Code Conference: An inside look from a digital design firm CEO.
Follow along as our CEO, Dan Connolly, live blogs his experiences over three days at Code Conference, an invitation-only event where top industry influencers gather for in-depth conversations about the current and future impact of digital technology on our lives — at home, at work, in our communities, and the world.
Tuesday, May 31
6am: Gearing up for my day. Reading a few words of inspiration before a quick 40 minute flight down the coast from SBP -> LAX, then a 40 minute Uber to Terranea. Two hour travel time is hard to beat.
8am: Finished up Steve Case ‘The Third Wave’ on the way down (I cheated and went audiobook this time). Amazing read, especially as I get in the zone for the next three days of some off-the-top minds from around the world.
9am: Catching up on calls with this view isn’t a bad way to start the week.
11:30am: Watching everything come together at an event this size is pretty incredible. Hats off to the Recode team and Terranea for what I’ve seen so far — and the show hasn’t even started yet!
I’m most looking forward to seeing the following people speak:
Elon Musk
DeRay Mckesson
Jack Dorsey
Helena Price
If you don’t know who they are — now is a good time to read up, especially with new faces to the tech conversation like DeRay and Helena.
The first session kicks off later this afternoon. Stay tuned!
2pm: More meetings and work from the WorkCafe while I wait for the schwag bag line to die down.
5:30pm: Listening to Ford CEO Mark Fields talk about their future: “We’re going from an auto company to an auto and mobility company.”
“There are 150,000 lines of code in a F150.”
He was challenged about being in business so long (over 100 years) in a world of change and innovation. Fields responded with, “Heritage is history with a future.”
In the question of how Ford competes with the likes of Elon Musk, they ask three questions: Where do we want to play? How do we win and what unmet need are we delivering on? And what are the capabilities we need?
These are good questions for any business to ask.
And on Musk: “We can learn something from everyone.”
6pm: On the stage now is Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Gates Foundation.
She says that the Gates Foundation works like an entreprenuer — by making big, quick bets and hoping that one hits. And they use innovative technologies; especially to leapfrog issues in poor countries (like sewer systems with omniprocessors).
What can we see from them in the future? A focus on neglected diseases and wiping them out within the next decade.
She also showed off the mozzie box — a creative box to help fight mosquito-born diseases like Zika, Malaria, and Dengue from your backyard. We should probably all get one.
It’s great to see speakers and topics on the main stage at #CodeCon extend to issues we don’t often discuss. We’re here talking about how we can use our skills and expertise to do better, in our communities and in our world. This is big.
7pm: “If you can’t tolerate critics, don’t do anything new or interesting.” — @JeffBezos CEO of Amazon.
Bezos took us from AI, to space, and all the way back to brick and morter stores, leadership, and keeping a work / life harmony. Read on, and then let’s talk on Twitter.
On Alexa and Bots: Screens won’t go away just because we can talk to things, he says. They’ve been working on Alexa behind the scenes for over 4 years, with over a thousand people on the project internally. It’s a gigantic, natural language detection, machine learning AI.
But innovating isn’t just about digital and AI. He was asked about the hype on Amazon brick and mortar stores. They have one, and plan to open more.
“We’re trying a bunch of stuff. We want to satisfy the fun of browsing and discovery…We see ourselves as tied to our customers and we work backwards from there to satisfy their needs.”
Bezos went on to talk privacy, a tech issue that stays in the headlines. He believes that we need to use the data we collect and store, to add value in ways that people want — and it needs to be obviously clear. Transparency, and value.
On Space: “You don’t choose your passions, your passions choose you. In an entrepreneurial context, the dynamism in the space industry is terrible — basically nothing has happened,” he says. “At most, 40 launches per year globally. So we’re putting in place the heavy lifting infrustructure so the next generation of entrepreneurs have the ability to create in space.”
On leadership, life, and culture: His advice? Develop thick skin. If someone writes something bad about you, go stand on a crowded street — watch everyone — imagine what they are thinking about. You’ll realize that no one is thinking about you.
“I like things where wondering matters, I like blind alleys. Thinking you know where you’re going … doesn’t allow for invention.”
“We believe in work/life harmony. And we believe it has to be about meaning — knowing what you’re working for.”
And then, he gave us his email. He said he reads every single email that comes in. Jeff@amazon.com
8:15pm: Big day. Now, dinner views.
Wednesday, June 1:
5:50am: Day two. Let’s do this!
We’ve got Mary Meeker’s state of the internet presentation, Jack Dorsey and Deray, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Elon Musk on the stage today — just to name a few.
