Etre 99: to be or not to be

Summary

* Nobody ever talks about the power of marketing enough at these events great technology is useless unless people know about it.

* Building an Internet brand has never been more expensive than it is today but it won't get any cheaper.

* No one really knows the future will turn out so cover as many bases as you can find.

* Global players will win the biggest prizes.

* We tend to overestimate the impact of technology in the short term but underestimate the impact of technology in the future.

* Mobile data will be a monster industry by the end of Y2k.

* Nokia and Ericsson will be working closer together or partners or one company by the end of Y2k.

* 'Nokisson' will be market leader worldwide.

* Free PCs or other browser-enabled devices will be given away in large numbers by service providers over the course of Y2k.

* Unless Microsoft manage to inject a technological hook into their web-authoring products I seriously believe their stranglehold of the industry will end in Y2k. (Gates could do it though.)

* The ASP concept will definitely be huge and the services that will be made available could enable titchy companies to compete with giants.

* The VC funds are becoming more savvy, helping to propel more companies at warp speed into the battle of the bubble.

* Sometime soon the Internet 'bubble' will inevitably lose it's bull. With it will go the hopes of a million small start-up companies. But I maintain even a sizeable crash wont be the end. To borrow Roel Piper's words, it will just be the end of the beginning.

* Oh yes - one final thought, PowerPoint destroys presentations. Too many presenters showed slides that looked like books. No one I know can read and listen at the same time. ®

Rod Banner is the CEO of Bannerco. (The Register used to regularly attend the Etre conferences at no charge but Alex seems to think that journalists earn the same salary as CEOs.)