Steve Wozniak in Madrid, IV Congress of Brilliant Minds

The last friday Steve Wozniak visited Spain, more specifically Madrid.

In Applelizados We already told you that he had been invited to the fourth edition of Congress of Brilliant Minds organized by "El Ser Creativo".

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to attend this event with the “other half” of Apple.

BEING CREATIVE

I am not going to comment on anything about the congress, because it is not the right place, I will only say that the event is treated with an elegance rarely seen, and that logically, and due to the speakers, the topics that were discussed were very interesting.

The icing on the cake for both a scholar was Steve Wozniak's visit, it really seemed to me that they had included it in the program a bit with a shoehorn, because the congress is faithful to 21 people over three days, each of them has 21 minutes to surprise us. Wozniak arrived at the last minute, and was interviewed for 45 minutes.

STEVE WOZNIAK

I admire Wozniak for many things, but what really fascinates me the most is that he did not get caught up in the success of a company that, although it was not what it is today, did have a splendid future. His story reminds me a bit of the one he told at that same event Evan Henshaw Plath, a Californian who was a member of the team that created Twitter, and sold his part in the project for $ 7.000,00I don't know if he regrets every single day of his life. When they ask him, he just answers with: "It was a mistake."

Woz He arrived at the congress at 18:20 p.m., his interview was announced for 18:00 p.m., how he did not arrive on time, Manuel Campo Vidal, who was the presenter of the event, extended the previous debate, when they told him that Apple co-founder he was already seated on the great sofa of brilliant minds, he ended the debate hastily so that the climax of the day will begin.

And there he was, right under my nose, the man who, together with the other Steve, had created the greatest technology company in history, the company that provides us with those products that we love.

It was exciting to see him enter the theater, see how he sat down, see in the same way that he did not greet any of the other speakers who were sitting on the sofa (something of shyness or high ego, I am not sure), and see as his agitated breathing denoted that he had a few kilos left over, not for physical but for health.

I really could have left at that very moment, I did not expect to discover anything else, because like many, I do not know the person, but I do know the character, the genius of marketing, of "show business" was the other Steve, Wozniak of a time This part is dedicated to always saying the same things, but of course, what is the man going to say, they invite him to talk about the same old thing, and that's how it was.

THE INTERVIEW

He did not say anything new, he did not leave an amazing headline, but if he did make some interesting reflections, here is some of what he said, not literally, but in essence:

• Tech companies will change their focus to dedicate themselves to people.
• People will not become computers.
• Bet on voice to transmit things to devices.
• The next technological step will be for us to interact more easily with technology, for example with voice.
• When they created Apple they did not think about the social dimension that technology would acquire. They thought more about more useful things every day. They did not see the internet arrive, they did not imagine it.
• He is not very fond of the cloud, he had bad experiences. Lost data. They also think that ownership is lost, by signing contracts that nobody reads, and the cloud company is not responsible if the data is lost. He says that legislation should be changed to defend property within the cloud.
• He loves technology in general, he has a small device bought on Amazon for $ 40 that beeps when his suitcase is near, nobody has this, but it exists, he says between laughter.
• During the interview he makes repeated allusions to the communication of humans with machines through the voice.
• Mike Markkula taught Steve Jobs many things about Marketing and management, “we were twenty-year-old kids, we didn't know anything” “People think it was Steve Jobs, but in the beginning Mark was the real promoter and mentor in Marketing matters ”.
• His best experiences with Steve Jobs were in the stage before creating the company.
• "Sometimes you do the best of yourself when what you do you have never done."
• If he hadn't been an engineer, he would have been a high school teacher. Fifth grade.
• "Bill Gates did not finish his studies, Steve Jobs either, I did, I went back to the University to finish my studies, it took me ten years, but I got it," he said with a laugh.
• For a time he was teaching eight-year-olds, about 30 children. In his class he let them use computers, he had his own training program.
• Expect computers to be as smart as humans.
• "In all my life I have seen so much creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship as right now, at the present time.
• Made reference to the App Store, which meant for the software and applications industry, by offer a space for everyone to sell their idea in the form of applications.
• "Don't be afraid to do things that have never been done, but don't invest too much money, don't want to create something great from the start."

And this was the intervention of Wozniak, then got up and left. There were people who gathered around him to get a signature or photo, but I did not see him sign or take a photo with anyone, after a few minutes, the man who created "the computer for people", disappeared from the scene.