This past weekend, I flew up to Seattle, Washington to attend what was being billed as the last instance of Gnomedex taking place…ever. I found that hard to believe, but sadly it slowly became true. Its founder and organizer, Chris Pirillo, declared on stage that this would be the last one (although I think secretly there’s a bet on when Gnomedex 11 will take place).
Nevertheless, Gnomedex 10 was sure to beat all expectations and IF this was to be its last show, it would go out with a bang – and we weren’t disappointed. The festivities began on Thursday night with a pre-party at the Bell Harbor conference center which got people to mingle with each other, conduct interviews and just have a great time. Then, Friday morning came and we moved into the real fun…with an opening keynote given by Brian Solis and then a series of speakers talking about technology – no, not social media, email marketing, or how to build an application, but how did THEY user technology in their lives to make an impact. If you haven’t been to a Gnomedex conference, I consider it a technology version of a TED conference where people present their case studies and how they have been innovative to create some really cool stuff.
As Pirillo puts it, Gnomedex is all about the “Human Circuitry” – influence, ideation illumination, inspiration, interaction and illustration. It’s the passing along of ideas and showing how technology can change the world beyond just a simple “check in” or tweet.
Some of the highlights from this year’s conference includes having the Chief Technology Officer of the city of Seattle speak and talk about what they’ve been doing with their government data & how they are trying to open it up for more innovation. Melissa Pierce, producer of the upcoming movie Life in Perpetual Beta, gave an inspiring speech about human kindness & her travels; Trish Millines Dziko spoke about how to improve public education through technology; Shauna Causey & Melody Biringer spoke about creating an organization to support women in technology; and perhaps the most inspiring was the rousing speech given by Violet Blue about human sexuality, technology, awareness and censorship – by the time she was finished, the crowd gave her a standing ovation.
AUTHOR NOTE: Fun fact about Gnomedex…in its 10 years of existence, there have only been three (3) standing ovations. Last year, Drew Olanoff received one for his talk about #blamedrewscancer & now Violet Blue for her talk about human sexuality.
By the time the conference ended, it was a bittersweet moment…people headed home to live out their lives once again, but never to return to Seattle for the Gnomedex conference. Will we see another version of Gnomedex take place and what will Chris Pirillo do next?
Only time will tell…
Here are some photos from the conference:
Robert Scoble talking to the kids from OmniTechNews
Chris Pirillo with Robert Scoble
Ben Metcalfe, Violet Blue & Kris Krug
Trish Millines Dziko
Steve Fisher & Michael Dougherty – producers of Browncoats: Redemption
Betsy Aoki and Chris Pirillo
Bill Schrier, the CTO of Seattle, WA
The women of Tech Mavens
Melissa Pierce – producer of Life in Perpetual Beta
Violet Blue
All photos shown here were taken by Kenneth Yeung. You can view more photos from Gnomedex on Flickr by clicking here.