When I was more actively going to big trade shows and conferences, the star speaker was usually a meaty high-level executive (of the biggest sponsor) or other tech luminary. Occasionally, at the end of the event, there’d be a motivational speaker, a former baseball/football/basketball player or an Apollo astronaut or some hot speaker on the circuit. Held in Oslo this weekend, Cisco’s Public Service Conference broke all the rules with their concluding speaker, Noble Prize Winner Mohamad ElBaradei.
From what I understand reading Cisco’s corporate blog, The Platform, not only did he not dispense inspiring sales advice, but ElBaradei actually addressed current events, and made some pointed criticisms of the military-led government in Egypt.
ElBaradei said “the army has been mismanaging the transition royally.” And in an overall comment on the Arab spring, he noted that the region has been held back by an “increasing lack of adequate governance.”
But also saw great economic opportunity for Egypt if it got its governing act together. He suggested that fiber optics could be an area of economic growth, earning as much cash as the Suez Canal if Egypt were to become a networking hub for the Middle East.
ElBaradei: “In ten years Egypt will not be dissimilar to what we see in Turkey or Singapore. But we need first to put ourselves on the right track.”
Picture of Mohammed ElBaradei from wikimedia
Good observation – and I agree that having a speaker who is not one of the usual circuit makes for an enlightening presentation. Dr. ElBaradei’s comments were certainly that. BTW we just posted a blog about the final day of the summit here if of interest: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/ciscopss-2011-concludes/