Thanks for a Very Successful Start to 2018!

January 14, 2018

As those of you who attended our first event of January 2018 in the new Austin Central Library know, we had a great event to start 2018! I want to start by thanking… the venue. Well, I want to thank the wonderful 

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folks at the Library who worked with us to create this new partnership, but also the folks who designed and built that wonderful facility. We got so many compliments on the new digs that it was almost embarrassing… but just almost, so keep ’em coming.

​Our events enable leaders and experts to share ideas and information that elevate everyone’s awareness, understanding, and motivation to learn, collaborate and contribute new ideas and innovation. We certainly started out 2018 with a bang in this regard. Much thanks to Jay Williams and Haydn Shaughnessy for their information, insights, and inspiration. (Jay Williams may have a second career possibility in stand-up comedy, though the tech world cannot afford to lose his deep expertise and experience!) Their joint presentation generated much interest and many kudos, and probably inspired many of you to read Haydn’s thought-provoking, visionary books. (I purchased “Shift” and “Flow,” and have started “Shift” already—highly recommended!) 
Many thanks also to those of you who submitted questions, and to Chelsea Collier (a future mayor of Austin—I’m not giving up on that) for her adroit handling of the Q&A session to add even more informative content to the event. We’ll also have a blog post soon from Intel to address a timely topic that came up during the presentation: an explanation of Meltdown and Spectre. Please come back to this site for that blog post in a few days.
I’d like to remind everyone that the January event was to set the stage for a great program of events that are more focused on specific technologies—and their applications—in 2018. Please see our upcoming events and register. The next three events will cover: AR/VR/mixed reality, AI (with yours truly as a co-presenter), and drones. There may be some cool demos at these events… you’ll have to show and see! The 2018 schedule and speakers beyond April are still being finalized, but blockchain, IoT, clean energy, smart cities, genetics, and even food are topics being planned for 2018.
Finally, many thanks to all of you how attended, provided feedback, and networked with other attendees. We had about 300 people, and it was clear that people were listening, learning, and connecting. The Austin Forum on Technology & Society continues to grow in awareness, attendance, and impact, and we thank all of you for coming to learn, and to form new collaborations (and friendships!). I look forward to seeing you next month. As always, please free to send us (info@austinforum.org) any suggestions, requests, or questions, and let us know if wish to participate with a blog entry, as a volunteer, or any other way! We are a community technology event series, and we are even stronger as we as scale up and increase active participation in our community.
Jay Boisseau, Ph.D.
Director and Founder
The Austin Forum on Technology & Society