THIS year, dbfb celebrates its 20-year anniversary and I decided to look back at the ‘IT and Technology News and Views’ written by yours truly over the past few years.
Funnily enough, I haven’t kept every single edition… I’d have a library of Business Times by now if I had. But wouldn’t it be nice to look back if I could. Look back at the wonderful places I have been whilst writing these articles, Dubai, Business Class seats on long-haul holiday flights, North America, the Caribbean, and look back at how often Judith (the editor) has called me to say ‘you’re late again’ like she did this morning!
Wonderful fun times lost in the archives of the BT. (Yes Judith I’m sure you do have them and you can find them but never let the truth get in the way of a good story). Now I can look back at digital copies, as far as this time two years ago.
Two years ago this month I was writing about cloud technology and explaining to the technically deprived, like me, what and where the cloud was. Look how far we’ve come in those two years! EVERYONE knows what and where the cloud is and how to store stuff in it, right? Well everyone knows what and where it is but I leave it to more capable people to put it there.
Having been in the telecommunications industry for 32 years, (not 40+ as our marketing department seems to think… thank you Miss McGowan) means I have seen so much change. I recall walking into a pub with my first truly mobile telephone which was a car phone fitted into a briefcase. The reaction on friends’ faces at the time – amazement, disbelief, but yes it made phone calls from the middle of the pub. I got a similar reaction from my younger employees when they found out that there was a time when there was no such thing as an all-encompassing communications device in your pocket and that ‘Oh I’m going to Ibiza’ by The Venga Boys was actually a rip off of Typically Tropical’s ‘Going to Barbados’ hit in 1975.
I have managed to collect every significant mobile phone since 1986 but one of the most important was missing… The Motorola 8000s. I asked Marketing Executive Chloe McGowan (there is her second mention) to finalise my collection and she was shocked to see the price and the size when it arrived. It is now kept in the office as a reminder to all of how much technology has changed. This year I’d like to bring back the display of these phones in the office as a talking point for staff and visitors.
We no longer just provide mobiles – but they are most definitely a great example of how the wonderful world of technology is forever developing and evolving.
Being Chairman of a business that is at the forefront of communications and seeing how much this technology has changed and expanded over 20 years I can only dream of where we will be in another 20 years time.
NB. Thanks go to Miss Chloe McGowan (dbfb Marketing Executive) for her contribution to this article.(Third mention!)