IT industry shows signs of becoming terribly grey

We looked at the book of participants when we returned from Athens and that demonstrates just how different the market looks 15 years on.

The keynote speakers then included Vittorio Cassini of Olivetti; Ed de Castro from Data General; Fred Gibbons from Software Publishing; Philippe Kahn of Borland; Leonard Liu from Acer; Eckhard Pfeiffer from Compaq and Charles Wang of CA.

Other attendees included Steve Ballmer from Microsoft; Hermann Hauser then at Active Book; and Lee "a better Windows than Windows" Reiswig, from IBM.

We attended Etre for several subsequent years which saw some real fireworks fly - such as Philippe Kahn and Bill Gates trying to outdo each other on the parties they sponsored; Compaq's Eckhard Pfeiffer declaring war on Intel, and many other fizzy stories.

We particularly enjoyed watching Financial Times journalist Alan Cane dancing the night away at a 1990s Etre. He was there this year, but we didn't catch him doing much dancing.

A lot of the characters in the industry, such as Enrico "The Cloak" Pesatori and others have retired or moved on to other projects. And while the calibre of the attendees Alex Vieux summons like a wizard to the show remains high, we get the feeling that there's not nearly as much spark in the industry as there was.

We talked to another veteran Etre attendee about his impression, and he said that in some ways it looked as if the industry was finally, and rather disappointingly, reaching maturation and consolidation. That's kind of inevitable, but he also said that the real action in the 21st century is in the consumer market, and he was a little disappointed that there were few of these bright sparks to liven things up.

He said that everything in the IT industry was beginning to be more than a little grey. Who, for example, could name the new CEO of HP?

The bright sparks from this year's show were to be found at some of the keynotes and the roundtables, including a lively debate on Open Source which saw Marc Fleury get very cheesed off with a question put to him from the audience which suggested that free downloads from Jboss needed a lot of work, and a lively panel which saw the Hutchison Whampoa president spiritedly defending herself against all oncomers.

Alex Vieux continues to do a great job stirring up delegates, keynote speakers without fear or favour, and the show will go on. He always arranges interesting gigs too, like the first night's cocktail party under a full moon near the beach, when delegates started to dance with the traditional Greek troupe and looked like it might get out of control, although we noted the plates were quickly removed so there was no plate smashing, unfortunately.

The second evening was the "Indian Night" complete with sitar player and a spirited rendition of "Meri Mumbai hai" from a senior exec of a big Indian corporation.

The last night is the traditional gala night and we were pleased to see delegates walking, or perhaps lurching around in their black tie outfits and their cocktail dresses at 5.45AM, as we headed off to the airport and Old Blighty. Some managed a couple of hours sleep. We saw one person who will remain nameless waiting to board our plane to London, and asked him why he was going there. He looked at his ticket, and said no. "I'm at the wrong gate," he said. "You saved my butt."

Survivors like Bill Gates, Vieux promised, will appear at next year's Etre right at the time when Vista begins to unfurl. Here's our coverage from this year's show. We did manage to write some stories although we have the definite feeling that delegates are being told to be careful not to sit down next to the INQUIRER or spill beans aloud when we're around. µ

Open Source luminaries claim software is like art, literature
Real and Microsoft deal will take on Apple
3G Princess defends pricey content palace
MySQL wants to be the Ikea of databases
Microsoft said security problems caused Vista delay
US-French truffle wars break out
Solectron CEO warns against over reliance on China
Philips man predicts death of lightbulbs as LEDs win
Qualcomm predicts phone will be person's only computer
Freescale CEO predicts cancer cell monitoring chips
Indian labour will remain cheap in medium term
Truffle snuffle yields treasure trove in Greece
VCs gather to celebrate their gruesome feast
Will Satyam take over Accenture?
China outpaces US on fabless chip designs
SAP says jury still out on Oracle buys
Allisblue says how do you do, via SMS
Five firms shredded by five attack VCs
Silicon Hive swarms, to SOC it to you fast
India and China business offers double digit growth