SINCE the 1980s your correspondent has attended roughly 100 technology conferences. His recollection of such events blurs into one endless, cavernous convention centre attached to a hotel of identical, bland rooms. The talks, perhaps meaningful at the time, leave no impression on the mind, save for one colleague’s description of achieving peak wireless data rates only when a device is close as to “make carnal love to the cellular tower”.
Technology conferences, whether conducted in isolation or, more often, in association with a trade show at which vendors demonstrate their latest geegaws and jimcrack, often find themselves mired deep in the weeds of detail and sales pitches. But Babbage did go to two conferences recently that owe more to the model popularised by the TED events.
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