So these companies are doing research on products that they have in mind? That's exactly right. It's great that it is happening -- this is why this is a really nice eco-system. If you look at lot of the game-changers (new technologies) over the last few years, it's not because someone was trying to solve a specific problem, it was just because somebody was trying to understand something better. One of the best examples of that is the laser. When it was discovered, nobody knew what do with it. Now we know we can use it to improve eyesight - all kinds of things.

Was the presentation worthwhile? It's hard to know. But I hope so. We were very well received.

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at , or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .

in Computerworld's Government/Industries Topic Center.