This year at TECHSHOW, sparks were a flyin’ everywhere, it seemed. New programming, new speakers and new features fueled a high level of energy. Yes, this was the venerable TECHSHOW, where you can still find exhibitors who’ve been there every year since 1986, but the atmosphere felt as fresh and energetic as at any contemporary conference.
Credit for this goes to the planning board and its chair this year, Adriana Linares. Not without opposition, Linares pushed through several initiatives that were calculated to shake things up a bit, and they largely succeeded.
Her most controversial move was a radical refresh of the speaker roster. There has long been a perception that the TECHSHOW faculty favors the usual suspects year after year. (In fact, this has not been true, as I demonstrated through a survey of past years’ rosters, finding a good rate of turnover.)
