As mentioned, I attended the National Summit yesterday here in Detroit.  I was lucky enough to attend for free as a student, but I only went to the last day.  Still, if you were able to follow my Twitter feed, you know there was some interesting and valuable conversations.  I’ll provide them again here and then move into some of my thoughts from the day:

• At national summit #tns09 horrible signage made for an adventure. No plugs in room should make coverage spotty.
• I wish people would get off the web 2.0 kick. That’s old news #tns09
• Looked over and there’s a little bird hopping around in the Renaissance ballroom – bit unexpected #tns09
• I’d be interested in a discussion about how to manage and engage different generations of workers #tns09
• we’re in detroit and auto industry is important but we need to get beyond relating every issue back to it. Broaden your thinking #tns09
• Jim balsillie (RIM) – few think strategically about technology – don’t get caught up in the device but what transformation it enables #tns09
• Micheal Klein – in recession there are more needs than ever = opportunities to innovate and grow #tns09
• Micheal Klein – marvel comics announced they are bringing back Capt America – the US needs a hero with super powers as a role model #tns09
• I never thought I’d admit it but MS has some cool tech (surfaces, tagging, touch screen) I blame @joshholmes #tns09
• Deborah wince-smith – son is getting engineering degree – forced to integrate multidisciplines of education to innovate #tns09
• John mao – concept of classroom in us needs to change – we’re stuck in a system based on farming schedules – innovation in education #tns09
• John mao – innovation is in danger of becoming the new buzzword of the century #tns09
• Alan mulally – innovation is a process enabling technology to provide what people actually want (add value to their lives) #tns09
• Steve ballmer – learned everything that’s important about life when he lived in Detroit #tns09 woot!
• Aneesh chopra – need to use technology to create mashups of data, devices, & entreprenurial vision #tns09
• Steve ballmer – bing – need to be tenacious and patient and keep up a high rate of innovation for the long run #tns09
• Steve ballmer is really passionate that patience, investments for long term and education are key to sustaining innovation #tns09
• Steve ballmer – lots of people here still using paper – tech hasn’t solved their problems yet #tns09

I think the idea behind this conference was brilliant – bringing together CEOs, thought leaders, business people and students to have some conversations about the issues facing us as a country.  But, I think that they could have a done a better job of encouraging conversation between audience members.  Most of the conversations were between panel members and the audience. I think it would have been awesome if they had scheduled some specific networking events – maybe even about certain issues or industries to encourage these conversations. (I’m not sure what was done on the first two days, however).  And a lunch where you were “forced” to sit down at a table with people from different industries and experience would have broken down some of the traditional barriers.  One thing I noticed is that many people did know each other, but you had cliques forming – CEOs over here – students over there – companies all together – that I think stiffled some of the truly collaborative conversations which could have been had.

They did try to encourage a conversation online on their blogs and bulletin boards.  As a student we were “required” to post at least one response to a blog and two to the discussion groups.  But this forced posting did nothing to really foster conversations.  The levels of students went from high school up through graduate level college, which doesn’t necessarily provide balanced levels of interesting ideas.  Since there were no plugs in the conference rooms and we were supposedly not allowed to use cell phones, there was very little conversation online during the actual conference (I obviously broke with the cell phone rule in order to Twitter).

Overall I think the conference was a bit of a dichotomy – foster conversations but no way to have them – old guard (executive management) and new guard (students) – Twitter and Facebook during the conference but no cell phone use – use of new media and technology but no way to use them during the actual conference.  I think the conference had a lot of value in terms of things that were brought up, but I think the conversations and engagement would have been more productive if they had taken more steps to foster more interaction during the conference.

Technorati tags: national summit, conference, detroit, strategy, business, innovation

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