7x24 Exchange International (7x24), the not for profit organization, is turning 25 years old this year. Bake a cake. Light the candles. Take pause to celebrate the fulfilment of a vision. How many ideas ever get to the crawling stage, much less walking, much less running after 25 years? Kudos to those business models, which endure for they are a rare breed indeed. The secret sauce requires an integrity of purpose separate from individual financial gain, a passion to address an enduring problem, and a few good persons of character.
Enter 1989, a full six years before Al Gore invented the internet, and Ken Brill and Dennis Cronin attend the same conference at the Boston Copley Marriott giving talks on lights out data centers. Serendipity strikes. They entered unaware of each other and left full of curiosity and intrigue about the other. Prior to that moment both felt they lived on their own island observing that IT is talking six months ahead as facilities are talking 20 years ahead and they need to align better.