Thanks to wise advisers (happily acknowledge with permission), I landed in San Diego for the FAST Forward O7 Conference prepared for the vendor hype and boys with a hammer, SEARCH. Simon Wardley's wonderful Ghenghis 2.0 post captures the spirit. Do we need to "dominate" in a networked world or is it possible "collaborate" might even be more effective?
Regardless the conference was absolutely worthwhile for what I didn't expect: the 1,000 very smart people from significant enterprises and organizations representing 29 countries. Like Jerry Bowles prior to the San Diego Conference I had not heard of FAST or had no grasp of the dollars enterprises are investing in search as both a business necessity and strategic edge. FAST's Oslo Bours filing announcing Q4 2006 results reveals a 57% Y/Y revenue increase and an 80% gross margin.
So FAST is a smart company that attracted extraordinary people to San Diego for rich conversations. David Weinberger and Kathleen Gilroy did a fabulous of job of capturing key messages from high profile speakers. All are recommended watching.
For the record, here are my conference highlights:
- Andrew McAfee's unscheduled Enterprise 2.0 round table discussion. He asked the question: "how long before Enterprise 2.0 is pervasive in the organization". I wonder what you think?
- Post Chris Anderson presentation coaching on applying long tail metrics to web site analysis
- Michael Schrage's observations about the importance of search not just delivering "the" answer but providing a wider view
- Discovering that within organizations a whole new skill area and roles are emerging in "search" product management
- The mind expansion that comes from fortunately sharing a dinner table with Simon Wardley. 3D printing. Smart briefcases using RFID. Discovering what I thought was new was old.
Thank you FAST for a very thought provoking gathering.
~ Jenny Ambrozek
