It’s been an interesting time in San Francisco seeing where the Web is and where it’s going. I thought I’d take some time to drop a few of my personal highlights from the Web2Summit:
Change is in the Air
Mary Meeker from Morgan Stanley blew people out of the water with 50+ ppt slides in 10 minutes. Among other things Mary postulates that the handheld revolution will create many winners and losers with iPhone taking over a leadership role in the cell phone market in five years.
Two of my favourite sessions from Day 1 at the Web 2.0 Summit were about storytelling. Nancy Duarte’s presentation on storytelling used the medium of powerpoint, and the essence of her message is clearly in line with what I have been urging tourism businesses to do over the past two years.
The movement of computing to handheld devices and movement of computer power and data storage to the cloud is also inevitable.
Tell engaging stories!
If you want to become a better storyteller with ppt, visit http://www.duarte.com and pick up a book from Nancy on how to create powerful stories.
Larry Lessig gave a 10 minute presentation that was reminiscent of a beat poet. Seemingly on his toes throughout his presentation, he gave an artful argument on the need to transform the US congress. Larry’s use of powerpoint slides was mesmerizing, his presence powerfully persuasive. Would have loved to have a professor like this at my university. If you ever get a chance to see this man present in person, I highly recommend it. The Stanford Law professor was the initial proponent behind the notion of Creative Commons. Lessig demonstrated story telling with Buzz.
The Cloud
On day 2, Paul Otellini started the day off with an invitation to experience a future (his estimation – 4 years from now) where handheld devices mesh with the real world and have the power of today’s desktop computers. Cameras, gps, and a continually connected cloud provide access to deep information and virtual experiences that enrich the human experience of the real world.
Democracy
Evan Williams of Twitter and Joel Hyatt of Current discussed creativity, engagement and democracy. Who would have thought that an instant communication medium and user-generated media would bring about this world. I’ve been extremely moved by the power of blog commenting and tools like Twitter over the past year to involve ordinary citizens in sharing their views with people who make decisions in our society. Being here for the U.S. election and seeing how Current.tv provided election coverage with Twitter and Digg gives real hope for the spread of democracy.
Oh, and don’t miss http://goodguide.com , winner of Web 2.0 Summit Launch. Discover the healthy, green and safe products. They even have an iPhone application!
There is much more to tell, but another full day of content including a conversation with Michael Pollan – In Defence of Food, Elon Musk – Tesla Motors (the electric car company!), Arianna Huffington – Huffington Post, Kevin Rose – Digg and Al Gore.
