I am not sure if you have had a chance to Follow Gene Frantz on his On the Fringe Blog. If not, please check out the archives as they may prove inspirational. In his latest post, he announced his retirement…err…his announcement that he will take his next step in changing the world. You can read it here.
After reading that post, I thought back to when I first met Gene. I was a young sales Representative in Houston and needed some guidance on a special project. Our team was tasked at creating a Seminar Series focused on Low Power Processing. We needed inspiration so we interviewed Gene. He was insightful and talked excitedly about the upcoming Digital Convergence (back in 1999). Little did he know that he gave us a great blueprint on how to communicate a great message to customers. He also gladly helped me with a couple of customer Key Notes through the years, always inspiring our customers to invent the Next Big Thing. Every prep meeting that I had the pleasure of conducting with Gene was always the same:
Gene: “What do you want me to talk about?”
Chinh: “Anything you want.”
But I knew that he would talk about the future of Processing and the next Big Thing. He could conjecture all day about what Digital Signal Processors could do, especially if they were wearable, powered by body heat. The crowd was always mesmerized by Gene. I enjoy looking back at those customer events and how Gene helped shape all of our lives. I will always fondly remember Gene (as do many others) as the Father of DSP. That simple Speak and Spell (which I wish I would have kept) changed so much for all of us. It is amazing to think about how that small little invention has changed the world. I now look forward to Gene’s next venture of Changing the world!
