The 2007 DEMOgala added more to showcasing the most innovated companies in Colorado. This year was the inaugural year of the full day conference. The morning keynote was kicked off by Brad Feld; his passion about startups, growing companies and entrepreneurism launched the day with insight about why entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of our state and country. Next, we were honored to hear from Governor Bill Ritter about Colorado's promise in technology, as well as his new Innovation Council, formed with technology leaders who will advise the Governor and his administration about entrepreneurism, broadband and the state's IT structure.
The all-day Innovation Conference composed of more than 55 speakers talked about the importance of education, innovation, business practices and the importance of IT in all sectors. Speakers included, Jon Nordmark, CEO, eBags; Michael Locatis, CIO, Sate of Colorado; Kirby Slunaker, CIO, MDC Holdings; Luke Beatty, President, Associated Content; Bob Ogdon, CEO, SwiftPage Email; Micki Nelson, CIO, MWH; Leroy Williams, CIO, Ball; Doug Hennig, CTO, Stonefield Software Inc.; Kevin Survance, CTO, Mapquest, and more.
The national dinner keynote was given by Tim Armstrong, President North America, Google, who focused on culture as a critical element to businesses in technology – as well as across industries. Tim (who now is the President/CEO of AOL), motivated business leaders and professionals to think about the human capital and team component as critical to success, even though most technology companies think of their intellectual property more in the areas of technology instead of people. Google’s culture is recognized across the world for creating an epicenter of innovation, intensity and teamwork, and Tim’s presentation not only shared what Google has been doing, but also, how companies could adopt many of the same techniques.