EMC execs insist the future is bright despite fears of tech bubble

In a cavernous convention centre in front of 12,000 people lit by lasers and with smoke machines billowing, a man in his mid-40s took to the stage playing a distorted guitar solo — it was EMC’s chief marketing officer Jeremy Burton.

In a connecting hall, a group of masseuses worked knots out of conference attendees’ shoulders while gymnasts enacted a life-size version of connect four against a wall while exhausted attendees slumped into bean bags to recover.