Michael Dell Speaks to NVTC
Friday, February 20th, 2009On February 3rd, 2009, Michael Dell, founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Exceutive Officer, Dell Inc., gave the keynote at Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Premier Titans Series luncheon. Over 700 executives representing all aspects of Northern Virginia’s technology industry gathered at the Mclean Hilton for the event.
The state of the global economy frequently came up during the discussion, with Dell seeing the economic stimulus package currently being debated in Congress as an opportunity to make the US more technologically competitive. Some ways to do this included investment in a to-the-home broadband or fiber network similar to the networks found in many Asian countries, ensuring that technology continues to be integrated into the education system, and providing a favorable environment for green technologies.
Within the public sector, he singled out the healthcare industry as an area where technology has the potential to play a transformative role, noting that many grocery stores have more technology than you would find in a doctor’s office. Technology, he argued, could both dramatically lower service delivery costs through increased efficiency, and could also improve healthcare outcomes by reducing errors, enabling more effecting tracking, and ensuring portability of health records.
When his discussion turned to the future of the IT industry, some of the trends Dell was most excited about included mobile computing, virtualization, cloud computing and bio-informatics. Disagreeing with Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo that the mobile phone represents the future of computing, Dell believes that even as demand for small, portable devices surges, the limitations of a small screen and interface will lead to a similar, conter-trend toward devices with larger screens and full-scale interfaces. As such, Dell plans to continue building technologies that fall everywhere along the size spectrum.
Despite economic gloom, Michael Dell remains irrepresibly optimistic, concluding the session by saying that the one thing that excites him most about the future of IT is that technology still has the power to change the world. And judging from the reaction in the room, the leaders of Northern Virginia’s tehcnology industry couldn’t agree more.
