What a whole day. I already waked up enough but still didn’t catch up the first session, at 6:00 AM, the optional mountain trail hike.
I came from the Internet space, combined with the startup space. Today’s session is generally interesting and amazing. The most inspirational part of today’s session is, the people, the company, and the topics are not those I will touch on daily basis. I was dragged out of Internet a little bit, but not too far away – to the Tech world.
For example, the Writer, and Producer of ABC Series Lost talked about the role of technology in TV program, and the one year old ex-Googler CEO of AOL talking about the “turn” of the company. The CEO of Xerox talked about how they turned themselves from a copier company to a full document service company, and more importantly, turned from the bottom of the curve up.
When I was sitting at the middle section under the tent (yes! the conference is held under a big tent. Not very many people attending, just about 200-300 in total), I was wondering why I am here. It is not something directly related to my job. But I am convinced that I need to start to participate in this conference to keep my eyes open. The question I want to ask is, why all the other CEOs and presidents of famous companies participate. They must come for a reason. I have to say some of the topics like the trends of the whole industry does not interest me as much as topics directly related to my work, it does mean that I need more years to be appreciating the topics. The people are here to share, and to learn about the trends of the industry. It acts as some kind of orchestration of the movement of the industry. They want to make sure people from the government, from the tech, from media, and from investment are frequently put together, to reach some consensus about what to do in the next 18 to 3 years, so big and small companies like Google, Microsoft, Disney, AOL, IAC, Twitter can do something together toward the same direction, I mean, if they all feel the water the same way. The bottom line is, it is not waste of time.
I do have to comment a little bit about the beautiful Aspen. I really didn’t see too much about Aspen yet. The schedule was so full, and I don’t want to waste the opportunity to network with the great people there, but it is so beautiful. I especially like the creeks, and the water there. Tomorrow afternoon, there will be a bike session for the participants, and I expect to go out to see Aspen, and take some pictures. BTW, Aspen is 8200 feet in latitude. It is not very high compared to many places in west part of China, and there is no altitude sickness at all. There are some people who report the difference. Where is it for me?
For those who wonder why I didn’t post any picture of my US trip onto my blog yet. The answer is simple, I just left my USB cable home, and didn’t take a chance to buy one.