Smith uses an online attack map to make her point on YouTube and kicks off presentations with an attention-grabbing look at the computer-aided crime wave happening in real time.
Nine groups got on stage and fired off presentations about how they were working on something cool, and why they deserved funding.
Jeffery Bennett and Reshma Khilnani are reprising their roles as Hackmasters and are currently practicing cutting off presentations that go longer than a minute.
During a keynote at the IFA in Berlin, Eric Schmidt topped off presentations on Voice Powered Search, Street View Search and Google TV by emphasizing how much Google values being fast and that current technological advancements are nearing the realm of science fiction, or what he called, "The age of augmented humanity".
Cook, like Jobs, still runs a tight ship in every sense: Apple is secretive about its plans and workings, with high-profile one-off presentations run by the top executives – Cook; the marketing chief, Phil Schiller; the iPhone software chief, Scott Forstall – over off-the-record meet-the-press brunches.
There was also an audience of about 60 invited people who contributed questions, and a kick-off presentation by Philippe Douste-Blazy, one of the founders of Unitaid, an innovative financing mechanism that supports HIV, TB and malaria programmes.
"L'Enfance du Christ," a glowing, monumental, three-part recounting of the birth of Christ, will get royal treatment in a one-off presentation by Dicapo Opera, emerging from underground into the church that shelters it, with Johannes Somary leading his Amor Artis ensemble and the excellent mezzo-soprano Maria Zifchak.
On the fashion bonanza's agenda were over 50 official catwalks, a spin-off presentation project called Labelhood entirely dedicated to up-and-coming, cutting-edge brands, and two trade shows, Mode Shanghai and Ontime Show.
In the kick-off presentation, I thought I'd see if people were awake … so I suggested that, with the advent of the cloud, UNIX was now a legacy platform.
Although I never liked parties, I thought mingling with my sales colleagues before the big kick-off presentation would be good for my career, and that surely I'd find someone I knew.
Even in a super-early, so-far-ahead-of-pre-alpha, hands-off presentation featuring placeholder art and a lot of imagination filling in for completed work, Cyanide Studio's Call of Cthulhu looks wickedly alluring.
