Image by Julie, Dave & Family via Flickr

Today's been the last yet most productive day. Very intense. We had two brainstorming sessions on Business Cases, one great talk about "Open Source and Fortune 500 CIOs" (by two of those top CIOs) and one open discussion about doing marketing as an Open Source Industry. And the results are actually so interesting that I'll report/discuss them in separate posts.

The lunch was pretty innovative. Much like speed dating. Open Source Speed-dating! (I should go to a VC with this idea! It fostered networking and worked pretty well. I think many people discovered great companies and great people, exploring this new horizon in the software business.

The afternoon lead us to the second Business Case of the day and to an open discussion on whether we should or not do some marketing as an industry as a whole, using some kind of trade association, focusing on open source business. This question comes back on the table for the 3rd year in a row. But now the answer is a loud and definitive: yes. Some work started on this, let's see where it goes now. But things are moving around this. And I think it might be a major step onto global awareness of CIOs. Something huge has been ignited today, hopefully…

After all this work, volunteers have been kindly invited to another wine tasting session at a nice Napa Valley's vineyard, for a casual closing party. Was relaxed and entertaining.

SO, now the event is closed, what the general impression? I would say: inspiring, hopeful and productive yet fun. I had the chance to meet quite a few very interesting people and to start some interesting discussions. Let's see where it goes, but the event is a clear success from my perspective.

Thanks to the Olliance Group, to the sponsors and to all participants. I'm excited to see you again in Paris for the next session of the think tank and see where we'll be. Growth is around us, for good!

I'll be posting more detailed post on the two business cases and the talk of the day in following posts. Don't hesitate to comment or drop an email if you'd like to get more information.

Thanks Napa… onto Paris now!

EB.

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