delightful. I believe Tracy Des Jardins is the executive chef so the food rocked. So did the conversation. I loved learning what SJ Camarata is doing at ESRI (and he knows TrafficCast well, one of my portfolio companies), along with Jacquie Jones of Kaplan University (they're doing an online course in Entrepreneurship jointly with the Kaufman Foundation), and Howard High of Fluidigm who has an amazing biochip of potential use to a couple of my companies. Steven Sprague of WAVE is the quintessential techie, still passionate about the PC platform and making lots of money from it, with a fascinating vision for a secure, set-top box. He shares my concerns about the dangers of bioengineered foods on diversity and ecosystem balance. I felt like a complete dork for asking Kevin Johnson what he does at Juniper Networks (CEO!), but he was gracious and charming, and genuinely interested in learning about tech transfer at Midwest universities. He's an excellent listener, no wonder he did so well at Microsoft.
All this before the conference even starts! As the French say, ça promet!--but these were no Umbrellas of Cherbourg....
I started up at the top and am enjoying your conference vicariously through your posts. I loved the comment about Kevin Johnson because that's sooo something I would do. I also am really encouraged by everything you have said about the ISEF kids! I have a 13 year old and I can only imagine what we could do if we harnessed all that imagination, creativity and energy to help us address all the problems in the world. Wow!
Posted by: Merrill Guerra | 08/22/2010 at 03:45 PM