Institute For The Future

2006 conference

We're setting up for the conference this afternoon. This year's conference is at the San Mateo Marriott, which is your classic northern California airport/conference hotel space. It's the sort of place that's pleasant, but is to real spaces as a Thomas Kincaid painting is to real art.

Which only makes it a better canvas for us to do our thing.

Most of us have spent the last two weeks writing, preparing, rehearsing, and otherwise getting set for this. Our conferences are always an immense amount of work, but they're always worth it.

The hotel has the wifi set up. About two years ago, we started noticing a lot of people bringing their laptops to our conferences, and wanting to be connected while they're here. For about a year, we had one or two tables with electricity and network conenctions, like a taper's section at the Grateful Dead concert. Now, we wire every table, and just blanket the room with wifi.