What tech can learn from the Grammies

I have not watched the Grammies in years, so I felt like Rip Van Winkle at the start with acts like Bruno Mars and Adele. Those names looked vaguely familiar – from the iTunes receipts that my kids kindly charge to my card:)

But as the show went on, I was struck with how well it blended the old and the new. And how country and rock and rhythm and so much more from around the world came together.

Blake Shelton gave tribute to Glen Campbell, Jennifer Hudson to Whitney Houston, Maroon5 to the Beach Boys. Carrie Underwood sang along with Tony Bennett. Heck there was even a Chipolte commercial where Willie Nelson covers for Coldplay.

There are few technology events where we blend different genres. The Crunchies celebrate startups. Gartner events mostly focus on established vendors. Hardly any event brings buyers, vendors and investors together. And few events celebrate the many three and four letter acronyms that define the breadth of our industry – hardware, software, services, telecomms.

My only request – start the show a bit early so Foo has a fighting chance finding the older genre like me awake:)