Chip technology maker Tessera Technologies Inc. and storage systems developer Network Appliance Inc. were feted at the Association for Corporate Growth's annual Grow! awards Thursday night in Silicon Valley.

The ceremony, held this year at The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., annually recognizes one startup and one established company that have achieved top-notch financial growth. The dinner event started off well enough with MC Jamis MacNiven, the colorful proprietor of VC haunt Buck's of Woodside, loosening up the crowd by referring to himself as the Zsa Zsa Gabor of Silicon Valley ("I'm famous for no apparent reason. ... I'm just a pancake guy.").

Even better was Upround, an a cappella group composed of Tim Chang, a partner with Gabriel Ventures Partners; Tom Shields, a managing director with Woodside Fund; Outlook Ventures' managing director Randy Haykin; and serial entrepreneur Dave Binetti. The group elicited enthusiastic applause by singing about "a Sarbanes-Oxley world" and the woes of lockups ("It wouldn't be make-believe if you could buy from me.").

After the awards were accepted by Tessera CEO Bruce McWilliams and NetApp senior vice president Suresh Vasudevan, the audience was primed for the keynote from venture capitalist and former Fortune columnist Stewart Alsop. But his rambling talk, entitled "The End of Computer History," seemed to leave the wine-lubed audience waiting for a punchline that never came.

I'm not sure, but I think he was trying to make the point that computers and other enabling technologies aren't "interesting" anymore. Rather, the critical goal for Silicon Valley should be figuring out how technology can become a "trusted partner" for everyday users. A valid message, no doubt, but it would've sounded even better in the key of G.—Olaf de Senerpont Domis