UPDATE: Since many people have asked, I have now included a video of the presentation so that the animations and embedded media can be seen.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in one of the best conferences I have been to in quite some time. The International Symposium on Computer and Information Technology (SISCTI) is an event for, and entirely organized by, the students of the university. As someone who has presented at many conferences over the years, I have to say that this was one of the most polished and well run conferences I have ever participated in. EVER.

From the speaker's kit that was sent to me, with complete travel, event, and meeting schedules included, to the absolutely wonderful students that got us where we need to be, I was blown away. The level of professionalism, excitement and maturity of the conference staff was something that all conference planners should strive to equal. Truly an awesome experience.

I was honored to be included in such a strong body of featured speakers. Fellow presenters like New York Times columnist David Pogue, CEO of CampusMovil.net, Hugo Pardo Kuklinski, and Lead Developer at EA for FIFA 06-09, Sebastian Enrique, were among the speakers that really rounded out the event. I only had the brief opportunity to meet up with David, as our schedules were in passing, but I spent a good amount of time with both Hugo and Sebastian and had some really fascinating and enjoyable conversations.

There were so many people to thank for this opportunity, but two in particular had the toughest job of all. Making sure I got to where I was supposed to be and did what I was supposed to do These two people are Marianna Tafich and Ana Taraco.

Marianna and Ana made sure that everything for my trip was in order, took me to all events, etc. They wouldn't even let me pay for my coffee! Their attention, kindness and help made this trip an absolutely memorable one and I was privileged to get to know them.

Another group of AWESOME folks I met were the Sun Campus Ambassadors from Mexico.

We met for dinner on Friday night and discussed the work they are doing at their respective schools across Mexico. The excitement for their work, the support for Sun, and the excitement of being in the Campus Ambassador program was contagious! This is, in my opinion, the biggest affirmation of the program. Students are genuinely interested and exited about the technologies and work that Sun Microsystems focuses on and are happy to deliver that information to their fellow students.

You can find out how to get involved in their work by visiting the http://osum.sun.com site and registering.

My presentation, titled "Teaching Machines: How technology is changing the way we learn, play and discover our world" (and I'm still on the fence about the title, but, oh well!) was scheduled for 10:10am on Feb 28th. I think it was pretty good and the reaction from the audience seemed good as well. Any feedback on it is appreciated.

Here is a bit of video I took as we started the talk to demonstrate the accessibility of technology:

Here is the presentation I gave at the conference, without the embedded videos. Again, any feedback on the materials is appreciated. Click the pic below to download.

Over lunch on Saturday, I was engaged in some stimulating debate with Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger over the authoritative voice in the world of the web, the willingness of users to contribute, and media consumption by our kids. While we disagreed on quite a few points, we ultimately agreed that there are no set approaches to the way individuals use the web and adopt it in their lives.

Lastly, I wanted to make sure I included a link to one of the videos I used. It is from the G4TV commercial spot that ran over the summer here in the US. The campaign was "It's a Nerd's World" and featured nerdcore godfather MC Frontalot. artists from the nerdcore genre. Why include this? Well, it IS a nerd's world. Part of the messaging to the students was in regard to embracing technology, following your passions and not letting others disparage you. Nerds and geeks DO run the world. We are many, we are here and we run it. Check out the video

Here are the three other commercial spots in the series. All are awesome as well!