The return of technical meetings did not begin with a hearing, but with a whisper. It was the first day of the Code Conference, and Kara Swisher – one of the most popular voices against technical criticism – was speechless. He also welcomed the audience, after a year of Covid hiatus, in Marge Simpson rasp.
Swisher has been hosting the Code Conference, the annual conference of experts and media professionals, since 2003 (formerly called All Things Digital). Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, and other corporate leaders have voluntarily surrendered Swisher’s amazing interview without taking in prisoners on time. Covid set the Code pause, however, as well any other technology conference. The following year, it is one of the first meetings designed to be remembered in person, as well as the possibility of a bellwether in the future of such events.
Not that it was all business as usual. At Beverly Hilton, where the conference was held, individual vaccination cards were approved. Those present were later tested Covid, related to an unpleasant nose swab. (Swisher may have had laryngitis, but those present confirmed that no one had Covid.) Everyone should wear masks indoors. The usual hand-to-hand clapping and handshake were replaced with a nod of the head with fists, while the audience shifted to a group of visitors. In the hotel ballroom, when Swisher interviewed Elon Musk, Marc Benioff, and Satya Nadella, people tend to sit at a distance, leaving empty chairs between them.
If this were the cost of living in person again, many would be happy to pay. (That doesn’t mean anything at the price of a ticket, which is about $ 10,000. Journalists like me have it for free.) People look amazingly dressed in a Silicon Valley crowd, in blazers and casual business. Among the sessions, attendees choose the best cakes and smoothies to make the order. A mixture of “antivirus”, consisting of ginger and beets, was on the menu. Guests started chatting during the day, sharing tables and exchanging business cards. A technical officer told me that he had not come to listen to the interviews but because of this, the mix: It was a long, lonely year to meet at the window.
Much has changed about the world over the past year, and there has been little controversy over what “never goes back”. The conferences, which created a $ 15 billion market share before the epidemic, seem to be one of the things that can be eliminated or reduced, modified and changed almost. But the Code-goers seem to be committed to keeping things as they have been, until the hotel room meetings are over. The only difference was available: The conference reduced the power on the site to 600 this year, down from 800 in 2019, but another 600 people joined the livestream, thanks to an original ticket ticket of $ 125.
Speakers at the conference are thinking about where the world is going (Ari Emmanuel: back to the theater; Marc Benioff: we’re not going back to the office; Elon Musk: going to Mars). After a year of great growth in the technology industry, Swisher invited many guests to discuss why Big Tech should be redesigned, or broken. Two of his most distinguished guests were Gary Gensler, chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and Margrethe Vestager, former European Competition Commissioner. The swag bags of the conference also included coffee cups that read “Wu & Khan & Kanter” – meaning the people of Biden antchitrust protection team.