I was at the excellent SDForum 2010 Visionary Awards Thursday evening, at Stonebrook Court, the palatial mock-Tudor home of Kelly Porter.
I was very excitied because I was sitting right behind Doug Engelbart, one of Silicon Valley’s legends. [Please see: What if Buckminster Fuller were still alive and looking for funding? I'm still in shock at Silicon Valley's blindness regarding Doug Engelbart.]
The introductions at this year’s SDForum Awards were so over the top with long lists of incredible virtues that I fully expected Mahatma Ghandi or St. Francis of Assisi to mount the podium and collect an award. I preferred the traditional SDForum approach of a gentle roasting of the award winner.
Here is Reid Hoffman talking about a subject dear to my heart, creating sustainable social enterprises. It’s not a “non-profit” approach but whatMuhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace prize winner would call a “not-for-loss” venture.
Wendy Lea from Get Satisfaction, introduced Chris Shipley, CEO of Guidewire Group. Ms. Shipley is very humble and says she is so short-sighted that it’s ironic that she is a Visionary Award winner :)
Brent Schlender, a former journalist, was introduced by Bill Gates and Dan’l Lewin at the SDForum Visionary Awards. Mr Schlender spoke about the unique attributes of Silicon Valley pioneers.
Ram Varadarajan from Arcot Systems introduced Arthur Patterson, one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capitalists.
The SDForum Awards marked the launch of my first book: “In My Humble Opinion - Notes From A Silicon Valley Watcher.” Here is Susan Lucas-Conwell, CEO of SDForum, (and its heart and soul) introducing my book.
The book was commissioned by FastPencil.com, a fast growing online book publisher in Silicon Valley, which has some great social media collaboration tools.
I’d like to thank Steve Wilson, CEO of FastPencil, and Ms. Lucas-Conwell from SDForum, for their generous support, and especially: Seana Norvell from FastPencil, whose patient persistence made this project a reality.
