The morning keynote was presented by Tod Maffin—blogger, technology expert and CBC contributor—who kicked off the event with his take on web 2.0 life and why multi-tasking may not be all it's cracked up to be.

Following the keynote there were several panel discussions on a range of topics such as: online security, mobile app development, cloud computing, start-up 101, and search and social media marketing.

Billed as a technology and business conference, F5 offers visitors quick snapshots of what's happening in the online world. The panel discussions could have quickly gone tangential and become irrelevant, but I found each panel presented enough information to peak your interest but not too much detail to bore you with technical nuances that the majority of business owners wouldn't find relevant. Moderators did a good job of keeping discussions on track and involving the live (and Twitter contributors) to solicit audience feedback.

The Cloud Computing panel discussion was really informative and featured Howie Wu (LayerBoom Systems), Mark Cunningham (Indicee) and Ryan Storgaard (Cloud Services Strategy, Microsoft Canada). This emerging trend is changing the way we store and interact with data. If you have used Google Docs, Basecamp or Salesforce then you've already interacted with the cloud.

Cloud computing enables content publishers and software developers to leverage massively networked data centres to cost-effectively deliver applications and manage data storage online. Cloud hosting turns your fixed costs into variable ones and offers server elasticity to respond to demand in real time. It's a paradigm shift in how we manage information.

Another fascinating panel discussion involved the review of search engine marketing and social media. Panel members included Ryan Kelly (Pear Analytics), Martin Stoddart (Senior Product Manager, Bing) and Vanessa Wynn-Williams (Yahoo! Canada). In the world of search, content is king. Social media is playing a more important role in the indexing of current content. All the major search engines now factor social media content and deliver real time data in search results.

Fast Company recently published an article detailing how two HP Labs researchers indexed Twitter chatter to successfully predict the box office success of Hollywood releases. Search engines, obsessed with knowing what's happening, now count social media chatter as important content relevant to your search results. The panel suggested it's time to get off the fence, stop shaking your head about social media and get online to learn how these networks and technologies can impact your business.

F5 also offers visitors a tradeshow representing a who's who of Vancouver's tech scene as well as a mix of international brands. Exhibitors included 6S Marketing, Canpages, hootsuite, Microsoft, Peer 1 Hosting, Simply Computing, techvibes, wavefront, Yahoo Canada...the list goes on.

The show's organizers wove a series of workshops, featuring a mix of exhibitors and presenters, throughout the tradeshow space that enabled conversations to happen organically, making it more enjoyable for attendees who are no doubt familiar with the usual tradeshow sales-pitch gauntlet. Workshop presenters included local tech experts like Darren Barefoot, Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss604), Ryan Holmes, Kris Krug, and Darci LaRocque.

Gladwell wasn't the only presenter delivering this message, but he was probably the most eloquent.

F5 Expo was a great day and its success underscores the importance of real live human interaction—something that's all too easy to forget when your head is stuck in the social-mediasphere.