09 Aug 09 A Day at Tomorrow’s Web 09

I spent the whole day yesterday with some amazing people at Tommorow’s Web, a conference by young minds to discuss the future of Internet and Technology industry. It brought together young technology entrepreneurs giving their unique perspective on the Internet and future technologies. An excellent event put together by Grant Bell and Rob Day. The best part was no one of my age (oh shut up!!) was allowed to speak on stage .

I shall refrain from calling all those I met yesterday as “young ‘uns” and call them “smart minds” as the presentations they gave were well above what I have heard many grown ups give. The quality of talks and content was well beyond my expectations. The talks ranged from well thought out, grounded and brilliant advice to freelancers from Anna Debenham to in-depth technical discussion on opening the web with a lot of API love by Jamie Rumbelow. A very confident and love your work from Nick Pellant to very sound design and user experience discussion by Greg Cooper. Not to be left behind a very well thought out business plan for Giglocator by James Proud. Meaghan Fitzgerald and Anna Debenham have covered the happenings at the conference.

While I loved being at the event reminiscing what I did when I was 16 years old – all I could think about was debating on political issues and concentrating on getting to a good university. Growing up in India in a high pressured environment where the T-shirts one wears was more important than how smart you are, there was no choice. Hence I think in some way I see the conference as liberation of the youth – allowed to do what they feel is right. Probably also because this is a choice these young entrepreneurs make and have little to fear of failure.

While I think the liberation of the youth and doing what one loves to do is a right thing as I always tell myself and any passionate entrepreneur, I fear for some of these smart minds as I think a lot of them do not have a “Plan B”. Perhaps I am being cynical, perhaps I am being practical or maybe plain insane. But the emphasis on going to university is what I grew up with and this is still the main driver in the east and in the US. While there is a lot of talk about how universities are failing the youth, not keeping up with the changes in technology, society, expectations etc – I think it’s these smart minds who will drive the change. And keeping them out of university is a “Bad Idea”. So is this “liberation of the youth” really right?

While I loved what a lot of them are doing – I think some of them are not really sustainable businesses over a longer term and some will fail. Some of these smart ones have never ever failed and I would hope they never do but having a plan B will make them more prepared and something to fall back on. I agree with James Dyson that what UK needs is more people going to university to study science and engineering and spend time learning things in depth – this is key to a sustainable UK economy.

I don’t mean to discourage any of the smart minds I met yesterday. I only think their potential is huge and needs to be nurtured and they need to have a plan B. And I think going to university is a key to that. I am by no means being a pessimist – I am an optimist and I think these smart ones have a great future.

On another note – where were BBC, Nesta, VC’s and other organisations who talk about future of UK’s technology scene but not around to cover such a promising event?

Tags: conference, entrepreneurship, internet, start-up, technology, Tomorrow's Web, UK, web