At Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference, Players Out to Play

Om Malik | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | 5:00 AM PT | 6 comments

One of the reasons my posting has been sporadic is because I am currently attending Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech Conference, which is being held at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay. David Kirkpatrick, a veteran technology journalist and author of the upcoming book, “The Facebook Effect”, is hosting the event, which has managed to draw some of the biggest technology names in the business, though I couldn’t find Mark Zuckerberg. I guess he might be busy preparing for another event.

Nevertheless, it is fast becoming a go-to event on the conference circuit. Last night I had a long conversation with Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Marissa Meyer of Google, Philip Rosedale of Linden Lab/Second Life and Jeff Weiner, who recently announced plans to leave Yahoo to go work with VC firms. Today promises to be just as exciting.

Fortune had invited me along with Kara Swisher and Robert Scoble to participate in a frank and colorful panel dubbed the Blogger Showdown. Fortune senior writer Adam Lashinsky, who is missing his calling as a television anchor by being just a scribe, was a witty host, also trying to press our buttons. Of course with Kara and Robert, I was lucky to get a few words in, for they are both quite entertaining. It is the second time I’ve sat on a panel with those two, and I have to say, the three of us are becoming The SV Gang.

Scoble has rediscovered his joy for blogging, it seems, something we all need to strive to do. His comments on stage were actually reflective of how he disseminates his passion for technology using every media — Twitter, FriendFeed, Qik, Skype — possible. (Robert, buddy, keep rambling. That’s what you do well.)

Given that it’s blogged when you are on stage, I was thrilled to see Fortune had posted a report about the discussion. Anyway more of this later today when I actually get some time to make sense of my notes.

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