e-Skills: Microsoft Tech Days

Spoke at the Microsoft Tech Days event in Sweden recently. It was geek heaven; deep technology sessions with a heaving exhibition centre that by day was a very high tech amusement arcade and by night a very high tech North African night club.

So I had some reservations about my presentation entitled ‘Does the IT Function have a future?’ I noted the exits in the presentation theatre just in case things got a little heated. Though given I was probably three times the age of most people attending, I felt that I would probably be tackled to the ground before I hit my terminal velocity.

To my surprise, the presentation was well received and even the laughing was in phase with my attempts at humour. But best of all many of the delegates who were deep technologists approached me afterwards with a specific intention to implement some of the recommendations I had made.

There is hope for the industry if future digital leaders understand concepts such as service and trust.