Last weekend I had an incredible time at Kiwi Foo, a private gathering of about 200 people from New Zealand and around the world. It’s hard to put into words just how good it is to start the year off with being inspired by people doing very cool stuff, talking until the small hours of the day, sharing ideas and stories.

Perhaps the best indicator of how good it was is that even though the rooms were filled with technologists, the tweets/blogs/photos/phone/cameras/laptops/ipads/gadgets etc were barely in use: everyone’s attention and energy was largely fully in the moment; ‘flow’ as Mihály Csíkszentmihályi proposed.

We slept marae-style in the library. For a book lover like me, it was such a wonderful experience! Waking up to see shelves of books (and seeing what young adult books are like these days; I must read some more of them!) and sunlight streaming in the windows was lovely. I dreamt of words, books and computers.

In one session, we went around the room and briefly mentioned a book we recommended and why.  If you’d like to see the list, it’s available on Good Reads.

On Friday night, I gave my Ignite talk – I was honored to have Tim O’Reilly, Dave Dobbyn, David Shearer, David Cunliffe, and many others in the audience.  I’m not sure if when/if it will turn up on the Ignitesite, but will keep checking.

Someone said at the closing remarks that Kiwi Foo is like the perfect wedding: where the guests have been arranged in such a way that the conversations flow and new friendships are forged.

I realise I’m being vague here but it is very hard to condense the conversations, talks and discoveries into a blog post.  I’m left merely describing the positive feelings and the new people I met there, which I hope to continue to keep in touch with.

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