I worked at HP in Ft. Collins, Colorado back in the 1970s. It was a heady experience. We were designing and building early, pre-PC desktop computers and we owned the market back then. The division I worked for eventually migrated to 32-bit workstations, chased from the desktop computer arena by IBM’s PC. Although there were/are some other tech companies in Ft. Collins—and a gigantic Budweiser brewery—it’s not really a tech town although I did take my first (and only) class in operating systems from a CSU (Colorado State University) professor from Ft. Collins, along with most of the engineers writing software for HP in Colorado back then. That’s why I was surprised to learn that the IEEE’s President and CEO James Jeffries and its President-Elect José M. F. Moura will be holding a live town hall, er IEEE President’s Forum, on the evening of September 27 in Ft. Collins.

I was alerted to this event by my longtime friend and former HP colleague Roger Ison, who now lists his vocation as “retired” on LinkedIn. Finding myself suffering from a bout of cognitive dissonance, I had to ask Roger why the IEEE’s President and President-Elect were journeying all the way to a front-range cow town like Ft. Collins for a President’s Forum. He replied simply:

“It’s happening in FoCo because Richard Toftness organized it. He’s involved with a special program he developed (with IEEE) at CSU called Engineer in Residence. Very active in High Plains section. I believe he suggested and organized this event.”

I guess that’s as good an explanation as any.

You do not need to journey to the Colorado front range to attend this event. You can attend virtually and the organizers are encouraging IEEE Sections, Chapters, and Groups to form “Watch Parties” for this event.

More info including registration here.