This is my first trip to this venerable conference, which for decades was held in Logan, UT, where the university there, Utah State, was a hotbed of this developing technology as a result of innovative faculty. This year it’s at the convention center in Salt Lake City, and it’s huge, as would befit this burgeoning industry. There’s a cavernous exhibit hall with hundreds of exhibitors.
My concern is that the industry may be in a bubble. I’m seeing several vendors for some of the technologies, and it’s not clear to me that they’ll all survive, or how they’ll compete. But that’s the dynamic nature of new tech.
I remember the first time I read an article where a researcher was talking about developing a satellite. Then he got to the part of the narrative where he put the satellite in a briefcase and went off to the airport with it.
It made me realize I needed to reappraise my mental image that went with the word “satellite”.