8:30am: I’ve been in meetings all morning. Running a company while also attending a conference = very little sleep.
9:30am: Mary Meeker and the State of the Internet. She’s announcing the 2016 Internet Trends report live: http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/2016-internet-trends-report
Biggest takeaways for the year:
Millennials are running what sells. They’re the largest generation in the U.S.
Snapchat works. And, is blowing every other social platform away.
Messaging will move into business and be more contextually valuable to consumers (identity, time, specifics, preferences, etc).
The rise of the human voice search — machine speech recognition is now at the human level (for Google).
“Typing text into a search bar is so last year. In five years, 50% of searches are going to be either images or speech.”
Basically, image-based content is eating everyone’s lunch.
Take some time to look over the trend report online, there’s a lot of interesting analysis about what’s working and what’s not in our digital world.
10am: “Must determine what changes. And what endures.” — Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM.
She’s talking the future of IBM and AI. She was asked by @karaswisher: You’ve staked IBM’s future and your reputation on AI? To which she responded, “Yes, I have.”
But Rometty prefers to refer to AI as Cognitive Solutions, because it’s not just machine… it’s humans as well. If it’s digital, it will be cognitive.
True.
She’s also talking about blockchain. IBM currently has 200 blockchain projects going. She believes that:
“Blockchain will be as important as cognitive solutions to changing how companies operate”.
10:30am: “Technology should be ambient in context.” — Google’s new CEO Sundar Pichai.
He’s also talking about how to build smart systems — it’s about understanding customers, and that understanding must evolve along with them over time.
“Computers are very good at certain things, but what’s changing is that we now believe we can do the kinds of things like understanding context and situation, and computing is just beginning to address those things.”
I’m hearing a few themes throughout these presentations this morning — the importance of understanding and relating to consumers as they evolve. providing value, and AI.
Just like Sundar says, “We are at the 1% stage of what is possible with AI.” There’s so much more to come.
There few shoutouts to this podcast — Ctrl-Walt-Delete, where the Verge’s Walt Mossberg talks tech trends. You should listen — Google’s CEO Sundar does!
11am: Physicist Yuri Milner is talking about insanely incredible things happening in the world of tech and space. Don’t know who he is? Take a read.
“I kept asking myself, is the solar system as far as we can go? So I became a physicist.” As simple as that apparently. Now, he’s up here talking about interstellar travel!
“In order to achieve the next great leap in space, it will have to be global and consensus driven.”
11:30am: I’m excited to hear Bill and Melinda Gates talk innovation, philanthropy, and how we can work together to change the world. They’re on stage together now.
“Innovate in philanthropy in the same way you do in business and you can make real incredible change.”
Of the $5B/year @gatesfoundation is giving away, $2B is on R&D. That’s amazing.
Bill Gates calls AI “the holy grail” and says he expects robots to be doing physical jobs for us in 20 years.
And Melinda is talking the importance of women in tech. “We have to care about women being in computer science” especially as we consider this future of AI and robots. Only 17% of computer science graduates are women.
I agree. We should be doing more, and earlier, to attract younger students to STEM so that we have a higher representation of women working in tech.
12pm: Sheryl Sandberg, CEO, and Michael Schroepfer, CTO of Facebook talking about the impact on our social, and personal lives. Watch live here.
A big question: Is Silicon Valley biased? Sandberg: “I think sharing the numbers really matters.”
When talking about social responsibility, as Facebook gains more attention and power in the media: “We help people share. It has to be open to all voices. We take that incredibly seriously. What we like the best is the ways people are using the platform.” Sandberg said that product creators have a responsibility to users, to make things safe.
You can read the full live feed of their discussion here: https://live.recode.net/sheryl-sandberg-mike-schroepfer-2016-code/
And yes, they are definitely taking the conversation to VR and AI. It’s the highlight of Code Conference so far. And everyone agrees, these are transformational technologies — and they’ve only just begun.
2:15pm: One of the conversations I’m most excited about — DeRay Mckesson and Jack Dorsey.
And Jack has on his #StayWoke shirt.
“My interpretation of what stay woke means is really, be aware, stay aware, and keep questioning. Keep eyes wide open to whats happening in the world.” — Jack
Tune in to watch live: Recode on Periscope.
“Protest is telling the truth in public.” — DeRay talks about his work in activism and how he uses technology, especially twitter, to extend his reach and his messaging.
Jack speaking on the history of twitter, and how to best evolve while not loosing the organic engagement that twitter is known so well for.
“The power of simplicity. Twitter was created before the iPhone.”
