Supernova is not that Super, anymore

Ok, I have to say it: Supernova might not be that super, anymore.

Kevin Werbach is a great guy. I really like him, and I am glad he hooked up with the Wharton school, but… The conference has seemed to be awfully centrist since the first year in DC.

I give Kevin all sorts of credit for daring to ask me back after I was the panel moderator on a session about the “future of email” a few years ago. I was almost scalped for suggesting that email sucks. Caused a big stink when I suggested people might trend toward blogs and IM, instead of email. The Pew research has borne me out, but the experience has lefted me deeply scarred. (ho ho! As if.)

But for some reason, Supernova became tame, not a flame. And no one wants to talk about it. Except for Marc Canter, who is admittedly a hothead, who goes ape about the same-old same-old list of usual suspects:Marc and others (see here, here, and here)

see here. His argument is, basically, enough of the same old boilerplate, the same roster of speakers.

Candidly, who needs to hear Robert Scoble speak again in the next few years, considering how many keynotes he has done in the past few (no offense, Robert— I know you are selling that book!). Likewise, it’s the same old bunch. I had the same experience at ETech, and it was my first time there, but the speakers filled in the blanks by saying “I updated last years talk…” and so on. Yet another insider get-together. I hope that is not the case, here, but it looks like it.