The awards were immediately followed by Clare Hart introducing Colin Powell who gave a terrific keynote. Powell spoke for almost any hour, without notes, on a wide range of topics. Powell was responsible for buying millions of dollars of computers for the State Department (replacing their Wangs) and when he couldn’t get his State Department team to move fast enough, he said “We need to update in real-time. I want to beat the CIA.” It was a great talk.
While the conference organizers reported that attendance was higher than last year’s event in Seattle, it seemed as if this year’s numbers were high due to the large number of daytrippers and DC locals. The exhibit hall wasn’t very crowded and vendors had cut back dramatically on give-aways. Many attendees complained there was little candy being offered and no one was handing out bottled water or t-shirts. The vendors had their game faces on but it seemed to me that the information services market remains in recession. “There’s no new spending.”
Walking among the other booths I noticed an increased focus on real-time and near-real-time information. I have long believed that eventually all business information will need to be delivered in near-real-time and we seem to be at any inflection point right now.
Two other great restaurants we found were Founding Farmers and The Blue Duck Tavern. SLA is planned to be in New Orleans next year.