People turn to twitter for that real-time, live breaking news. And, conversation. That’s the essence of the live nature of what twitter is.
Jack’s ultimate goal? How do they provide daily utility. They have a daily report card — how many people are using, and how is it adding value. They want people like DeRay to use twitter every day, and feel empowered to do so. A lot of talk around user experience here.
DeRay was asked what he’d like the audience here at #CodeCon to do, to which he had several powerful answers:
“Make it easier for those outside, to get inside.” And he also said that we need to make sure that the rooms we make decisions in, reflect the world we live in.
Closing out the session, Jack also made a few big takeaway statements:
“Let’s focus on the most meaningful things, in the time that we have. And let’s make sure we’re telling our story, and the story of what’s live on the ground.”
3:30pm: Helena Price is presenting on diversity in tech, and her Techies Project. If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s an ongoing series documenting the stories of underrepresented people in tech.
It’s so great! I can’t wait to share this with the Level team.
She brings an interesting perspective — as a photographer and storyteller. “I didn’t know what Silicon Valley was until I was 20" she says.
“It was my hope that this project would stimulate new discourse around diversity and the state of tech in 2016.”
Yes!
4:00pm: Meetings! Elon Musk takes the stage later tonight. Stay tuned.
8:50pm: We’re being told that “the Elon has landed”. Meanwhile, we have a warm up act by Nathan Myhrvold.
Myhrvold is talking asteroids, and said “…so we made a cannon that accelerates ping pong balls to Mach 2.3”.
He’s also hilarious!
8:55pm: And Elon Musk is live!
“I’m sorry I’m late, I flew here with the landing gear down,” says Elon. Obviously setting the stage for a ton of space jokes on twitter.
Now, he’s schooling us on space; orbit, velocity, landing drones, why SpaceX lands rockets on drone ships.
Honestly I’m not even sure how @waltmossberg or @karaswisher can even ask @elonmusk follow up questions. Kara just responded with, “”That’s super fucking hard.”
“We want to be a multi-planet species and have civilization extend to the rest of the solar system and ultimately other star systems,” he says. “When I say multiplanet species, that’s what we want to be. Not a single planet and moving planets. It’s about extending onto other planets and eventually other star systems.”
“Life can’t be just about solving problems. There have to be things that inspire you, make you glad to be alive.” — Elon Musk
Some space updates from Elon: He plans to re-fly one of the rocket boosters in about 2–3 months. The launches will take place every two to four weeks, more launches than anyone else in the world. Next year they’ll be flying Dragon version 2, which can take seven astronauts to ISS. And, they’re going to send one to Mars in 2018!
“If you’re going to choose a place to die, then Mars is probably not a bad choice.”
He just said, “If things go according to plan, we should be able to launch people in 2024 with arrival in 2025.”
And now, he’s talking Tesla Motors. If you want to follow the live conversation, you can read here: https://live.theverge.com/elon-musk-tesla-ceo-code-conference-2016-live-blog/
Decreasing the cost per unit of energy. Design iteration. Economies of scale. All things he’s sharing. And with regard to marketing around Model S — he says it was really quite surprising. They didn’t do any marketing. “Word of mouth grows like wild fire.”
And he’s a good leader. “I think I just deserve less credit” Elon says. “What Tesla has done — 15,000 people at the company — worked super hard to make great products.”
Elon is now talking AI. “I am concerned about certain directions AI could take that could be not good for the future. The power of AI should not be concentrated in the hands of a few.”
He says he just wants to increase the probability that the future will be good.
This conversation is covering Space X, Tesla, the Hyperloop, AI, Elon’s work/life balance, a government on Mars, and more — like, if our world is actually a simulation.
All day we’ve been inspired to believe that anything is possible…Then Elon talks and we all feel like idiots.
It’s really incredible to hear him speak. If you have the time, I definitely recommend reading over the live transcript and commentary here!
10:20pm: Elon Musk out.
Thursday, June 2
5:30am: Day three! Last day!
We get to hear from Sean Rad, CEO of Tinder and Nick Denton, founder and CEO of Gawker this morning. Both controversial, but interesting!
There’s also a panel of tech veterans talking about failure — and what failure looks like in our industry. Important conversations. We can talk about the future, and big ideas — but we always need to be able to bring ourselves back to reality, especially when some of these things fail.
12pm: Wrapping up the final day here. I’m working on a recap piece of my experience. Stay tuned!
Dan Connolly is CEO at Level, a purpose-driven digital design firm. Follow him on twitter to continue the conversation.
