Be there first.
Those who know me through work in the Boulder Community know that I run the Boulder Startup Week Future of Tech Track — which consists of events on Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality, Machine Learning, Security, and Blockchain.
It’s become a running joke amongst friends in the tech community that the theme of the track is really “Things Kevin likes“. While I don’t dispute that the subthemes of the Future of Tech (FOT) track are things that I have affinity for, it would be a mistake to presume that the organizing theme of these events is my affinity.
The organizing theme of this track is Be There First.
- Virtual Reality is new, exciting, and has the potential to be the UI of digital experiences in the future. The FOT track allows participants to try it first.
- Blockchain is new, exciting, and has the potential to be the bank of the future. The FOT track allows participants to understand it first.
- Mixed Reality is new, exciting, and has the potential to be the UI of real world experiences in the future. The FOT track allows participants to try it first.
- Machine Learning is new, exciting, and has the potential to be the way humans and computers understand data in the future. The FOT track allows participants to learn to build it first.
- Digital Security is newly important given corporate and government breaks recently, and has the potential to be the differentiator between businesses and government associations in the future. The FOT track allows participants to understand it first.
Piper Merriam talking about Cryptocurrencies in “The Next Major Protocol (HTTP => HTTPS => ???)”
See where I’m going with this?
The FOT track does dovetail with my personal interests, as my career has grown and changed in tech. A decade of experience in tech has reinforced my initial instinct that you always have to be learning and adapting.
Boulder is a Give First community. Boulder Startup Week is a one week celebration of entrepreneurship, tech, & community. The highest use of a community organizers’ efforts in a community like Boulder is to help people navigate opportunity in the changing world — To be there first is to understand how the world is evolving, and how you can evolve to get ahead of it.
Be there first.
I invite you to @ me on twitter if you’ve got an example of ‘be there first’ in your community. Not in the Boulder Community? Many of the talks from Boulder Startup Week are available on the StartupCTO.io podcast.