Robert Price will share behind-the-scenes history and personal stories about Control Data's legacy of lasting lessons on innovation with Mel Stuckey, current CEO and chairman of the Decaf Company, LLC and former Control Data executive, on June 12, 2006 at the Mountain View-based Computer History Museum. There will also be a book signing for Price's new book, The Eye for Innovation: Recognizing Possibilities and Managing the Creative Enterprise.
Reservations are recommended to attend this event. Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $10. The talk starts promptly at 7:00 p.m. in the Computer History Museum's Hahn Auditorium, 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, California, 94043. A reception will be held at 6:00 p.m. for Computer History Museum members. For reservations, please visit www.computerhistory.org/events and click on "An Evening with Robert Price."
Control Data's story is one of innovation harnessing the imagination, ingenuity and energy of its people to meet the technology needs of customers and the urgent needs of society. As chairman of the board and CEO, Robert Price was one of Control Data's veteran leaders who effectively blended business strategies with technological innovation.
Control Data's dream of becoming a supercomputer pioneer was born in 1957 during IBM's domination of the industry and at the peak of the Cold War. Yet, this startup computer company was so effective that in 1963, IBM's chairman said that he failed to understand why IBM had lost their leadership position with supercomputers to a company with 34 people, including the janitor.
Despite the turbulence in the social, political and economic environments of the late 1950s and 1960s, Control Data achieved a greatness few companies ever realize. It transformed those 34 employees into a company with 45,000 people around the world with revenues topping one billion dollars in less than 14 years from its inception.
The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, a public benefit organization with a 25-year history as part of the former Boston Computer Museum, preserves and presents for posterity the artifacts and stories of the information age. The Museum is dedicated to exploring the social impact of computing and is home to the world's largest collection of computing-related items -- from hardware (mainframes, PCs, handhelds, integrated circuits), to software, to computer graphics systems, to the Internet and networking -- and contains many rare objects such as the Cray-1 supercomputer, the Apple I, the WWII ENIGMA, the PalmPilot prototype, and the 1969 Honeywell "Kitchen Computer." The collection also includes photos, films, videos, documents, publications, and advertising and marketing materials.
Currently in its first phase, the museum brings computing history to life through its popular speaker series, seminars, oral histories and workshops. The museum also offers self-guided and docent-led tours of "Visible Storage," where nearly 600 objects from the collection are on display. A new exhibit, "Mastering the Game: A History of Computer Chess," opened in September 2005, joining the museum's oldest exhibit, "Innovation in the Valley." Please check the Web site for open hours. Future phases will feature full museum exhibits and educational programs, including a timeline of computing history, theme galleries, a research center, and much more slated for debut in the fall of 2009. For more information, please visit www.computerhistory.org or call 650.810.1010.
PR Team
pr@computerhistory.org
(650) 810-1059
