Fargo’s Myriad Devices and its CEO, Jake Joraanstad, are presently in attendance at Google’s “I/O” conference in San Francisco, California.  We asked Joraanstad to offer his thoughts so far on the conference and what it means to have a North Dakota company represented there.  

Inspiration is an important word. Inspiration, along with insight, is what drives innovation.

Google IO 2013 is a technology and developer-focused event held in downtown San Francisco, California occurring this week. Being one of the few privileged North Dakotans to be able attend, my goal was to bring back an understanding of where the world of mobile and web technology is heading, and bring that understanding back to North Dakota to further educate and give back to our community.

Inspiration hit me on Wednesday afternoon (evening if you are in North Dakota…). Earlier Wednesday, Google gave a 3 hour long keynote. Three hours is a long time, especially if you have ADHD.

Along with quite a few amazing announcements of innovation in products by Google, a giveaway of the new Google Chromebook Pixel, and a beautiful view of earth, Larry Page, CEO of Google, came onto the stage and inspired.

Larry Page didn’t talk about how they are destroying the competition on mobile platforms. Larry didn’t talk about how Google completely owns the map and navigation space. He didn’t even mention Google’s latest approval of their own private airport terminal in San Jose.  Larry Page talked about changing the world, with technology, for the betterment of society. He inspired.

Here is the keynote where Larry gave his talk, jump ahead to 2:51:00 to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pmPa_KxsAM

That afternoon I was inspired again by a group of women who work with Google. They talked about telling the story of those who came before and created the pathways to the technology we use today. They told the stories that changed our society for the better.

This is the attitude we need to have in the upper midwest, this is the attitude that will drive our technology and community forward.

This is the inspiration we plan to bring to North Dakota and the upper midwest. Join us.