The State of Technology Luncheon

Gary Bracket and I will be heading up to the Technology Alliance’s largest annual event, The State of Technology Luncheon. This is the organizations premier event for Washington’s technology community, an event which brings more than 1,000 leaders from business, government, academic institutions and the community from across the state together. The stated goal of the event is to “celebrate Washington's progress in building a vibrant technology-based economy and to gain insights from the visionary leaders of our most innovative companies and institutions making an impact on the world through exciting advances in science and technology.”

Last years Keynote conversation was with Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com interviewed by TA board member Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science at the University of Washington. This year features Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft interviewed by Ed Lazowska as well. I mention Ed because he has been such a supporter of technology and education not only in Seattle and the state of Washington, but here in the South Sound as well. He is one of the founding members of the Institute of Technologies advisory board and an active member today.

Gary Brackett and I will be representing the Tacoma Technology Alliance, which is an affiliate organization of the TA. I will bring my pad and pencil and jot down how many times the South Sound and Tacoma is mentioned.