Friday’s Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s (MassTLC) UnConference on “The Future of Software and the Internet” was a tremendous success because it brought together over 250 area executives and entrepreneurs for a free-wheeling set of discussions about a wide array of industry trends and opportunities.

Some of the sessions were open debates about the meaning of current trends, such as cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Others were open-ended explorations about how companies and individuals can capitalize on these trends to create new business opportunities, such as “cloud-solving”. Still other sessions turned out to be useful tutorials about the realities of the marketplace, such as one I attended about the inefficiencies in today’s capital markets that are discouraging tech IPOs and reshaping the way start-ups evolve.

Dealing with the unstructured nature of an unconference can be unsettling for folks like me initially. And some sessions can border on anarchy at times. But, Friday’s event proved that the unconference format can also generate plenty of ideas, provide refreshing new perspectives from peers rather than ‘expert’ speakers, and encourage a new set of relationships.

As someone who is always looking for ways to encourage the growth and vitality of the Boston area technology industry, I was especially pleased to see Friday’s event attract a great cross-section of people and produce lots of exciting ideas.

cloud computing MassTLC SaaS Software-as-a-Service