The IBM Insight 2015 conference attracted thousands of attendees, presenters and commentators to Las Vegas, and for good reason. The show presented an opportunity for IBM to lay out its strategy for the future and boast its present successes. At the end of the day, Dave Vellante and Paul Gillin, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, sat down to summarize just what they’d seen during the event.

The promise of machine intelligence

Vellante started off the discussion with a very important topic: IBM Watson. Vellante said he’d heard a lot about IBM’s machine intelligence during the conference. He pointed out how he’d seen Watson go from an experiment to something that’s impacting all facets of IBM’s business.

He also mentioned there was a big emphasis on open-source software, while in the hallways people were coming together to get a lot of business done.

IBM ducks the Grim Reaper

Gillin added that he was always impressed by IBM’s capacity for reinvention. He said that IBM always seemed to find a way to duck the Grim Reaper, no matter what other people were saying. The company, he felt, was executing very well on strategic initiatives and methodically pursuing its long-term strategy.

Agreeing with the point, Vellante offered that IBM had a crisp, clear strategy, which comes across in its presentations. He said the key to competing is differentiation, and IBM has that. The company’s strengths, he reasoned, were in analytics and Watson. He also made note of how IBM was making big bets in areas that weren’t just high-growth, but also transformative.

The message was being heard at street level, Gillin said. He described coming to the conference like entering a stadium full of people. Whatever IBM is saying, people are listening.

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Insight 2015. And join in on the conversation by CrowdChatting with theCUBE hosts.

Photo by SiliconANGLE