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Last fall I can remember sitting in a Starbucks with Donna Fry working on our OSSEMOOC project, and talking passionately about the importance of being “present” – living life in the moment and explicitly doing the best thing possible in that moment: listen, understand, suggest, advise, coach, act … you get the picture. I don’t recall specifically how we got onto the topic, but the importance of the conversation stayed with me. This is a choice, a way of living, a way to interact with people. That is the “now”.

In his recent address to Microsoft employees on the 40th anniversary of the company, Bill Gates restated his views on the importance of making “the power of technology accessible to everyone, connect people to each other and make personal computing available everywhere.”

And then, there it was – a very powerful quote: “What matters most is what we do next” he wrote. Let that sink in: What matters most is what we do next.

Lets take a moment to frame the importance of now & next in terms of our GAFE Summit experience this weekend.