Optimal Friction™

Well, here I am at the Cutter Summit once again, which promises to be a fantastic program on Innovation. The event is being held at the Royal Sonesta hotel in downtown Cambridge overlooking the Charles River with the Boston skyline in all its splendor. I can't believe how this area has evolved over the years. I remember being a student here over 25 years ago, and it was a run down warehouse district. Like Hoboken and Jersey City across from lower Manhattan, this has become a hip place after all these years. Here's a view from the hotel.

I also clipped a conference description off the Cutter website:

Innovation has become the new business-IT obsession. But really, what is "innovation"? And what does it mean for your enterprise? At Cutter, we believe innovation is a reliably repeatable process — one that is required to develop novel markets, product, services, and strategies that provide real economic value to the organization. At the 11th annual Cutter Consortium Summit conference, you’ll discover:

* How you can nurture an innovative culture in your organization
* How you can be a Risk Entrepreneur and use risk as a catalyst to innovation
* How one company has been able to make its enterprise architecture investment pay huge innovation dividends
* How to become a leader who not only has passion, but who can make a lasting impact
* How you can put the headline-making Web 2.0 technology and social trends to work for your enterprise, and
* How CIOs can balance cost-cutting pressures with the need to innovate.

The annual Cutter Consortium Summit is unlike any other conference you've ever attended. It provides a live venue for IT and business professionals to meet and debate with one another and noted experts in the IT field. The intellectual give-and-take is second to none. Discover why business and technology professionals return each year — and why you should join them!